Funeral Arrangements

Services for Officer John Bartholomew:

• Funeral services for Chicago police officer John Bartholomew, who was fatally shot at Swedish Hospital last Saturday, will be held next week in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood.

  Visitation will be 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. May 7 at St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church, 5649 N. Sheridan Rd., according to an obituary posted Thursday. Funeral services will be held there at 10 a.m. on May 8.

We have only attended one event at that location and parking was a challenge, so allow yourself plenty of time. Check the AdMin Fax messages for St Jude's information.

Illinois Number One!

We hadn't heard of this survey before:

• Americans have spoken out about which states they love to hate. 

  A ranking has named Illinois the most disliked state in the nation, with 25 percent of its own residents saying it is the worst place to live.

  New Jersey landed in the number two spot, reinforcing its long-standing reputation as a frequent target of jokes across the country.

  New York followed closely behind, with a significant portion of residents admitting they believe their own state ranks among the worst. 

  The World Population Review analyzed three key factors to determine which states inspire the strongest negative feelings: how many residents said their own state was the worst place to live, whether population numbers were shrinking and how frequently other states named them as their most disliked neighbor.

This isn't a US media source, but a United Kingdom paper. 

But the population decrease is a dead-on indicator.

Stealing Hydrant Parts

We had this article on standby for late last week, but events kind of drove it off the radar:

• DETROIT (WXYZ) — Thieves have destroyed nearly 75 fire hydrants on the west side of Detroit in the last 48 hours, stealing parts and putting lives at risk.

  Crews with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department are racing to repair the broken hydrants along Southfield Road and across the west side after thieves tore through dozens in about two days.

  "We think the number is about 75 so far," DWSD Deputy Director Sam Smalley said.

  The thieves are targeting metal nozzles and stems on top of the hydrants, which are worth about $600.

Just when people are saying Detroit has turned a corner, you get something like this, endangering the entire community for a few bucks worth of metal (that $600 price tag is the retail price for the machined part and labor to install - scrap brass goes for under $3 per pound). But it's Detroit, where they used to burn down a couple hundred abandoned buildings pre-Halloween every year....until they ran out of buildings.

Chicago might end up there yet.