Cook County

I was born and raised in the West Suburbs of the Chicagoland area. I spent most of my life in the small town of Bellwood, Illinois. I lived in Bellwood for a total of 13 years. Bellwood has a population of about 20,000 people. Sadly I am just as uninformed about my local politics as well as national politics. While browsing through the web I found out about some of my local elected officials. You can also find this infomation at http://capwiz.com/yo-demo/officials/congress/?district=07&azip=60104&state=IL&bzip=2172
I represent the County of Cook District seven. Cook County was created on January 15, 1831 by an act of the Illinois State Legislature as the 54th county established. Browsing the web i could not find more detailed information about statistics and things going on in Cook county but I know from living in Bellwood that the crime rates and robberies have risen since the past. Living in Bellwood is almost scary now because a lot of the guys that i spent elementary and high school years with have turned into gang members and it has been so many shootings and deaths in our neighborhoods. A few years back Maywood, Illinois had reached a high so high that it was in the New York Times. They compared the killings with Brooklyn. Maywood is our sister town as well as Hillside, Westchester, and Broadview. All of these towns are in a financial crisis. Homes are being foreclosed, people are losing their jobs, and the crime rate are on the rise.

Richard Durbin is our state senator and Danny Davis is our state represenative. Representing Senate in District seven we have Karen Yarbrough for our State Represenative. I applied for a General Assembly scholarship my senior year in high school so i did know a little information about Ms. Karen Yarbrough, i visted her website at http://karenyarbrough.com/MyRecord.htm a few times looking for information on the scholarship so I did find out information about her then and i know a bit more about her now. Karen has been doing hard work since 2000 when she was selected to be a member of the Illinois
House of Representatives and State Representative for District seven. Karen has a really impressive background and just by looking up information for her I can tell that she is really interested in what she does. She emphasizes the importance of educational funding, economic development, protection and care for children and seniors, crime prevention and having a healthier state.
Richard Durbin is our state senator and by looking at his background information i can tell that he is a well experienced and respected individual. In 2006 Durbin was elected the post Assistant Majority Leader. In 2004 he was elected minority whip. Durbin is currently fighting for improving health care, gun safety, fighting for farmers, and working for fair tax code. Durbin is a leader who will continue to fight and do amazing things for Illinois.
With these officials being in our local leadership positions, hopefully things will get better in our towns and from now on I will never be in the dark about who my local officials are.
Jasmine Price