Sam,
I read your Baseball article and found it well written, interesting, and full of good memories. I, too, had a great experience with Ted Williams, something that I’ll never forget. I grew up as a Cub fan, and a Red Sox fan….I can still recite almost every Cub and Red Sox player’s name in the ’50s & ’60s.
Just before I started college, I had made up my mind to be a major league pitcher or, if that failed, an architect. I ate, slept, and lived baseball up to that time, and I would have paid to play on a major league team. After, for good reason, being rejected in tryouts by the Cubs and Sox, my career choice became clear. I still have dreams from time to time of pitching to some of the old timers.
Anyway, thanks for writing such a good article. These are memories worth cherishing.
Ron
Aggregation Referendum
The real story about the aggregation referendum is not what the local village and town officials are presenting, which may be innocent. They may not understand the implications of what they are asking of voters. If approved, the referendum empowers local authorities to negotiate and select a source for electric power and get lower rates, while continuing use of ComEd and other delivery providers for services to the community. So far, so good, and it sounds like a winner. But note that local authorities will not be empowered to negotiate with ComEd or other providers for costs of delivery.
If the referendum passes, it enables ComEd and other service delivery providers to take two actions that are not authorized in Illinois now: pass along costs to consumers no matter what vendor is chosen and charge for peak-time use.
Under current regulations, electric utilities cannot pass along costs or charge for peak-time use. This referendum is the enabling piece of legislation to do both, under the guise of the new legislation (Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act) that includes a guarantee of profit percentage for Illinois utilities for the next 10 years.
That’s what is driving this statewide effort of 150+ referenda in Illinois. The industry put millions of dollars into the state legislature and is now looking for payback. Aggregation is the payback. Message to voters: Vote no on aggregation!
Meg
