Alderman Lyle's Green Initiative Part I- Aquaponics at Chicago State University

Chicago State University recently announced the completion of its new aquaponics system that will provide research and educational opportunities, as well as address environmental and urban challenges facing Chicago’s South Side.

CSU’s aquaponics facility features four 750-gallon tanks, six grow beds with traversing lights and a three-acre site for outdoor plots for sustainable fuel research and gardens. This innovative program will be unveiled to CSU students, faculty and local business and community leaders on Tuesday, August 17 at the Aquaponics Facility, which is located at 9601 S. Cottage Grove Avenue.

Aquaponics is an integrative process that combines aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (raising plants in water instead of soil). Plants and fish cultivate in a recirculation environment in which nutrients-enriched effluent, or water from the fish, is used as fertilizer for the plants within the facility. As the plants take in the nutrients to fuel their own rapid growth, the water’s toxicity for the fish is reduced or eliminated. Clean, nutrient free water is then returned to the fish environment, and the cycle continues supporting the growth of both fish and plants. The relationship between the fish and the plants creates a waste-less environment; nearly every part of the project is self-sustaining and thus environmentally friendly.

More on the program at http://www.csu.edu/news/aquaponics.htm

Alderman Lyle and outgoing Alderman Shiller worked diligently on bringing this to our community. Per Alderman Lyle she will give us more details on this project and future projects.

Information on the First (1st) Congressional district race

I found this for a search on Jeff Adamas of the Green Party, who is running for First (1st) Congressional district, and found this site: http://www.thevoterguide.org/v/culture/index.do?i=7

I don't really like it, as it's clearly biased toward liberal candidates.

Adams is facing incumbent Bobby Rush in the November General election.

If anyone has any additional information on Jeff Adams or any political candidates in the upcoming eleciton, we would appreciate it.

Please refer to a previous post lamenting the lack of choices we seem have locally for elections.

The incumbents may be worthy of re-election, but it's hard to measure their effectiveness and contentment (or lack thereof) of the different parts of our community without a choice.

An absolutely Democratic area without real democracy is ironic, to say the least.

Can we get a REAL race in the 1st Congressional District?

I wrote this earlier, but wanted to give our candidates a chance to show their campaigning skills, and not be biased in this race.

However, I am very disappointed at the lack of a real contest for the 1st Congressional District primary race (which, in our part of town, unfortunately determines the "official" winner for the fall election). Here's what the results showed as reported by the Chicago Sun Times:

Rush , Bobby (i) = Dem = 68,229 = 80%
Guillemette , JoAnne = Dem = 7,992 = 9%
Smith , Fred = Dem = 5,174 = 6%
Bailey , Harold = Dem = 4,207 = 5%

The opponents combined couldn't even muster enough votes to match just a third (1/3) of Bobby Rush's votes!

It's fine if many people think Bobby Rush is good for the district. But there was no debate. Rep. Rush didn't even have a real campaign site, and neither did JoAnne Guillemette! All she had was a pretty picture with just 3 words!

Jeff Adams of the Green party will be a choice this fall...but unfortunately, i don't expect many people to seriously consider anyone other than a Democrat.

Looking at the Illinois Election website, look up Bobby Rush, and you will note that he has raised less than $10,000 during most election years! Now, if a credible candidate showed some real possibility of winning the Democratic primary, that amount would go up quite a bit. (When Barack Obama ran against him in 2000, Rush did raise about $35,000)

So if you are looking for some change in politicians (or at least for those running in the next 1 -2 years), it's time to START NOW for 2012. If you could find 25 people who would each raise $1000 each within the next 2 years, you might find yourself as a political leader of our community.

6th Ward Offices up for election

In February not only will we elect our choices for President, the Illinois General Assembly, County offices (such as Cook County Circuit Court Clerk, Board of Review, State's Attorney, Recorder of Deeds), and Water Reclamation District. Sixth ward will also elect committeemen for not only the Democratic and Republican Parties but the Green Party as well.

Well the Green Party is new to the scene since they won the required amount of votes in the gubernatorial election last year to be considered a major party. What that means is that they won't have to file as many petitions signatures if they were to have started a new/independent party. So they also get to elect committeemen and that position would allow them to build a party.

It should also be noted that filing for an elective office ended November 5th and it appears all are running unopposed for the election to their respective positions. In the 6th ward the committemen candidates are:

6th Ward Democratic Committeeman - Ald. Freddrenna Lyle

6th Ward Republican Committeeman - Jackie Robinson

6th Ward Green Party Committeeman - Beverly Neely

They have all filed to stand for election to head their respective parties in the 6th Ward.

According to the Cook County Clerk's Office.

BTW, here's a committeeman's race worth watching in the 7th Ward next year as Sandi Jackson takes on Bill Beavers for 7th Ward Democratic Committeeman.