Davlin also used the annual speech, given at a luncheon sponsored by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Real Estate Network at the Hilton Springfield, to lobby for passage of a four-year, 86 percent water rate increase to pay for improvements to the city’s water system.

“Gambling on the continued reliability of our pump house is not a risk we can take,” Davlin said during the speech. “We aren’t coming to you because some environmental standards have changed. We are coming to you because the 70-year-old pump house is rusting out.”

The Springfield City Council is expected to vote tonight on City Water, Light and Power’s proposal. Aldermen plan to take votes on each portion of the project, which will raise $274 million in new money for the water department over the next 20 years.

This isn't so much a water rate increase as it is a back-door tax increase.  OK, we need a pump house and some other necessary improvements, fine. What would that increase be - less than 86%, to be sure.

***Wait a minute...Didn't The Obama say that he had provided the media with everything there was about his relationship with Rezko when he spoke with the Sun-Times & Tribune a few weeks back?  You remember.  He admitted to taking more money from Rezko than had ever been reported.  Simple mistake. 

Yesterday, though, Levine mentions at the TRIAL that The Obama and his wife attended a party at Rezko's house for an Iraqi crook:

But according to two sources familiar with the gathering, the Obamas attended the Wilmette reception, which came less than a month after Obama's Democratic primary win for his U.S. Senate seat. Rezko had been a key fund-raiser for Obama, who has since given to charity nearly $160,000 in Rezko-linked contributions.

***More on The Obama:  Hillary is going on the Colbert Report but The Obama declines.  He's right.  He IS a man of the people...

***Ahhh, more good Global Warming news:

"The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said.

***It would be nice to see this area of town reflect the $500,000 that has already been spent.

***Listen live at WMAY.com!!  And, make sure to visit Tina at Clarke's Concept.