BAMBENEK THROWS HAT IN THE RING FOR RUTHERFORD'S STATE SENATE SEAT

We achieved many great victories this November and sadly a few races that did not go our way. For that, all of you should be proud of what we have accomplished. Among other big wins, Illinois has gained a great State Treasurer in Dan Rutherford. However, we have also lost a great Senator. As he intends to resign his Senate seat in January, I wanted you all to be among the first to know that I have asked to be
appointed his replacement.

As many of you know, I'm a strong fiscal and social conservative that has been active in many causes we all hold dear. Illinois simply cannot continue spending billions more dollars than we have. Our pension debt, now the worst in the nation, has become unsustainable. Those systems will become insolvent by 2018, if not sooner. Illinois needs a health dose of fiscal sanity that I believe I can help provide. At the same time, Illinois is a jobs-hostile state. I will pursue the issues of tort reform as much as possible and more importantly, strive to bring about reform to worker's compensation in Illinois.

For many years, I have also been active in trying to bring
transparency, accountability and reform to Illinois government. I
authored the forensic audit resolution in the Senate and House and
have worked side-by-side with Adam Andrzejewski to promote that issue.
Not only have our finances gone out of control, but under the
Blagojevich years, billions of dollars of secret deals, patronage
promotions and corrupt board appointments were made. And we still do
not know the extent of the fraud, corruption and waste that still
corrupts out state budget and continues forward to this day. There
needs to be an accounting for all those who willingly went along with
Blagojevich's shady deals.

Several other people have also stepped forward. Some I know better
than others, but mostly they are solid conservatives who hold many of
the same values we all share. Make no mistake, if any of them are
chosen, I believe Illinois will still be greatly served.

I believe there is one issue, however, where I am uniquely qualified.
As it stands, Mike Madigan will have essentially unchecked power come
redistricting. With my previous work in redistricting reform over the
past few years, I intend to fight back hard against Mike Madigan who
will seek to control the results of our elections by controlling the
maps. I believe that our maps should be drawn fairly, respecting
political boundaries, promote competitiveness and are contiguous and
compact. While the Republicans are in the majority in both chambers, I
plan to fight back hard by uniting Republicans, Democrats,
Independents and everyone who believes in free and fair elections and
demand a fair map drawing process that doesn't take party into
account.

With your help, we can push back and, I believe, we can win.

I do not intend to become a career politician. There are a handful of
issues like redistricting and pension reform I want to pursue and then
return to private life.

The Steeler Hat

I've been a Pittsburgh Steelers fan since about the first grade. At the time I chose them as my team, the Steelers were in the midst of a run that would see them win four Super Bowls. I idolized the stars from that NFL dynasty: quarterback Terry Bradshaw, running back Franco Harris, linemen "Mean" Joe Greene and LC Greenwood, receivers John Stalworth and Lynn Swann, linebackers Jack Ham and Jack Lambert. Hell, I even followed the supporting cast: Mike Webster, Donnie Shell, Mel Blount, Dwight White. I had both the home and away jersey.

For Christmas one year, maybe 1978 or 79, I received a Steelers stocking cap. Unlike much of my childhood detritus, it's become a cherished keepsake that I have with me to this day. In fact, yesterday morning, in honor of the Steelers playing in tomorrow's Super Bowl XL, I fished the tattered stocking cap from a box in the basement, washed it (probably for the first time in a quarter-century), and put it on my head to parade around the grocery store, bank and drug store during Saturday errands.

As it happens, the Steelers hat recalls one particularly distinct memory that has little to do with football.

It was the winter of 1996 (possibly '97) and I had been living in New York City. Valarie and I were eating at one of our favorite restaurants: Tea and Sympathy, an authentically British hole-in-the-wall in the West Village where they make scrumptious shepherd's pie, Welsh rarebit and scones. After paying the check, we were getting up to leave and began putting on our various hats, scarves and gloves in anticipation of braving the bitter cold outside.

I was putting on my trusty Steelers stocking cap when someone at another table said, 'Hey, that guy has a Steelers hat just like yours.' And I suddenly saw a bald middle-aged man with a white beard fish out his identical yellow and black cap, with a little ball of yarn on the top and a Steelers three-diamond logo, all exactly the same as mine.

Turns out my Steelers cap doppelganger was actually Oliver Sacks, the famous neurologist who has written numerous best-selling books about his patients such as An Anthropologist on Mars, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, andThe Island of the Color Blind. (Robin Williams played Sacks in the 1990 filmAwakenings.) What's even crazier was that I was even reading a book of his at the time.

There wasn't much to our brief conversation. ("Aren't you Oliver Sacks? I'm reading your book! Oh, and go Steelers.") But it's one of those little memories that I cherish, and that I thought of not long after fishing out the cap yesterday from its basement tomb. Somewhere tomorrow maybe the good doctor will take time out from treating brain injuries, turn on the TV, and root on the black and gold.

Steelers Fans Argue Over Tickets In Divorce---"Wife: 'I'll Go To Jail For My Tickets"

Under the category of "I want to be as vindictive as I can" comes this story from wpxi in Pittsburgh. If you don't know by now, the Pittsburgh Steelers are in Sunday's Super Bowl.

Patty Green is a longtime Steelers season ticket holder who won Super Bowl tickets in the lottery.

Her ex-husband Steve had his attorney file a motion to throw her in jail if she didn't sell him the season tickets as part of paying him back.

Then, when he refused to let the couple's 16-year-old daughter go to the Super Bowl with her mom, she immediately gave the tickets away.

Patty Green said, "I gave them to someone else." Channel 11's Kimberly Easton asked, "Why'd you do that?" Green said, "Because I don't want him to have them. I don't know what he wants. I don't know if he wants to see me in jail, but I will go to jail for my tickets."

Late Monday afternoon, Steve released this statement, "Based on the judge's decision earlier today and on advice of counsel, I have determined that it is in the best interest of the parties to withdraw my request for the two Super Bowl tickets from Mrs. Greene. I will pursue other more conventional means to enforce the order."

The Pittsburgh Steelers quietly fire testosterone/HGH doc

The Steelers have removed Dr. Richard Rydze from their medical staff roster, an apparent reaction to the revelation in March that he had purchased $150,000 in testosterone and human growth hormone with his own credit card.

Rydze was interviewed by investigators from Albany County, N.Y., in February, but never accused by them of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, his employers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center began their own investigation after his name surfaced in the New York case.

More than three months later, UPMC officials are not ready to comment about their investigation, said Susan Manko of the hospital's news bureau.

Steelers President Art Rooney II declined comment yesterday on the team's dropping Dr. Rydze, an internist, after 21 years of working mostly on game days for them. Previously, Rooney said, "There is no evidence that Dr. Rydze prescribed or provided any hormone treatments to any of our players. Dr. Rydze has assured me that this has never happened and will never happen."

Nevertheless, having a doctor on their staff connected to steroids purchases apparently was not something the Steelers believed they could tolerate.

The NFL bans the use of any kind of steroids or human growth hormone. Dr. Rydze previously told Sports Illustrated he uses the HGH to treat older patients. He is medical director of the Little Sisters of the Poor Nursing Facility, according to his bio on a UPMC Web site.