Hi, this is Lombard calling. I agree with Tony Maroney, senior vice commander of the VFW post in Lombard about flying the flag in tribute to our nation and veterans. However, according to the U.S. Flag Code, the U.S. flag should only be flown from sunrise to sunset, not 24/7 as he suggests, except at night and special occasions. Thanks.

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Can someone tell me if the ballots in Mexican elections are bilingual? That is, are they printed in Spanish and English? I’m guessing they are not.

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Villa Park has now severely restricted the hours for recycling electronics. What’s going on?

Erin Knackstedt, assistant to the village manager in Villa Park, explained that due to a change in location, “we’ve had to cut back.” She said the former location of the e-waste recycling was next to the village’s parks building and grounds and now, items for recycling are being taken at the village hall parking lot. The items are then transported to a trailer behind the Jewel store. E-waste items will be accepted from 9 a.m. to noon on the third Saturday of the month—December is pending, and January and February will be scheduled if weather permits. Knackstedt said the program is open to Villa Park residents only, so a resident ID is required. Residents can bring an unlimited amount of e-waste, but since the program is staffed by volunteers, she asks that anyone dropping off large items bring a helper.—JAC

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To all those loving Dick Durbin and his kind, kind heart of wanting to refinance college loans, I say “read the bill.” Democrats fool you with their “utopia” ideas—they actually want to borrow upwards of $73 billion dollars from the American taxpayers to refinance these loans. Nothing is free—the taxpayers will end up footing the bill of these refinanced loans which is always the Democrat way—take from one to give to another and win their vote. Start educating yourselves instead of listening to their “bright and sunny proposals that sound so wonderful.” It's the government intervention that has created such impossible tuition costs in the first place. What they don’t tell you is that if the economy sours and these loans default—once again, it will be the taxpayers who pay. Your grandchildren will be paying the bill—stop fooling yourself. Even the CBO doesn’t want to go there and give an estimate of what the cost to the American people would actually wind up being.

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I made a comment about the national unemployment rate and you replied with the Illinois unemployment rate. I believe you made an honest mistake, and I just want to make sure to you that I am not making up numbers, below is the link to the U.S. Department of Labor. Thank you and have a great day. Link to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000.

The state information provided was meant to compare the national figures with state statistics. It was derived from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Web site from which those Illinois figures were obtained is http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.il.htm.—JAC

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Someone made the unintentionally humorous comment in the Oct. 15 SPEAK OUT stating that Obama got the national unemployment rate down to 5.9 percent. The unemployment rate has “dropped” mainly because about 7 million fewer Americans are working or searching for work since the recession began in December 2007. People who have given up searching for work do not count as unemployed. The lower labor force participation rate has led to the lower unemployment rate. Unemployment has “fallen” because fewer people are looking for work, not because more Americans are finding jobs. It’s not that tough to comprehend. Even some Democrats should be able to figure this out.

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I didn’t know there were people who think having a $100,000 loan in your early 20s isn’t a problem, because you can refinance and if you get a lower rate you can pay it off faster, so you can buy other things. I wish I could pay off $100,000 as fast as you think you can, but I don’t have to worry about it because I would never borrow $100,000 in my early 20s.

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To the mother who called in about her college student trying to pay back these loans at these horrific interest rates, I believe it wasn’t that long ago that it was in Congress to pass the refinancing of the college loans for the students, and of course they did not do it. So, they haven’t done much in the past eight years to help anybody out, but hopefully maybe someone will come along and refinance these loans so these kids can get these loans paid off. So aptly put by our Republican party so they’re not left for their children; they wouldn’t be if Congress had passed the law to let them refinance their interest rate, which many Democrats and Republicans were in favor of but our illustrious Congress was not.

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My dear Bonnie MacKay, I am quite aware of the fact that Mr. Rauner is running for governor in the state of Illinois, but I also compare him to Mr. Romney, considering both their business tactics are quite comparable to each other. So, if you choose to print this, I am quite aware and do know the name of the gentleman in the Republican party, which is Rauner, who is running for governor.

That comment about the candidate’s name was penned by Jane Charmelo, but I will be happy to pass along your dear words to her.—BLM

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Now, more than ever, it is time for the Village of Lombard to take control of the Taste of Lombard and the Lombard Lilac Parade, in conjunction with the park district. It should not be left to outside groups to supervise and oversee. With all the hotel-motel money that is spent on these events, we should hire someone, put someone in place, who will oversee it and supervise it. Thank you.

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One of our all-American drugstores stopped selling cigarettes but they still sell alcohol because we all know a cigarette kills instantly but drunks driving cars don’t kill anyone. Maybe they should reconsider their options on what to sell.

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The megamillions prize for Tuesday was $166 million. I wonder how many of you who disdain Rauner for his wealth bought a ticket. The lottery is the quintessential money for nothing. It’s an obscene amount of money for doing no work at all. It is the quintessential exploitation of the poor. This prize money comes from somewhere. It comes from people who play the lottery and lose. I have gone to the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago and I have seen them lining up to throw away their money in the hope of winning a prize that is virtually impossible to win. How many jobs has the lottery created? How many jobs has Rauner created? So maybe instead of criticizing someone for working hard and achieving success, you ought to look inside yourself.

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I don’t know who this Suzy is who’s running for state representative, but boy, she lost my vote. She’s displaying signs everywhere—20, 30, 40 of them in a row along Route 53 on the hill, both sides. Same thing on Roosevelt, same thing all over the place.

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We have a beautiful country. There is no other country that comes close to the United States of America, but I’m getting sick and tired of receiving my utility bills, telephone calls and do I want to speak in Spanish or read in Spanish. This is America. Speak English or get out of the country. You want to bring in your old problems, why don’t you stay in your old country where all your old problems were? If you want to come into this country you have to accept this country and speak English. They don’t say, do you want to speak German? They don’t say, do you want to speak Polish? I’m sick and tired of giving half of the country away. Goodbye.

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Anti-abortion extremists are harassing women outside the clinic on Roosevelt Road every day; Jesus never shamed women, so why are his followers doing this? If you are against an abortion, don’t have one. And if you want less abortions, preach contraception, not abstinence. Harassing women at a time like this is a real strange hobby to have. I can’t see a problem with giving clinics a 150-yard buffer zone so that women don’t have to run through a gauntlet of self-righteous people judging them. Abortion is a terribly difficult decision and it is downright cruel to treat these women as some kind of abomination because they chose to take a legal course of action. As a resident of the community I support this health center being there helping women access their legal right safely.

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I was sick to my stomach when I went to the Glenbard Web site and saw how much money the employees make. The assistant principal’s secretary earns $70,000 a year plus over $15,000 in health care benefits for a total benefit package of over $85,000; for a secretary. Talk about the 1 percent. Plus, she gets 20 vacation days a year and 15 sick days, so that’s seven weeks she doesn’t have to show up for work, and something tells me that these figures don’t reflect her retirement plan and all the other days you get off working for a school. Gov. Quinn comes along with his wide eyes and boyish voice and says we can’t let the income tax rate go back down for working-class Illinoisans because we have to fund education, and like a bunch of Pavlov’s dogs, you people hear the word “education” and vote for it.

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Good afternoon, just have to say thank you to all the people who worked so hard for the 30th anniversary of the folk concerts at Maple Street Chapel. If you missed it, oh, my, you missed a fantastic program. Each act was better than the one before and they were all so great. Thank you, Maple Street Chapel. Keep doing what you’re doing. It’s so great for our town. Thank you, bye bye.

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Villa Park calling. What has happened with our Villa Park ordinances? We have cars parked on front lawns, cars blocking the sidewalks and garbage cans left on the parkway for days. The Metra train depot parking lot is a dump with beer bottles and litter. Thank you.

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I just read the article you put in the news about the Lombard Jaycees being dissolved. I read the article and I have one question: For the years that I was in the Jaycees, it was a volunteer organization. Now I’m reading that the ex-Jaycees president is a paid associate and that means there are other paid associates. Does that mean that with the Taste of Lombard and the haunted house these people are using the money, the funds, to line their own pockets? I really would like to know what is the actual terminology from Ms. West what is a paid associate and I’d really like to know how much the paid associate gets. Thank you very much.

According to Jackie West, she is a paid associate because she has paid her dues and is in good standing, but has “aged out” as a Jaycee, so she was not allowed to cast a vote. West, along with a number of other paid associates, attended the meeting on Oct. 9. Hope this explanation clears things up for you.—BLM

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If you shudder at the thought of having a state representative from the Tea Party, please write in the name Marion Tomlinson for District 48 state representative. She was actually taken off the ballot, which left Peter Breen the only name on the ballot. Vote with your heart.

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We would like to thank our Lombardian for including the voting information and the proposed constitutional amendments inserted in last week’s paper. If your readers read those amendments, they’ll see that it’s a poll to see if they can cast a no-ID for voters in Illinois, and Madigan keeps his hold on Illinois. Why is it necessary to have a gun owner’s ID but no ID to ensure the vote in Illinois? Thank you.

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Minimum wage will be on the ballot in the upcoming election and my concern is if this $10 per hour is minimum wage, who’s going to hire any of our kids to start at jobs, when they have no experience, and then, when they have no experience, how will they get a job? I’d like to see a two-step minimum wage: $10 for the adults and leave it as it is for the kids. I hope this catches on.

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I haven’t been in the wonderful town of Lombard for a few months. I think I went from being in Lombard to being in Kansas because North Grace Street has been paved. What a great job. Apparently I’m not in Lombard anymore. I’m in Kansas.

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To all of you global warming folks, did you see the NASA report? You’re going to have to find another reason to hate America, because global warming, the hoax is over, folks. NASA, NASA of all people. Just this year 29 percent more ice covers the Arctic polar cap, 533,000 more square miles of ocean are covered with ice than in 2012. Back in 2007 Al Gore, the United Nations and a bunch of you global warming people were saying the Arctic would be ice-free by the year 2013. Even the United Nations said the same thing. Unbelievable. The largest polar ice cap ever recorded since they started keeping records.

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There is enough political blame to go around for Republicans and Democrats. Again I say, forget the titles. Vote for the right man or woman who will work for us. I want my representative to work for America. Also, the minimum wage is just that; a minimum starting wage. The minimum wage is not a family-sustaining wage. A minimum wage is a starter salary so people can work, learn, study and persevere to get a better job and a higher salary.

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You want to know why our county, state and all governments are going broke? You want to know why we’re spending too much money in taxes? Today is Columbus Day. Banks are open, the stock market’s open, but all the county offices are off with pay. No wonder we’re broke. Everybody else gets time off at taxpayers’ expense. We’ve got to eliminate a lot of this stuff, otherwise we’ll all go bankrupt. Pay attention, ladies and gentlemen and address this issue to your politicians. Enough is enough. Stop spending the money we do not have. Goodbye.