Outdoor Water Usage Governed By Days and Hours; Orland Park Water Conservation in Effect Year Round

Village of Orland Park Media Relations

NEWSRelease

Frederick T. Owens Village Hall

14700 South Ravinia Avenue - Orland Park, IL 60462

MEDIA CONTACT:            Ed Wilmes

                                          Director of Public Works

                                          708/403-6350

Outdoor Water Usage Governed By Days and Hours

Orland Park Water Conservation in Effect Year Round

ORLAND PARK, IL – Orland Park’s Water Conservation Program is in effect throughout the year, with outdoor water use restricted according to address from May 15 to September 15.

           

“We’re asking everyone to water only when necessary and only according to their odd or even address,” said Orland Park Public Works Director Ed Wilmes.  “All water customers should make sure their sprinkler heads are properly adjusted and water just enough to keep plants and grass moist,” Wilmes said. “If it’s raining or has recently rained, sprinkler systems should be turned off. Needless watering wastes earth’s most precious resource and it’s not good for the plants,” he added.

Lawn sprinkling and outdoor water usage is permitted from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and from 7:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. according to building’s address. Buildings or homes with addresses ending in 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8 may only water on even numbered days during the permitted hours. Those with addresses ending in odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9 may only water on odd numbered days during the permitted hours.

Regulated outdoor water usage includes all lawn and garden sprinkling or underground irrigation systems for residential and commercial properties, all non-commercial car washing, residential pool maintenance and other similar uses.  Exclusions include water used for construction or building renovation purposes, commercial car-wash operations or filling of swimming pools.                 

With a special permit, newly sodded lawns may be watered daily, but still within the 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. times.  Applications are available from the Public Works Department by calling (708)403-6350 or on-line at www.orland-park.il.us.

Those violating the village’s water usage provisions are subject to fines up to $750 for each offense. Each day of violation and each violating location shall be considered a separate offense.

Questions regarding lawn sprinkling or outdoor water usage in the Village of Orland Park may be directed to the Public Works Department at 403-6350.

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Chicago Reader profiles Ray Hanania's media network

Check out the Chicago Reader's profile of Ray Hanania's media network ...

Click HERE to read the feature by columnist Michael Miner

New reality TV Show launched: Star Chef Chicagoland

New reality TV show launched, Star Chef Chicagoland

Columnist and media consultant Ray Hanania launched a new reality show this week called "Star Chef Chicagoland."

The program will feature celebrity judges and chefs. The chefs will bring int heir favorite recipes and serve them to the judges for review and commentary.

Star Chef Chicagoland is filmed in the kitchens and dining rooms of 94 West Steak & Seafood Restaurant, 154th and 94th Avenue in Orland Park, one of Chicagoland's top restaurants.

Celebrity Judges include regulars Bryan Sord, owner of 94 West Steak & Seafood Restaurant and also owner of the Charley Horse Restaurants in Hammond, Indiana, Tinley Park and New Lenox. Also judging is Nemer Ziyad, a member of the Les Ames Escoiffier Society of chefs and the Vice President of Ziyad Brothers Importing one of the largest distributors of Mediterranean food in the country (www.ZiyadRecipes.com).

The first Celebrity Guest Chef is Je'Niece Mac, the daughter of the late comedian Bernie Mac. She is the executive director of the Bernie Mac Foundation.

Our first celebrity chef is Heather Warthen, of 22nd Century Media Newspaper Group and editor of the Orland Park Prairie Newspapers. Heather prepares her favorite recipe "Pesto Chicken"and a dessert of Vanilla Roasted Pears in Episode 1 filmed this week and slated for broadcast Friday may 28.

The show will be broadcast every Friday on Comcast Cable TV on Channel 19 at 7 PM or 8:30 PM depending on your suburban location. The show is broadcast in 145 suburban Chicagoland locations and is a part of Hanania's Radio Chicagoland and TV Chicagoland enterprises. www.RadioChicagoland.com.

The show web site is www.StarChefChicagoland.com.

Celebrity Chefs Nemer Ziyad, Je'Niece Mac and Bryan Sord.


Heather Warthen talks with host Ray Hanania with Nemer Ziyad at the table in background.





All photographs courtesy of photographer Glenn Kaupert www.GlennKaupter.com.


end

Little league baseball, moms and not enough apple pie

Little League Baseball, moms and not enough apple pie

By RAY HANANIASouthwest News-Herald Newspaper May 13, 2010

My son is nothing like me when it comes to sports. He loves sports, I don’t.

My parents were too busy working to spend the time needed to walk me through the rigorous schedules of Little League and other sports programs when I was growing up.

And if they did, I’d probably guess I would not have been very good at it any way.

But my son is in a Little League hosted by the Orland Youth Association. I support him and cheer him on. I go to all the practice scrimmages and I go to the games. I’ve even taken him to the batting cages

Although I’ve never been more than an “Easter Sunday” sports fan (ignoring the games until the Super Bowl or the World Series), I’m really in to his performance.

OK, he’s not a “natural” yet — a term I learned from Robert Redford, not sports. But being at the games only reinforces why I stayed away from the sport. I can’t handle sports-politics!

I used to always say that politics is my sport. But after only a few games with my son in Little League, I know sports is the real politics.

I’ve learned a lot, though.

For example, “good eye” is the most popular cheer at a Little League game. That’s what you say after a batter doesn’t swing for a pitch that is a “ball.”

See? I am learning. It’s not all hopeless.

I’ve also learned not to sit next to the moms, who cheer and scream instructions to their sons on the field. “Put your ear muffs on!”

I don’t know how the coaches do it. Sitting there while the moms scream out more instructions than the coaches.

That’s not to berate the moms at all. I admire them. Men are wusses when it comes to kids.

Want to know about sex? Ask mom.

Want to know about baseball? Ask mom, too.

OK. I admit it. Every time my son gets on base, I give him $20. (It goes in his savings account.)

Ever since I offered him the payola, his batting average has shot up dramatically.

That’s what dads know best. Have a problem? Throw money at it. Punish a kid? No way. Give the kid money and ask them not to do it again. It works.

Then there are the stories about elected officials in Orland Park who use their clout to get to pick the best players so they can have the best teams.

I’m looking in to that one, of course. But I’ll wait till the season is over.

It’s all too intense for me, though. I like watching the kids play ball. Why do they have to be under such pressure? Why can’t they have fun and learn teamwork, and the game, of course?

It seems too much for me. As soon as the moms start shouting, I’m down the field near third base watching and taking pictures of my son.

In the end, though, I think the concern of the moms make it all worthwhile for the kids. They’re young. They listen to their moms.

So here’s a toast to the moms. And I’ll bet Babe Ruth’s mom was at many of his first few games yelling at him often.

“Tuck in that shirt, Little Georgie!” (That was the Babe’s real name, George Herman Ruth Jr.)

“Suck in that gut, Junior! Shoulders back, elbow out!”

“You’re not focusing on the ball, George Herman! You want to grow up like your father?”

(Listen to Ray Hanania on WJJG-AM 1530 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday. He also may be heard from 7 to 9 a.m. Fridays on www.RadioBaladi.com in the Chicago area, Dearborn, Mich. and Windsor, Ontario. Check out the Web site at www.radiochicagoland.com or call [708] 493-1530.)

FCC ruling in favor of movie companies intrudes in your privacy

FCC votes to begin Big Brother campaign to control your lives

By Ray Hanania

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has voted to give movie companies the ability to literally turn out a part of your home entertainment system so that the Movie Industry can prevent you from making a copy of their newest released movies.

The fact is that once I purchase a movie, I have a right to make a copy of it for my personal use, despite the ridiculous warnings and threats made by the movie industry.

For years, the movie industry has been driven by greed, a greed that helped destroy this economy by undermining independent video rental stores and mom-and-pop retailers who could not compete with the bigger retailers.

Here’s how it now works.

The movie industry releases their films to big screen theaters. You pay up the wazoo. It costs a typical family of four now more than $60 to see a theatrical movie release. Ticket prices at movie theaters are outrageous, and that doesn’t even include the snacks.

About four months later, the movie companies grant the cable companies the right to make the film available to your home entertainment system at another outrageous cost.

What the cable companies have done, of course, is violate the promise they made 25 years ago when they were first launch to provide pay-per-view without commercials. Today, cable TV channels are littered with commercials, more than so-called “free TV” which is no longer free because you can’t watch the local TV channels with any guaranteed quality without a cable hook-up that costs over $100 (when you include the government taxes).

The cable companies not only now charge you for the “new” movies. They also have put cost requirements to see old classic movies, too. Just look through your cable TV lineup. You are paying for movies that have been out there for years.

The cable company wants to also be able to take the new releases and sell them to you for at least three months before the movie is released on DVD, which the movie company wants to sell to you at another outrageous price and oppressive scheme. Yes, an oppressive scheme.

When the DVD comes out, it costs usually over $24. Now, they have added the Blue Ray option, which the movie industry falsely claims provides better viewing quality. Viewing quality has nothing to do with the movie DVD but everything to do with the quality of your home TV system. A great TV makes any format look good. A cheap TV makes them look bad.

Why Blue Ray? Because the movie industry wants you to throw out all the old movies from your home collection in order to force you to purchase more. All the VHS copies will soon be worthless as they phase our VHS players. They want the DVD players phased out too, forcing you to eventually buy Blue Ray. And believe me, after a few years of investing in Blue Ray DVDs under the exaggerated claim that your viewing pleasure will be better, they will come up with something new to replace that.

It’s not about better technology. It is about greed. Pure evil greed. That greed destroyed the way Americans used to enjoy movies as a family. They are the ones who forced drive-in theaters to shut down. They are the ones who made going to a big screen theater less and less enjoyable.

And now the FCC is joining in on the scheme to make our lives more miserable by forcing us to pay more.

The FCC has never cared about the interests of the public. All they care about are the high-priced lobbyists who donate money to the politicians who sponsor the appointments to the FCC board.

The only people who lose in this new law are the very people who should be the priority, the consumers and viewing public.

If you let the Movie Industry control your home entertainment system, starting with the “analogue” output devices (which will automatically be shutdown by the new DVD you rent or purchase, then you might as well give the keys to your home to the Hollywood movie industry fat cats who destroyed the whole experience of entertainment and the American Dream.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, media consultant and for many years owned video stores while working in the Chicago news media. He can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com.)

Won two awards this month for journalism

In addition to the Society of Professional Journalism Lisagor Award I received last month (my 4th Award) from the Chicago Headlline Club, the SPJ's largest chapter, I also received the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for columns writing.

Here's the press release.

Announcing winners of the 2009 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for journalism


5/3/2010

For immediate release

Contact:
Lauren Rochester, Awards Coordinator, (317) 927-8000 ext. 210,
lrochester@spj.org
Karen Grabowski, Communications Coordinator, (317) 927-8000 ext. 215,
kgrabowski@spj.org

INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2009 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism.

Judges chose the winners from over 1,300 entries in categories covering print, radio, television and online. The awards recognize outstanding work published or broadcast in 2009.

Dating back to 1932, the awards originally honored six individuals for contributions to journalism. The current program began in 1939, when the Society granted the first Distinguished Service Awards. The honors later became the Sigma Delta Chi Awards.

The awards will be presented Oct. 2 during the 2010 SPJ Convention and National Journalism Conference in Las Vegas.

For more information contact Lauren Rochester at (317) 927-8000 ext. 210 or at lrochester@spj.org.

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well- informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.

2009 Sigma Delta Chi Winners:

General Column Writing (Daily Circulation 1-50,000)
“Sunday Reflections,” Tracey O'Shaughnessy, Republican American

General Column Writing (Daily Circulation 50,001-100,000)
Sean Kirst, The Post-Standard

General Column Writing (Daily Circulation 100,000+)
Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times

General Column Writing (Non-Daily Publication)
Ray Hanania, Southwest News-Herald

Click HERE to read the entire list of winners.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com