"The high level corruption in Lake County depreciates what can get done in Lake County.... When you have a government that's corrupt, it erodes the quality of a community."
“At least seven or eight years.”
That’s how long my uncle Danny says that my mom lived in the Calumet section of East Chicago, near the lead smelting plant. I came upon this knowledge by accident. I was on my way to the Carpenters union open house in Hobart, and for some reason I couldn’t find it. So I called my uncle Danny. He worked for the union for 35 years or so. He’s retired now and serves as the part-time building inspector for the town of Merrillville. “It’s at the corner of Union Street and Ridge Road. Turn around. You drove right past it,” he said on the phone. What works on radio and what doesn’t?
I have no freaking idea. The other day at The Grateful Dead Movie, guitarist Jerry Garcia told a story. I’ll paraphrase. “I really can’t tell when we play well or not. “After a concert one time, I walked off the stage completely disgusted with our performance. I was so agitated that I shoved bassist Phil Lesh down a little stairway. That wasn’t like me. I never did stuff like that. I thought we could do better. It’s Sunday morning, so I’m watching George Stephanopolous. He’s sitting with Newt Gingrich. Newt may be right – when it comes to Trump, all that matters is if he can get the economy roaring or not. The rest is just blarney.
I used the word “blarney” a couple of times this week on the radio. It was in reference to EPA head Scott Pruitt coming to the Region to address the lead and arsenic crisis in the West Calumet neighborhood. There used to be a couple of lead smelters there. And then we built a housing project on the site. It’s a mess. People may have died from this. |
I run radio stations and a streaming video network in Hammond, Ind., and write this blog.
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