Obama releases five terrorist commanders, he leaves our borders open to thousands of illegals, while he lets an American Marine who served under his command rot in a Mexican prison; and won’t even pick up the phone and have him released. This apparently shows that Obama has more care for terrorists and illegals than he does for his own people. What a disgrace.

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We need better men or women representing us in Congress and the White House. This is not a Democrat or Republican thing; we need a better caliber of person representing us. It’s up to us.

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Hey Villa Park, the train crossing on Ardmore has deteriorated from embarrassing to dangerous. Why do we have to endure this while other communities have underpasses?

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I just wanted to warn my fellow Lombardians. There is a number calling out of D.C. It’s a telemarketing call from a supposed organization called American Veterans Support. I fear that the employees are not veterans but paid telemarketers and I think if we would ask them when they call what is the percentage that actually goes to the veterans, out of $100, I would think it is a very, very small percentage. It’s always good to ask, whatever the charity is, what actually goes to what the charity is fundraising for and how much goes for administration costs, which means some big CEO sitting in a fancy office. I just wanted to warn people in Lombard and Villa Park if you get a call from this number. It is coming out of Washington, D.C. Don’t be fooled. Save your money.

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Since I enjoy festivals I also attended the Glendale Heights festival. The Glendale Heights is free, twice as big and they have fireworks on two nights that are just as nice as Lombard’s. Their festival was packed each night. My questions to the Jaycees and organizers of the Lombard Taste and fireworks, how does another town provide a bigger festival and more fireworks without charging for it? I would encourage them to contact the other towns and find out how they fund their events. Anything that is free is going to have more attendance. It seems like the Taste of Lombard will end if something is not done to fund it so people can attend for free.

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Mind you, I do not see a need for people to keep assault rifles, but I have to say it seems like our governor was blowing smoke when he gave a press conference on banning them. He pointed to the recent and numerous incidents of gun violence in Chicago, saying how he wants to get those weapons banned. However, I pose the question: How many of those shootings involved assault rifles? I mean, if Quinn wants to ban assault rifles, don’t use those shootings to justify his position. It’s just the typical political spin. I say, go after the criminals and also make crimes involving guns or any weapon come with a much more severe penalty.

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This is Lombard and I agree with the comment that the illegal fireworks on the Fourth of July is out of hand. I live near Madison Meadow and this year it was like a “war zone” in my neighborhood. Bombs going off, car alarms ringing, heavy smoke and debris in the air. No one really looks up to see anything. I have a lot of guests, including small children, for a party and many of them were uneasy with the commotion, noise and danger all around us. The next day I found parts of fireworks all over, even on my roof. Good thing my house did not catch on fire and no one got a rocket in their face. This setting off illegal fireworks is overboard, dangerous and contrary to what those setting off the fireworks think, it is not enjoyable to others. There are not enough police to regulate this action. If Lombard did their fireworks on another day such as July 3, the illegal action may be reduced and then police could follow up of it. I am not sure what can be done but to all those who set off the illegal fireworks, please stop, save yourself a ton of money and keep yourself and our neighborhoods safe.

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This is Meadowlarks Quilt Club. I just want to give our sincere thank you to all the wonderful people who have donated so much fabric, quilting material and yarn to make all these wonderful things. Thank you, God bless you and have a nice day. Keep the stuff coming. We really appreciate it. Bye.

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My comment is I think it’s a crock that Elizabeth Street was closed for the German Fest. This is a connector road. This should have been left open. What if we needed a fire truck? Goodbye.

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I agree with the many callers complaining about the Taste of Lombard, backyard fire pits, loud music, etc. I propose we ask for a grant from the state of Illinois to fund a new division of the Lombard Police Department. We’ll call it the Fun Police. Anyone having any type of fun in Lombard will be arrested, tried and sent hopefully over the border to Wisconsin. It’s the only way we can get back to our miserable, boring lives, because that’s the way we like it.

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Hey, Lombard. Guess what? I went to the Villa Park VFW Hall on Friday for a wonderful fish fry. I’m a resident of Lombard. I noticed there was gaming in the building and slot machines and guess what? There wasn’t a prostitute, there wasn’t a bum, there weren’t drug dealers hanging around; it was a very classy establishment for having a great fish fry. Just because the slots were in there didn’t mean the whole town went downhill in a hand basket. Too bad. Lombard businesses really could have used the money from the gaming.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. The police really need to enforce the amount of motorists who illegally stop at the Prairie Path and allow bikers and walkers to cross Main Street during traffic. Three times in the last two weeks I have almost bumped into the car in front of me. They stop to let people cross from the Prairie Path. Everybody should be ticketed who does that. This is terrible. I can foresee some real accident coming when people are going along at 25 mph and they stop to let a biker or walker cross that street. That’s terrible. Please get the police to inform them. Report them. Anybody who does it, turn in their license number. They need to be ticketed. Thank you.

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I would have liked to see someone from the Jaycees respond to all the criticism of this year’s Taste of Lombard. I wish they would acknowledge what Taste attendees and residents of the Madison Meadow neighborhood are saying. I think these people, who paid money to go there, or those who live nearby, deserve to know that they are being heard and taken seriously. How about it, Taste organizers?

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Thank you very much Village of Lombard. This is Lombard calling in conjunction with the removal of the tree on Main Street; the second tree from Collen Drive. I can’t tell you how many times people have almost had a near-miss accident due to the fact that tree was blocking the traffic. Thank you so very, very much. Now we can see.

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Hi, this call is regarding all these illegal children coming into the country and the representative Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Chicago. He thinks it’s wrong. All I want to say to him is, bring them in your house, you feed them, you clothe them, you pay for all their expenses. Stop expecting everybody else to pay for the bill. All you politicians do is want everybody else to foot the bill. Pay for it yourself; you caused the problems, you pay the bill. If not, keep quiet.

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The Veterans Administration should not be staffed by union people. Too much corruption, not just one or two VAs, but across the whole U.S. It’s epidemic, widely prevalent and worst of all, accepted. Something must be done. Put regular workers in there who know how to work for their money and be able to get fired if they don’t do it, where union people seem to be safe to do anything. Thank you.

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After the past weekend in Chicago, I would like to thank all of the Democrats and their gun control laws. I really think they should continue rounding up guns from legal citizens. It’s working great. Note the sarcasm. Do you ever wonder why they don’t actually go after the criminals who use the guns? Makes me wonder. That’s a Democrat for you. Bye.

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Friday dump on Independence Day. Thirteen hundred pages of new rules in Obamacare. Five million hours of paperwork for your doctor. If you’re overweight, doctors must address your diet; just one of the added rules in these 1,300 pages, etc., etc. Time taken away from the patient care. There’s no time for the patient—all the doctor’s time is for paperwork. And, we are paying these people in all parts of our government to make all these rules. Aren’t we lucky? Aren’t you glad you voted for Obama? We need to impeach Obama now.

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Well, Lombard, I think you blew it this year. I used to enjoy your fireworks but this year I was highly disappointed. I’ve been watching fireworks for about 40 years now. I don’t know what happened this year, but they really weren’t spectacular like in the past years. I hate to say it, but I DVR’d the Navy Pier fireworks and 9:30-10 o’clock, after I watched the disappointing fireworks, I went back into my house and watched the Navy Pier fireworks and I enjoyed those a lot better. I don’t understand what happened this year. The finale was so disappointing. Shame on you, Lombard. I think we spent too much money on other things and forgot about the fireworks this year. Thank you.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling and since the Taste of Lombard is over, I was wondering if there’s any way that there is a financial report printed for what they made or what they lost, as I believe the village helps them out with manpower. I think this should be a matter of public record because my tax dollars are being spent. Thank you very much.

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So Bill Ware wants to have video gaming in Lombard? He thinks it’s going to bring in a lot of money, a lot of revenue? Well, you don’t need the video gaming in the town. If you want to bring in revenue and money, etc., how about resigning?

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We just came from the German Fest at Sacred Heart. What a disappointment. No German bands; all rock bands. The only thing German was the food. Maybe they should change the name to Rock Fest.

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You could have closed the border years ago with three little words: no more entitlements.

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Lombard calling. To the person who called about his or her son using synthetic marijuana, thank you very much; in one phone call you summed up one of the biggest problems we have in society today—lack of parental accountability. One, if you know your son has it in his trunk, that’s aiding and abetting and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Two, it is your parental responsibility to take care of your child. So if you know what’s going on, do something about it. Don’t expect the authorities, don’t expect the school system to do your job for you. It is your responsibility and you should be held accountable every bit as much as your child. Thank you.

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This is my take on the rooftop owners and Wrigley Field. Some of you may agree with me and some of you may not agree with me, but the rooftop owners do not own Wrigley Field. They don’t live in Wrigley Field. Therefore, they’re like a peeping Tom, looking in someone’s window, stealing your privacy. They don’t own the field, they don’t live in the field and they have no right stealing the view of the game being played there for free. They should be paying Wrigley Field because they’re making money off of somebody else. Goodbye.

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It’s no secret that companies are leaving Illinois and taking their jobs with them to go to Republican states such as Indiana and Texas, because Illinois is in such a financial mess; and anybody with any sense sees higher taxes on the horizon. In the meantime, I know a teacher who lives in Indiana and she wants to move to Illinois because the teachers make so much more money here. Can you see where this is going? The people who pay the bills are leaving and the people who seemingly leech off the system are flocking here. Winston Churchill said that the problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money and we’re seeing it unfold before our very eyes. Nevertheless, come November, you people are going to re-elect all the same socialist, union-loving Democrats who got us into this mess because you continue to think the Republicans only care about the rich and the Democrats and unions care about the working class.

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We have lived in Lombard for over 40 years. There has been a turnover of neighbors over the last few years. A problem has arisen from that. A lot of the newer neighbors think that the public sidewalks are their private parking spaces. Not true. I live on Hillcrest Lane here in Lombard. These people only think of themselves, no one else. We have talked to Lombard trustees, still nothing has been done about it. What about the handicapped, the elderly who still like to walk and most seriously, the kids who are too young to ride bikes in the street? Does anyone in this town care?

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Hello, Lombard. Yes, it does seem hypocritical to measure success for churches and schools based on the amount of beer or the amount of gambling and the money collected for local schools and local churches. Have we lost our moral compass? Recently, people of Lombard said, We don’t want gambling. We don’t want slots in our town, and the village board listened. Perhaps too many people are fixated on alcohol and gambling. Look at the messages in last week’s SPEAK OUT regarding the Taste of Lombard and what a waste it was with all of the alcohol consumed. We have good organizations in this town. Do we need to rely upon gambling and alcohol?