BackTalk

We promised to name names of Illinois state senators who voted in favor of giving themselves a pay raise.

What happened in Springfield Tuesday was something of a political miracle. Not one of the senators voted in favor of the 7.5 percent raise.

Senate President Emil "I need a pay raise" Jones voted present and chickened out on voting for his raise. But he got in a cheap shot by calling those who voted against it "hyprocrites," because the legislators will still get a 3.8 percent cost of living increase.

Now that they have taken action against the pay raise, it's time the legislators get back to work on more pressing issues like education and transportation funding.

What are we paying them for anyway?

Alan Ehrenhalt, in a recent issue of the New Republic, explains a fascinating change that's happening in Chicago and other cities across the nation, called demographic inversion.

In short, the affluent are filling up the middle of the city and pushing the poor out to the edges.

To read more about it, check out the story, here.

A lot of people are angry at illegal immigrants. In one recent case in Pennsylvania it turned deadly.

A 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, Luis Ramirez, was allegedly beaten to death last month by a group of teens and prosecutors have called it a case of ethnic intimidation. Now the U.S. Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation to determine if it was a hate crime.

Nationwide, anti-Hispanic hate crimes rose by 25 percent from 2004 to 2006, according to the latest FBI crime statistics.

Ramirez's alleged attackers were a group of young white men, including football players and students with strong academic records. They were reportedly drinking and started a fight with Ramirez as he walked home with a friend.

No matter what your opinion is on the immigration debate, there's no excuse for such hateful acts.

Lately, John McCain has complained the media isn't giving him enough love.
His campaign recently released two videos showing all the loving the media gives to Barack Obama.
It is true that Obama's overseas trip this week received tremendous coverage, while McCain's recent trip to Mexico got scant notice.
But McCain is blowing off an invitation to address as many as 5,000 journalists attending the UNITY: Journalists of Color convention held in Chicago this week.
The convention organized by the four major minority journalism associations representing blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and Native Americans with a mission to promote diversity in the media, has invited both of the major candidates running for president.
Both candidates were invited to speak Thursday night but Obama was in Berlin. Obama will instead speak to convention goers on Sunday morning, and it will be broadcast on CNN. McCain hasn't accepted the invitation.
When the UNITY conference was last held in 2004 in Washington, D.C., both John Kerry and President Bush spoke to the group of journalists.
There will be thousands of journalists at UNITY, most who don't normally get to cover a presidential candidate, and many of them would write about McCain's visit for their local news organizations.
It's time for McCain to stop whining about the media ignoring him, and pay attention to this large group of journalists willing to hear what he has to say.

Despite the growing popularity of the fist bump, as demonstrated by the Obamas and even President Bush, some folks hope the gesture doesn't take the place of handshakes ...

I'm not one of those people.

I'm what you call a germphobe. I would rather not shake a hand if I can bump it instead. Less exposure to germs that way, ya know? I can't resist the urge to scan the state of a person's fingernails before they touch me. I'm fully aware some people never learned to fully appreciate the wonders of hand-washing, yet they want to shake ... my ... hand.

Of course, I'm the same person who lets her dog lick her face, so what do I know? OK, so I know the fist bump is cleaner and hipper and might stop the exchange of germs that cause the common cold. So there.

Fist bumps rule!

Our emotional connection to life's far-flung triumphs and tragedies becomes numbing after a while -- until something happens close by. That something happened Tuesday evening when Friehiwet Tahir, a manager at Gregory's Deli and Market on the first floor of the Chicago Apparel Center, the Sun-Times' headquarters, was struck and killed by a CTA Red Line train.

Amid controversies over border fences and detention centers, Tahir's story is the one we don't hear often enough. But her story is our story. It's the quintessential immigrant story, whether your family was forced to come here like mine, or clamored to come, like most.

Sun-Timesers looking for their morning coffee fix or a cup of soup for lunch met Tahir's earnest smile and dancing eyes behind the deli counter daily. Her innate shyness was overcome by her obvious love and respect for her job, customers and employees.

That was quite a feat considering the 35-year-old native Ethiopian spoke very little English when she was poached from White Hen Pantry eight years ago. She mastered English and that uniquely American art of looking people in the eye and putting the customer first, always.

In showing up every day and helping her husband, Abraham Alemu, pay for college to become an engineer, Tahir mastered that most beloved of state of being: pursuit of the American Dream.

Read her obituary here:

Some disturbing video was released this week. In it, a Canadian teenager cried out for his mother and medical attention while being interrogated at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo.
Omar Khadr is now 21 and he has been held without due process since he was 15.
Human rights groups and the Sun-Times editorial board have argued that the military prison at Guantanamo should be closed down.
But it's beyond disturbing to think that a minor was held there in legal limbo for six years.
This young man should be returned to his home in Canada, where he should be given a fair trial for his alleged crimes. He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces soldier in 2002 in Afghanistan.
The Canadian and American governments must intervene. To continue to hold him in Guantanamo is a violation of international law and basic human rights.

It's already hard enough being a regular CTA rider.
We have to put up with smelly and slow trains. Now the CTA wants to pack us in like cattle.
They announced a plan this week to tear the seats out of some of the cars and create standing room only for as many as 140 people per car.
There's no way I'd get in one of those cars. It's hard enough riding the train as it is, but to be sandwiched in between other passengers would not only be uncomfortable but potentially unsafe.
The way some of the conductors brake, I'd be afraid of people falling on top of one another. And being packed in so close offers more opportunities for pickpockets and pervs.
They will make two of the eight cars seatless, but that'll make the it even harder to find a seat on the other cars.
This is just a temporary solution to train overcrowding. But the CTA needs capital funding so that it can purchase new train cars.
In a city like Chicago, our trains should offer us a smooth ride.

A Chicago suburban teen is hoping to win the National Texting Championship in New York.
Megan Rach of Naperville could win $50,000 for the speed at which she can play a telephone. She's been practicing by sending 100 to 500 messages a day.
We hope her parents have a good phone plan.

In revising policies for recruits, the Pentagon considered relaxing rules for potential recruits who have committed petty crimes — but didn't. Wannabe soldiers still can apply for a waiver, but they'll have to endure a lengthy probe of past conduct before the various branches of the armed forces will consider their applications.

Considering our lack of a draft, the fact that we're talking about petty stuff like traffic offenses, plus the beneficial impact of becoming a soldier, should the Pentagon have relaxed recruitment requirements?

Here's the original story:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/washington/1034860,CST-NWS-mil02.article