Patch on Politics

Should Illegal Immigrants Be Granted Drivers Licenses in Illinois?

The Senate approved drivers licenses for illegal immigrants on Tuesday, with bipartisan backing. What do you think? Take the Patch Poll.

The Illinois House will soon take up a bill passed in the Illinois Senate Tuesday that allows illegal immigrants to obtain temporary drivers' licenses and insurance. Half of the GOP lawmakers in the Illinois Senate voted against the bill. The measure passed, though, with a final vote of 41-14. Senate Bill 957 would enable about 250,000 illegal immigrants who already drive in Illinois to have a chance to go through drivers testing, receive a special license good for three years and purchase insurance. That means safer roads for Illinoisans, backers of the bill say. Officials say uninsured immigrants behind the wheel cause $64 million in damage claims every year. Voting against the measure were Republican senators Tim Bivins, Larry Bomke, …

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Obama's 'You Didn't Build That' Business Comments: Is He Wrong?

The president's small-business comments upset many people and gave Republican Mitt Romney a point of attack. But Barack Obama said the comments were taken out of context. What do you think? Take the Patch Poll.

President Barack Obama's recent comments about small business created a firestorm that could become a focus of the 2012 election — even as Obama and his supporters say his comments were taken out of context.  "Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own," he said during a July 13 speech in Virginia. "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help ... If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen." Take the Patch poll below: Who plays the most significant role in creating jobs and economic growth? That's not the entire speech, which you can read on the independent FactCheck.org. According to that post, the comments were taken out of context: "There’s no question …

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Dennis Robaugh

10:34 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Say good night, Gracie.   more ›

Patch Poll: Super Bowl Along the Shore of Lake Michigan?

Professional football's biggest game of the season, a cause for an unofficial national holiday, is usually played in warm climates. Do you want to see that changed?

With NATO under his belt, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is looking for the next big event he would like the city to host. He wants a Super Bowl. There may be some pros to his idea, but there are a lot of cons: the small capacity of Soldier Field (after all, the $uper Bowl is all about money); the unpredictable yet usual frigid February weather and the lack of a dome over Soldier Field. Historically, the Super Bowl has been played in locations with warmer climes, where you don’t have to worry about a blizzard making it difficult to get the to the game, such as California, Arizona and Florida. Games have been played in domes in Atlanta, Detroit and Indianapolis. Who knows, though? Conventional wisdom and past history will be tested next year …

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Joe O'Donnell

11:54 am on Monday, July 23, 2012

Whatever needs to be done, I suppose.   more ›

Patch Poll: Three Inventions That Changed Our Lives

Gordon Matthews, Luther Simjian and Eugene Polley may not be household names, but their inventions are part of everyday life.

Voice mail. The ATM. The remote control. These inventions are so much of today’s life, we barely can function without them. Gordon Matthews is the inventor and patent-holder for voice mail. In the late ‘70s, Matthews began working on the technology that would come to be called voice mail. His "Voice Message Exchange" managed electronic messages in a digital format, and he patented it in 1982. At times, it seems Matthews saw himself as a bit of a Dr. Frankenstein. "I'm not really pleased with some of the things I see voicemail being used for today," Matthews once remarked. "We didn't design this technology to annoy people, but rather make their lives easier." In 1939, Luther Simjian patented an early and not-so-successful prototype of an …

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Sabrina Wu

4:05 am on Sunday, June 3, 2012

Good points, Justin. I do think voicemail is important, though, especially for those who still don't have text.   more ›

Patch Poll: Will NATO Summit Give the Chicago Region a Global Boost?

In an earlier poll, 59 percent of voters in the six-county metropolitan area and 58 percent of city voters agreed that hosting NATO would improve Chicago's international standing.

Geneva, Switzerland. London. The Hague. And now, Chicago? Mayor Rahm Emanuel has touted the NATO summit as a way to showcase Chicago on an international stage, and much of the Chicago area agreed with that notion, according to a Tribune/WGN-TV poll, conducted days before the NATO Summit began. A total of 59 percent of voters in the six-county metropolitan area and 58 percent of city voters agreed that hosting NATO would improve Chicago's international standing, the poll found. About 3 out of 10 surveyed disagreed. "If everything goes smoothly, it's a great opportunity for Chicago to step outside the shadows of other major cities in the U.S. and the world," Marc Hetherington, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, told …

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Kent Frederick

8:07 pm on Monday, May 21, 2012

Rahm had the G20 for the same reason that cities try to get the Olympics, host party nominating conventions, and lure sports teams from other cities. They believe that the exposure will lure tourists and businesses. There was a study that showed that the movie "Mama Mia" did far more for Greek tourism than Athens hosting the 2004 Summer Olympics. As I posted earlier, Chicago should have simply …   more ›

Patch Poll: Should We Tax Soda To Discourage Obesity?

Recent studies suggest that drastic methods must be taken.

The big news coming out of last week’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Weight of the Nation conference in Washington, D.C., was a public health report that predicts that if Americans keep getting heavier at the current rate, 42 percent of the population will be obese by 2030. Childhood obesity in the U.S. has more than tripled in the last 30 years, according to the CDC, which states that in 2008, a third of U.S. children were overweight or obese. The percentage of children 6 to 11 defined as obese rose from 7 percent in 1980 to almost 20 percent in 2008 And, America’s obesity problem may hinder the number of organ donors. The pool of potential living kidney donors may be shrinking because of the national obesity "…

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Jim Court

9:42 pm on Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Has anyone read the Hidden Addiction by Janice Phelps? It shows sugar as the precursor to other addictions. Great book.   more ›

Patch Poll: Popular Music That Connects the Ages

Some songs endure for generations. Others fade away.

Today is a good day to sing: “Monday Monday, so good to me Monday Monday, it was all I hoped it would be” On May 7, 1966, "Monday Monday" by the Mamas and Papas hit No. 1 on the charts. According to brainyhistory.com, May 7 has had some significant moments in American pop music history. For example, on May 7, 1941, Glen Miller recorded "Chattanooga Choo Choo" for RCA. This week’s Patch Poll is about which pop songs will stand the test of time. Below is Billboard's list of "Hot 100" No. 1 songs for the time period including May 7, at the beginning each decade, going back to 1970, as listed on Digitaldreamdoor.com. Which one of these songs will endure and be remembered 50 years from now? Although Patch Polls are interesting but terribly …

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Alex Keown

2:53 pm on Tuesday, May 8, 2012

ABC is crushing it, but it stands to reason as the song transcends the ages.   more ›

Patch Poll: How Much Will You Spend on Prom?

Midwestern families will spend an average of $696, a survey says. How does that compare with your experience?

The dress. The tux. The corsage. The prom. That may have been sufficient to describe this high school ritual of passage in the past. But today, add the spray tan, the manicure and pedicure, the limo, the pre-prom party, the after-prom cruise on Lake Michigan. The cost. Visa Inc. has released a national survey that shows when it comes to high school proms, Americans appear to be willing to spend ever increasing amounts. American families who have teenagers will spend an average of $1,078 each on the prom this year, a 33.6% boost over the $807 spent in 2011, according to the survey.  Visa says Midwesterners are the most frugal. Regionally, the survey found: The Visa survey also found that parents are planning to pay for 61% of prom costs …

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Patch Poll: Is It Time to Buy a New Car?

The auto industry is in an interesting time: Prices are up, but people are buying.

Do you remember the price of your first new car? It was most likely way below the record average price of $30,748 new cars are fetching, according to a recent report in the Detroit News Press. The news story says the price is up 6.9 percent from a year ago. Why? U.S. auto sales in March ran at a 14.4 million annual sales rate, up from 13.1 million in March 2011, according to the Detroit News Press. For Patch readers who are thinking about buying a new car soon, we ask: Why are you in the market for a new car? Last week's poll asked: Do you think the economy is headed in the right direction? Employers added 120,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, unemployment rate is down and gas prices may have leveled off. But that is not good enough …

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Bob McQuillan

1:23 pm on Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Rudy As I said, since I was 16 years old I have owned American made cars, mostly GM. I did not make this decision on a whim. I did a lot of research and when all rating services rate "foreign" makes in the top ten in all categories then the problem doesn't lie with me or the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have purchased; Honda, Toyota, Lexus, and on and on. Plus many "foreign" cars are …   more ›

Patch Poll: Is it Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down for Economy?

What do the numbers mean to you?

The economy added about 120,000 jobs in March. The jobless rate ticked down a percentage point to 8.2. Gas prices appear to have peaked and are coming down. These signs could be interpreted that the economy is improving. However, some of these numbers come with a “But … .” The Labor Department reported that employers added 120,000 jobs to their payrolls last month but—well below economists’ forecasts for a 203,000 gain. The unemployment rate fell but—experts said it was largely due to discouraged job hunters giving up the search for work. And, gas prices. They may have peaked but—will they rise again during the high-demand summer months? What do you think?

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Dan F.

10:54 am on Friday, April 13, 2012

Sev you forgot the employees that work just long enough to qualify for unemployment, and cause the contribution rate to stay as high as the state can make it. Or the employee hired who, the day insurance coverage for him kicked in, checked into rehab and stopped coming to work. Heard those from a friend who, like you, used to employ people, but now does not.   more ›