• In late September, the Central Illinois Chapter sent volunteers from Peoria and Champaign to assist flood victims in Georgia.
• Then, the American Red Cross mobilized in American Samoa, where a tsunami swept across the island after a powerful earthquake hit the South Pacific.
• On Sept. 30, an earthquake measuring 7.6 shook Indonesia’s western coastline, setting off a destructive chain of events — buildings caught fire, homes collapsed, airports closed, and residents and tourists became trapped. In Padang alone, at least 500 homes were caved in.
• Additionally, relief workers are helping with the ongoing typhoon response in the Philippines and Vietnam after Typhoon Ketsana made its first landfall and dumped torrential rains.

The Red Cross and our international partners need your help so that we may help others. Please take a moment to read, watch, listen learn about these disaster relief needs, both global and domestic. Thank you for your support.

More information at www.redcrossillinois.org/disasters-fall-2009.

To help celebrate the season and the sport once dubbed “a good walk ruined,” downtown Peoria’s Apollo Theater is screening the 1980 comedy “Caddyshack” one night only on Saturday March 21.

Starring Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Michael O’Keefe, the 1980 romp is a sophomoric delight, filled with goofy golf and a class war between the likeable rich guy and sneering snobs like the club president (ex-“Mary Tyler Moore Show” star Ted Knight).

As a gopher-hunting groundskeeper, Murray steals the scenes he’s in, as does Chase in his Zen-like playing style, and golf could never again be completely considered an elitist undertaking.

Written and directed by Harold Ramis, it also features Brian Doyle-Murray.

Showtime will be 7 p.m., and the suggested donation at the nonprofit Apollo is $5 and $4 for kids, students and seniors. For details call (309) 673-4343.

Schock said ex-Governor Blagojevich left state government in ruins and pledged that he would work with Governor Quinn in every way possible to help the Governor stabilize state government and move forward.  In his letter to the Governor, Schock said he was comforted that Governor Quinn is well prepared and well disposed to healing the state. 

“The nightmare of Rod Blagojevich is not quite over,” said Schock.  “He left much of our state government in shambles. Governor Quinn will have to pick up the pieces and he will need the cooperation of everyone as he leads the effort.”

“Long before the astonishing transcripts of wiretaps by the U.S. Attorney’s office were released it was clear to all who followed Illinois government that we had the equivalent of an organized crime ring systematically shaking down people who dealt with Illinois government for personal and political gain,” Schock continued. “It was racketeering pure and simple.”

“That is why as far back as 2005, it was reported in newspaper headlines that I called Rod Blagojevich the most corrupt Governor in Illinois’ history,” Schock concluded.  “It’s a shame Rod Blagojevich was re-elected and has put our state through all that we have had to endure but at long last his state plane and perks have turned into the proverbial pumpkin and we are free of such a horrible public servant.”

While the decision over whether or not to use taxpayer money to bailout our financial markets was controversial, one thing everyone can agree on is the need for oversight and transparency of these funds.  For that very reason, I worked in a bipartisan fashion to pass an amendment establishing a user-friendly website where the American people can quickly and accurately see where their money is going.

I hope that an online database will provide a helpful tool in establishing more oversight, more transparency and more control over the flow of these taxpayer dollars.  In essence, my amendment would create a “Google” for these bailout funds.

This website will clearly display who is using the money, for what purposes and how the dollars will ultimately cycle back into the pockets of Americans. This website will be easily searchable and contain information on both specific payments and the aggregate amounts received by each receiving entity.  This amendment is about accurate accounting, openness, fair government, transparency and hopefully one day balancing our nation’s budget.

Currently, the Treasury department provides limited balance sheets listing complex purchases on their website.  The target audience of this website is those applying for bailout funds, not those who are looking to see how their money is spent.

Well the majority of Americans are not high-powered New York City investment bankers and while they have not been part of this problem, they are being asked to foot the bill.  It’s my belief they have the right to know where their money is going, for what program it is being used, and how it will benefit them in the long run.  This is the essential reason for my amendment. 

As the federal government continues its efforts to stabilize the market, funds will begin to cross over multiple government agencies to the point where anyone wanting to track the flow of money would have to visit multiple websites with a mouse in one hand and calculator in the other.

A person shouldn’t need to be a forensic accountant to decipher where their tax dollars are being spent.

Taxpayers deserve no less than complete transparency.  I’ve continually advocated using internet resources to provide up-to-date information to the American people.  As a State Representative, I sponsored legislation ultimately signed into law which placed information online regarding what academic credits were transferable from one college to the next.  This information has helped thousands of Illinois students, colleges and universities save an enormous amount of time and expense.

The bottom line is, while you can’t put a price on good government, American’s certainly have the right to see what price they’re paying to bailout our economy.

The 130-minute drama is scheduled to show at 7 p.m. Saturday, January 24 at Peoria’s downtown Apollo Theater.

In “Mr. Smith,” Capra made a star of likeable Jimmy Stewart, starring as a principled but naïve young man appointed to fill in for a U.S. Senator on Capitol Hill.

The touching film fable follows him as he runs afoul of inside-the-beltway corruption, from Congressional colleagues to the press. A bipartisan and populist celebration of idealism more than an indictment of government, “Mr. Smith” won an Academy Award for Best Story, and was honored with seven other Oscar nominations.

It co-stars Claude Rains, Thomas Mitchell, Jean Arthur and Guy Kibbee, a familiar character actor who got his start in a vaudeville act co-starring Peorian Harry Bay, a major league baseball player for Cincinnati and Cleveland.

The suggested donation at the nonprofit Apollo is $5 and $4 for kids, students and seniors. For details call (309) 673-4343.