Northwest Area Citizens Organization

     The Christmas Day Delta Airlines terrorist attempt raised questions about whether the Transportation Security Administration should further increase the screening of luggage & passenger boarding commercial aviation flights within its jurisdiction. 

     Instead, let's explore an alternative approach which would follow the lead of the Israelis who have avoided air piracy & terrorist attacks since the 1970's by scrutinizing passenger behavior more so than passenger luggage. 

     While this approach may raise concerns about whether it involves racial, ethnic or religious profiling, behavioral observations may prove extremely useful. Following this approach, law enforcement uses many of the investigative, analysis & assessment techniques evidenced on such popular television shows as The Mentalist or another popular motion picture--The Great Howard Buck.

     For example, while traveling through Paris' Charles DeGaulle Airport (CDG) as a member of the Northwest Airlines air crew, one security officer engaged me in conversation to help him determine if I represented a security threat. This officer invited me to share with him my favorite television detective show from the 1970's. Upon replying "Hawaii 50," I was asked my favorite character. Replying McGarrett, the officer asked McGarrett's trademark expression. I was allowed to pass after using the expression, "Book 'em Dano, murder one!" During that brief interchange, the security officer observed my demeanor as to whether I showed signs of distress. This approach has served well Parisian & Israeli commercial aviation law enforcement authorities & may allow the US Transportation Security Administration to expedite passenger screening.

(This Windy Citizen holds an FAA air crewman certification, has tested to become a TSA baggage screener & has traveled as a member of the Northwest Airlines crew to Frankfurt & Paris.)

Mark Arnold Fredrickson, NWACO

Economists may question the validity of unemployment rates as an exclusive measure of a community's vitality. What's being described as the Great Financial Recession by Kingsbury International ISM-Chicago economist, suggests why Chicago's diversified economy failed to weather recent turbulence.

Chicago insurance, financial, stock & commodities trading communities earned their reputation as one of Chicago's leading employers of degreed professionals many of whom were paid six figure salaries to perform financial engineering & risk analysis. Last September's so-called meltdown brought on financial deleveraging, declines in the value of many commercial properties & the home mortgage industry's almost exclusive reliance on government guarantees.

The result?

Small employers find their businesses starved of credit, major employers find that commercial paper interest rates have increased payroll costs. In order to reduce payroll expense quickly, many large & small employers have reduced payroll, shuttered satellite offices & reduced capital goods spending. It's led to massive layoffs of those once considered solidly middle class.

Holiday shoppers may see this reduced wealth factor play out in in the preferences of both those who depend on weekly income & those once considered wealthy. Income shoppers appear single-mindly concerned with the low prices, while wealth-based shoppers purchase off brands & steer clear of ostentatious displays. Luxury goods may continue to sell, but costly home theatre buildouts & lavish dining has taken it on the chin even as stock portfolios & home values rebound.

Solution to Chicago's so-called malaise may require stabilizing the patient with a predictable regulatory & tax structure which encourages businesses to reinvest & hire Chicagoans. Eliminating the capital gains tax & the payroll tax on those newly hired could go a long way to paving the way for ambitious private sector growth during the coming decade. Dispensing with talk of taxing Americans simply because they or their small businesses managed to earn more than one-quarter million dollars during a single year will invite private business leaders to make capital investment & hire more workers in response to Obama Administration public ARRP economic stimulus.

Making Chicago great requires the best ideas, optimism & confidence that our future with be brighter than our recent past.

(This Windy Citizen's great uncle built many of the homes in suburban Norridge during the 1950's.)

Mark Arnold Fredrickson, NWACO

     My former fellow broadcaster & Chicago Bulls play-by-play announcer Neil Funk's "down the well it goes" may owe its origin to one of his first post-graduation precarious broadcast assignments.

     Funk's first big break after graduation from an upstate New York University placed us together as fellow broadcasters for WITY-AM radio in comedian Dick Van Dyke's hometown & my own in Danville, Illinois.

     One of the biggest local news story years before we grabbed the microphones of this 1000 watt AM radio station was the collapse of our broadcast studios through the roof of the abandoned shaft coal mine which supported our humble WITY radio station.

     Funk distinguished himself early on with his color coverage of the University of Illinois Fighting Illini basketball team. Working solo, Funk occasionally invited me to drive replacement equipment about 40 miles to his broadcast perch @ the U of I Assembly Hall.

     Adopting one of his trademark expressions years later, I recognized one explanation for the origin of "down the well it goes!" Every time B.J. Armstrong would hit one of his heroic three-point shots, I would recall Funk's humble broadcast start. Each day we shared together precariously positioned above that coal mine, I feared that it might be our last or, if you will, "down the well it goes."

     Happy holidays from Chicago--home of the World Champion Chicago Bulls.

 

Mark Arnold Fredrickson

President

Northwest Area Citizens Organization

     Chicago Tribune circulation lags behind the financially-savvy Wall Street Journal for a variety of reasons, including the paucity of first hand reporting on the nation's finances. What distinguishes many Wall Street Journal reporters & editors from their contemporaries is a passion for explaining the complexity of financial & economic analysis to a better educated reader.

     To paraphrase the gun lobby, business owners aren't always to blame for "bankrupting" enterprises such as the Chicago Tribune. The free market "creative destruction" which sinks print advertising sales launched a multi-billion dollar Internet advertising industry. The results were bad for print journalists, but very good for Internet bloggers.

     What probably frustrates many Big Ten & Ivy League journalism school graduates is that this shifting demand for new media has diminished the value of those credentials which narrowed the field of competitors, ensuring employment interviews, internships & gainful employment. What's most painful for many displaced from their careers is that the change in advertising media has deprived many of employment while advancing the careers of middling school graduates whose family financial resources or academic preferences failed to create an old school, gilded career track.

     This community activist remains humbled by his single degree of separation from the family of ambitious Chicago businessman Sam Zell. In spite of his financial challenges, his past successes remain legendary.

Mark Arnold Fredrickson

     Senator James DeLeo (D-IL) will not seek re-election after published reports linking him to Governor Blagojevich's favors list, including his political sponsorship of the widow of slain Las Vegas mobster Anthony Spilotro--once the mob's boy in Las Vegas. Published reports indicate that Spilotro's widow--Anne Spilotro--complained that she got the short end of the stick when she sold an Elmwood Park family business to Senator DeLeo as reported by the Chicago Sun Times (10/18/09). The Chicago Sun Times originally reported the highlights of the political patronage list kept by indicted & impeached former Governor Rod Blagojevich which Senator DeLeo adamantly denies.

     Among those seeking Senator DeLeo's post are at least three Democratic Primary candidates. One endorsed by the 36th Ward Regular Democratic Organization & a second candidate once nominated by Senator DeLeo to the State of Illinois Boxing Commission. Attorney John Nocita's name appeared on a previously released patronage list.

     Chicago Sun Times columnist Michael Sneed originally reported Senator DeLeo planned to retire about ten weeks ago, months after the Chicago Democrat voted to convict Governor Rod Blagojevich of articles of impeachment brought against him by the House of Representatives & the Federal Grand Jury indicted former Governor Blagojevich.

Mark Arnold Fredrickson

Copyrighted 2009 NWACO