Republican U. S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald from Illinois spoke at the annual
Lincoln-Reagan Dinner Saturday night at the Snyder Village Center in Metamora. The dinner
was sponsored by the Woodford County Central Committee and was attended by over 350 people and included many of the local GOP
candidates for the upcoming primaries on March 19.
Senator Fitzgerald devoted much of his talk to the collapse of the Enron Corporation.
He said that conservative Republicans are the defender of the free marketplace and
it is important that they crack down hard on the abusers of the system.
Fizgerald said that Enron inflated their earnings by borrowing money from bogus partnership
companies and treating the loan as income rather than a liability. In effect, the company
was selling worthless assets to a subcorporation for millions of dollars and treating it
as income and letting the expense be hidden in the subsidiary.
Fitzgerald said many changes need to be made to prevent future Enron cases. They included a move
to prevent accounting firms such as Arthur Anderson
from being both a consultant and an auditor of a company since that creates a conflict
of interest. Also, he said that there must be a limit to how much company stock is
required of a employee for their 401K portfolio. Finally, there must be a cap on stock
options in a company. He said that many internet companies are over-valued because
stock options are not treated as expenses and tend to overvalue the net profit of a company.
Senator Fitzgerald said he voted for the new Farm Bill that put a limitation on how
much a farmer can get in subsidies at $275,000. He said that there are only 300 farms
in Illinois that currently receive more than that amount in subsidies. One farm received
over $5 million in subsidies last year. Fitzgerald said that the current farm program
encourages over production which results in lower grain prices.
To see pictures of the Republican dinner, click here.
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February 24
Fieldcrest crushed Chenoa Tuesday night in a semi-final game of the Fieldcrest
Class A Regionals at Minonk. Fieldcrest was led by Ryne Haag and Eric Heider who
each had 21 points. Shaun Manning had 15 points and Josh Baker had 13 points for
the Knights.
It is never too late to pursue becoming a DAR member. That is what Donna Rae Eilt's research accomplished, a proud and honored legacy to have had an ancestor, fourth great-grandfather Charles Young, who fought in the American Revolutionary War. On December 8, 2001 she became a member of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution).
The history tracing begins with her great great-grandfather Joseph Reed coming from Piscataway, Ohio to reside in Montgomery Township, Woodford County in 1852 with his wife, Polly (Freeze) Reed.
Through the Internet she located a fourth cousin, Prinda (Reed) Taylor, a genealogist residing in Missouri, who documented the lineage of Polly (Freeze) Reed's mother, Mary (Young) Freeze, the daughter of Charles Young.
Charles Young resided during the American Revolution at Philadelphia, PA. He enlisted in the American Revolutionary War in 1777 and was discharged in 1781 at Trenton, NJ. He assisted in establishing American Independence while acting, in the capacity of private, drummer, and matross. Private Young served under Capt. Patrick Duffy in the artillery as cannoneer, Col. Thomas Proctor's regiment, and was at battles in Brandywine, Germantown and Whitemarsh.
Next month