Where's Marlene?

Ran into Bruce Samuels, one of OP's leading Green Party members, discussed Greens' gains in recent general election.  In course of chat, on OP Ave. outside ex-book store turned real estate office, he said he can't get in touch with the Republican chair for OP, one Marlene Lynch, a travel agent who beat out the (appointed) incumbent last spring.  Bruce had been in conversation with her (elected) predecessor.  We both mourned that good man's passing. 

 

But where is Marlene L.?  And when is the next Republican gathering and what happened to the regular emailing of alerts to party stalwarts?  Hey, even if you meet in a phone booth, you still meet, don't you?

 

I'm not the only one wondering:

Has anyone heard from Marlene Lynch . . . ? Does she know there is an election coming up? No news. No email. No meetings. No Signs. No Nothing!

Her phone number isn't even listed on the Cook County Clerk website! She has no official email or website according to the Cook County Republican website. Maybe she doesn't want to talk to anyone?

asked Oak Park Conservatives some time back.

OP's Don Harmon a go-to man in senate

Ill. state Sen. Don Harmon (D.-Oak Park) is co-sponsor of a new law making it a misdemeanor not to install carbon monoxide detectors.  Enforcement is another matter, but people die from monoxide poisoning, so the lawmakers felt they had to do something.

"The last thing we want is to be known as the carbon monoxide police, meaning we're looking for detectors every time we go in someone's home,"

said Robert Buhs, executive director of the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association, adding,

"But it's the [homeowner's] responsibility, and for the safety of their family, to have these devices installed."

If it's the homeowner's responsibility, why is the state shouldering it, and ineffectually at that?  

"It seems like an easy risk to protect ourselves against, by creating an expectation that you have one,"

said Harmon, offering a garbled but perhaps helpful answer: the state speaks, and homeowners listen.  It's how they make (and score) points in Springfield, with new laws.  But an ad campaign would do the job at least as well, and without giving us the opportunity to ignore yet another one or giving law enforcement something else to do by way of interfering with people's lives.