CPD Officer Severly Injured In Iraq

Pete came on the job in 1998, assigned to 014. He was activated and sent to Iraq in May 2009 and in June He was severly injured when a helicopter crashed into a building he was in. When he arrived at the VA in Tampa he was classified a paraplegic, but he is undergoing extensive physical therapy 6 days a week, and as of this past week end he is able to walk slowly with the help of a cane. He has a great attitude and told me some day his wheelchair will be in the corner collecting dust. If any of the guys are in the area he would love company. He is in therapy until 3:30 pm-Friday and 1:30 on Saturday...Tom Faragoi

OR...



SEND HIM A GET WELL CARD OR GIVE HIM A CALL...



Pedro Medina 813 631 6045
James A Haley Veterans Hospital

13000 Bruce B Downs Blvd Tampa Fl 33612
Spinal Cord Injury Unit Room D47.

Alderman & Daley Want Police & Fire To Take 5 Weeks Of Un Paid Time !!!

Daley, aldermen suggest Chicago police officers, firefighters take unpaid days off
Share | Posted by Hal Dardick and John Byrne at 6:22 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley and some aldermen suggested today that police officers and firefighters take off nearly five weeks without pay to cut city spending next year.

The idea, which the city cannot force on the police and fire unions, surfaced as outside critics and aldermen are questioning Daley’s plan to dip into long-term cash reserves to help pay for his proposed $6.1 billion budget.

“Everyone has to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” Daley said today when asked if police officers and firefighters should take unpaid furlough days. “And that’s why I’m taking 24 days without pay, and I got other people to take that, because you have to show that government understands the suffering that is going on throughout your communities.”
Daley already has ordered non-union employees to take 12 unpaid furlough days and 12 unpaid holidays, and most unions agreed to do the same. Those measures will save the city $70 million next year.


But police and firefighters, who make up the bulk of the city work force, weren’t asked to take the days off. Both of those unions’ contracts have expired, and the police contract is in binding arbitration, with a decision expected by spring at the earliest. Any concessions are only likely to come after that's settled, if they come at all.

If police and fire unions agreed to furloughs, the city would save $120 million, city Budget Director Eugene Munin said in response to a question from Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, at a City Council budget hearing today.

“That’s 120 million we could save the taxpayers of the City of Chicago if we had cooperation from just two of the outstanding four unions,” Beale responded.

Several aldermen questioned Daley’s plan to spend $270 million from a long-term reserve account established just last year from proceeds of the city’s 75-year parking meter system lease.

“We don’t have a plan to replenish that fund,” said Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, a consistent critic of the lease. “That’s my concern.”

Aldermen floated a number of ideas, including a city casino or dipping into special tax district funds, to pay for city spending. Last week, Daley noted the many complications in getting a casino off the ground, and he has repeatedly dismissed dipping into tax-increment-finance district funds.
Ald. Ray Suarez, 31st, asked why police officers and firefighters aren’t taking the same pay cuts as others.

"Why can’t everybody take part in bringing the expenses down so that we don’t have to force a lot of these folks to take furlough days?" Suarez asked. "Because I think it’s a little unfair to ask a single provider from a family who’s making forty-five or fifty thousand dollars to give back not just 12 furlough days, but the 12 holidays. Why can’t this be done? What’s the problem?"

Munin responded, "I agree with you, alderman, I think everyone should share in that."

Officials with the city's police and fire unions could not be reached today.

Posted at 06:22:51 PM in Chicago City Council, Mayor of Chicago
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Here's an article about our 50 Alderman in Chicago:

City Council's $3.7 million allowance:
How aldermen spent taxpayer money
By Hal Dardick, Ryan Mark, Joe Germuska and Brian Boyer | Tribune Staff
Aug. 15, 2009

Aldermen hired relatives, friends and campaign workers, leased automobiles and rented downtown parking spaces with money from their taxpayer-funded expense accounts, according to city databases and public records compiled by the Tribune.

The aldermen's expense allowance more than doubled in 2008 to $73,280 each from $33,280. Half of the city's 50 aldermen spent more than $70,000 of last year’s allowance. The municipal code of the City of Chicago defines appropriate uses for the allowance but allows broad discretion by the City Council members. Oversight is minimal. Aldermen are merely told to ensure that their spending is legal.

Aldermen spent $132,788 on automobile leases, $28,186 on downtown parking spots and $11,277 on bottled water. The city last year allocated up to $3.7 million for expenses; aldermen spent $3.1 million.

Explore all of the aldermen’s 2008 expenses on this Web site.

To learn more about how aldermen spent taxpayer money, read our story on aldermen's expense accounts and our follow-up about an alderman renting

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Ofc Alex Valadez Murdered 01 Jun 09 answering a shot's fired call
his star was retired 20 OCT 09 Mayor Daley spoke these words :

"His passing reminds us once again how much gratitude we owe to the men and women of the Chicago Police Department," Mayor Richard Daley said.

Every job & call every foot chase or car chase could be an officers last .....How many people who go to each day are faced with those odds . Will the mayor go out or the alderman and answer calls and chase savages with guns , burglars ,rapist robbers , car thieves ? We elected you and WILL UN ELECT YOU

Go ask Alex valadez or Richard Francis or Nate Taylor how much a life is worth ! All these officers were killed in the line of duty with in the last 2 yrs

Lets all give a big hand to Mayor Daley for taking 24 unpaid days. He doesn't have to worry because he gets all his kick=-backs still

Stacey and Brian's Wedding

Yikes !

Another Charged In Officer Valadez's Murder

Third man charged in police killing ordered held
August 15, 2009 4:53 PM | 1 Comment | UPDATED STORY
A third Chicago man was charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a Chicago police officer in June, police said today.

Christopher Harris, 20 of the 6200 block of South Paulina Street, was charged Friday with first-degree murder. He was ordered held without bail today by Circuit Court Judge Peggy Chiampas.


Harris was taken into custody Friday after a witness identified him as a third person involved in the June 1 shooting of Chicago Police Officer Alejandro "Alex" Valadez.

Kevin Walker, 21, of the 2500 block of West 70th Street, and Shawn Gaston, 20, of the 6200 block of South Paulina Street, have each pleaded not guilty to murder charges. Last month the officer was honored posthumously in a city council resolution.


Assistant Cook County State's Atty. John Dillon said in court today that Harris fired one of the shots that struck Valadez. Dillon said Harris was riding in the back seat of the car with the two other men charged in the killing. Harris allegedly fired a .357-caliber handgun that was one of the three guns later found in the car allegedly used.

Harris' hand tested positive for evidence of gunshot residue shortly after the shooting, Dillon said, indicating Harris had recently fired a weapon. Dillon declined to comment on why there was a delay of more than two months between that positive test and Harris being charged.

Harris admitted he agreed to return to the area where he, Walker and Gaston had been fired at, according to Dillon. He also admitted to firing shots from the back seat of the car, Dillon said. Previously, police said Gaston was the shooter and Walker was the driver.


Harris' criminal background consists of two misdemeanor drug cases. He is scheduled to return to court at noon Monday for a preliminary hearing on the murder charge. His public defender said Harris was a Harper High School graduate currently attending Kennedy-King College.

Valadez, a plainclothes Chicago police officer, died on June 1 at about 2:40 p.m. after being shot in the head and critically wounded early that morning in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said.


Walker, Gaston and Harris had earlier been shot at by people they believed to be rival gang members near the corner of West 60th Street and South Hermitage Avenue, police said. The men then went to another location, picked up guns and returned to the scene to retaliate, police said.

Valadez and his partner had responded to reports of the initial gunfire and were in the 6000 block of South Hermitage Avenue talking to a citizen when Gaston opened fire from a car driven by Walker, according to police. Valadez was in plainclothes at the time, but was wearing a bulletproof vest and a police star.

Valadez was the third officer killed in the line of duty in the past year.

Woman Super Glues Boyfriends Penis ! Ouch

MILWAUKEE — A woman accused of helping lure a boyfriend to a hotel room and gluing his penis to his stomach as punishment for his cheating ways says she and the other women went to the motel to tell him “the gig was up.”

Therese Ziemann told NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday that she and the other three women accused of holding the man against his will in a Green Bay, Wis., hotel room did not collaborate, and that there was no ringleader among them.

Prosecutors say the women, including the man’s wife and another girlfriend, lured the man to the motel on July 30 to punish him for cheating.

Court documents say the man agreed to be bound with sheets and blindfolded by Ziemann, and that she used Krazy Glue to attach his penis to his stomach.

NHS Refuses To Pay For Cortisone & Steriod Shots

Patients forced to live in agony after NHS refuses to pay for painkilling injections
Tens of thousands with chronic back pain will be forced to live in agony after a decision to slash the number of painkilling injections issued on the NHS, doctors have warned.

By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent
Published: 7:45AM BST 02 Aug 2009

Cuts to treatments would save the NHS £33 million.
The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.

Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.


Related Articles
Average 50-something fitter than 25-year-old, study claims Specialists fear tens of thousands of people, mainly the elderly and frail, will be left to suffer excruciating levels of pain or pay as much as £500 each for private treatment.

The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million.

But the British Pain Society, which represents specialists in the field, has written to NICE calling for the guidelines to be withdrawn after its members warned that they would lead to many patients having to undergo unnecessary and high-risk spinal surgery.

Dr Christopher Wells, a leading specialist in pain relief medicine and the founder of the NHS' first specialist pain clinic, said it was "entirely unacceptable" that conventional treatments used by thousands of patients would be stopped.

"I don't mind whether some people want to try acupuncture, or osteopathy. What concerns me is that to pay for these treatments, specialist clinics which offer vital services are going to be forced to close, leaving patients in significant pain, with nowhere to go,"

The NICE guidelines admit that evidence was limited for many back pain treatments, including those it recommended. Where scientific proof was lacking, advice was instead taken from its expert group. But specialists are furious that while the group included practitioners of alternative therapies, there was no one with expertise in conventional pain relief medicine to argue against a decision to significantly restrict its use.

Dr Jonathan Richardson, a consultant pain specialist from Bradford Hospitals Trust, is among more than 50 medics who have written to NICE urging the body to reconsider its decision, which was taken in May.

He said: "The consequences of the NICE decision will be devastating for thousands of patients. It will mean more people on opiates, which are addictive, and kill 2,000 a year. It will mean more people having spinal surgery, which is incredibly risky, and has a 50 per cent failure rate."

One in three people are estimated to suffer from lower back pain every year, while one in 15 consult their GP about it. Specialists say therapeutic injections using steroids to reduce inflammation and other injections which can deaden nerve endings, can provide months or even years of respite from pain.

Experts said that if funding was stopped for the injections, many clinics would also struggle to offer other vital services, such as pain management programmes and psychotherapy which is used to manage chronic pain.

Anger among medics has reached such levels that Dr Paul Watson, a physiotherapist who helped draft the guidelines, was last week forced to resign as President of the British Pain Society.

Doctors said he had failed to represent their views when the guidelines were drawn up and refused to support the letter by more than 50 of the group's members which called for the guidelines to be withdrawn.

In response, NICE chairman Professor Sir Michael Rawlins expressed outrage over the vote that forced Dr Watson from his position, describing the actions of the society as "shameful". He accused pain specialists of refusing to accept that there was insufficient scientific evidence to support their practices.

A spokesman for NICE said its guidance did not recommend that injections were stopped for all patients, but only for those who had been in pain for less than a year, where the cause was not known.

Iris Watkins, 80 from Appleton, in Cheshire said her life had been "transformed" by the use of therapeutic injections every two years. The pensioner began to suffer back pain in her 70s. Four years ago, despite physiotherapy treatment and the use of medication, she had reached a stage where she could barely walk.

"It was horrendous, I was spending hours lying on the sofa, or in bed, I couldn't spend a whole evening out. I was referred to a specialist, who decided to give me a set of injections. The difference was tremendous",

Within days, she was able to return to her old life, gardening, caring for her husband Herbert, and enjoying social occasions.

"I just felt fabulous – almost immediately, there was not a twinge. I only had an injection every two years, but it really has transformed my life; if I couldn't have them I would be in despair".

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This is a glimpse into how our health care will be if Obama's bill passes. Everything will be rationed or deemed not cost effective to save money . In Chicago we have all kinds of free health care for the poor. I'm sick of the LIBS crying that poor or unisured people don't have access to health care :

A study shows that 46.6 millions Americans do not have health insurance and out of these 1.6 millions reside in and near Chicago area. For those under privileged and those who are not covered under any insurance programs, many free health care clinics are there in the city, many of them are run by non profit organizations. Here is the list of few of those free clinics in Chicago-


http://www.communityhealth.org/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5955840/Patients-forced-to-live-in-agony-after-NHS-refuses-to-pay-for-painkilling-injections.html

Peta Handing out Unhappy Meals

Children who buy meals at the McDonald’s at 391 Central Ave. today beginning at noon will encounter PETA staff, headed by an activist in a chicken costume.

The chicken man will be handing out Unhappy Meals. Can you guess what’s in them?

McDonald's markets its food to children by packaging it in brightly colored boxes with enclosed toys, but most kids would probably lose their lunch if they knew about the animal suffering that goes into the company's "Happy Meals." That's why PETA created Unhappy Meals to make sure that families know that the lives of the chickens who were killed for those McNuggets were anything but happy.

PETA's spoof of a McDonald's chicken sandwich box features the image of a knife-wielding "Ronald McDonald," along with pictures of birds who have been mutilated and scalded alive and information about controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), the less cruel method of slaughter that PETA is asking McDonald's to adopt.

The inside of the Unhappy Meal box is stained with "blood" and contains a "blood"-filled packet urging McDonald's to "Ketchup With the Times," a paper cutout of a menacing Ronald McDonald with PETA's parody "I'm Hatin' It" logo, a "bloody" plastic chicken, and a "Chicken McCruelty" T-shirt wrapped up like a sandwich.

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This is crossing the line if Peta has a right to campaign for animal rights but targeting young children who enjoy happy meals is WRONG .