click on image to enlarge$5 A Signature, Dead or Alive
A St. Charles police officer knocked on my door Monday morning. He was not wearing a brown shirt, was not jack booted, did not appear to be a Nazi, and did not bully me. He told me he was there because of a criminal complaint filed by Linda Meyer, the treasurer of the Citizens Empowerment Committee who is trying to recall Councilwoman Dottie Greer and Councilman Mark Brown, and the wife of a St. Charles police officer who was formerly the president of the St. Charles Police Officers Association. I thought he was joking but he told me she was complaining of being harassed by a cartoon in the February 17th edition of the First Capitol News. She does not like being in cartoons in this newspaper and was upset with the words “dead or alive.” The officer said he wanted to give me an opportunity to respond to her complaint. The cartoon in question is the middle cartoon on this page. I explained to the officer the dead or alive was referring to the fraudulent signatures her committee had collected during the recall petition process and pointed out that one of the signatures was from a dead person. He told me she was insisting the complaint be filed with the office of the Prosecuting Attorney for criminal prosecution. I told the officer the cartoon was protected under the Constitution and I did not care what Linda Meyer thought.
Linda Meyer and members of her group have called and visited our advertisers, filed malicious and false complaints with the better business bureau and tried many times to hurt our newspaper. Now that's harassment!
Happy Easter
Because of the Easter Holiday next weekend our next edition will be on April 22, 2006. However, check our daily web log, firstcapitolnews-today.blogspot.com for daily updates seven days a week.
RED BAGS
There is a shortage of red bags in which to wrap the newspaper. Because of this there may be occasions when we just have to tie the papers and throw them without bags.
COUNCIL PRESIDENT?
After two ballots the election for City Council President Tuesday evening was continued until the next Council meeting. The votes were evenly split on both ballots, five for Rory Riddler and five for Bob Kneemiller. Kneemiller made a motion to continue the matter to the next meeting. Evidently he thought Dottie Greer would be recalled and a new member of the Council to be appointed by the Mayor would vote for him. More to come.
