Kitty Conley’s Scratching Post, Feb. 16

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Happy Birthday

Feb. 19: Victoria Borowski

Congratulations to my husband Dennis’s Godfather, Jack. On Feb. 9, 1984 he walked into his first AA meeting. Now, Jack says, “Best decision I ever made.” Bless you for your courage and strength.

Feb. 17 Fish Fry: American Legion at 13050 Washington St., Cedar Lake, from 4 to 8 p.m.: Walleye and catfish dinners are $9, fantail shrimp dinner is $10, chicken strip dinner is $6. There is even more on the menu. Call 374-9815 for carry-out. Happy eating.

Comedy night: Crown Point High School Stray Dogs Improv Club’s Comedy Night to benefit Lake County Animal Shelter. Come enjoy a night of laughter and good times that celebrates all of the funniest parts of life. If you like “Second City” and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” you will love this brand of audience interactive comedy. Join the Stray Dogs from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 in the CPHS auditorium. Admission is a $5 donation or a five-pound bag of dog food, cat food or kitty litter. All proceeds benefit the Lake County Animal Shelter.

Feb. 19: Paczki Ball in St. John — should be fun.

Feb. 22: Ash Wednesday, an invitation to take 40 days to pray before Easter.

Congratulations: For the third straight year, the CPHS VEX Robotics Team 1233 qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship. This year the event will be held at Disney Land, Anaheim, Calif. Get your donations in to help defray the cost to the parents of sending our science kids to this event. These future engineers are the people who will design the next business ventures and manufacturing opportunities in this country.

Remember folks that we are our brothers’ keepers. Donations are always needed in the food pantries at local churches and township offices. Winfield Township Trustee Rollie Brauer just says thank you. The donations from the community are wonderful. They are helping those in need. He said, “The number of people using the pantry is greater but we are keeping up with the need.” He added, “The Winfield second-hand store is also being well received.”

Did you know that Missouri offers the option to vote “Uncommitted” on its primary ballot? On Feb. 7 “Uncommitted” took 4 percent of the vote in the contested Republican primary. “Uncommitted” is a great way to express your unhappiness with the people running. It shows that the people that voted that way took the time to go vote but did not like any of the choices. Writer Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post said, “Now that’s democracy.”

The Winfield Plan Commission has elected Gerry Steiner as president, Jim Simmons as vice president and Jon Derwinski as secretary. After electing officers they discharged Bill Enslen as their attorney and appointed Austgen & Kuiper Law from Crown Point as their 2012 attorney of record. Karen Smiley has been appointed as the Plan Commission member to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Watch out everyone, there is a hacker out there sending out emails using the names of people you know. A friend had her email hacked and sent out a notice of “RE: I am finally became Boss.” This is grammatically incorrect and this teacher would never have written anything using words like that. The email told you about a “Really easy method to make some extra cash.”

Thanks to Wayne Isailovich for this one: Common sense is like deodorant, those that need it most, don’t use it!

In the primary battle on the Republican ticket some small races might go unnoticed. These are for the position of precinct committeeman. These are important positions in that party. Usually there are not contested races. Someone signs up and nobody else does. That is not the case this year. It is nice to see this much interest. Some precinct didn’t get anyone running, what a shame.

In Cedar Lake:

Jason Shields vs. Bob Carnahan

Greg Wornhoff vs. Traci Poston vs. Linda Drew

In Crown Point races:

Paul Keller vs. Dan Klein

Ed Kraus vs. Eldon Strong

Andy Webster vs. Andy Moore

T. J. Wigmore vs. J. Dawn Magagnotti

In Schererville races (with CP Addresses):

Debbie Walters vs. Kevin Vanlinden

Michael Neal vs. Richard Jandura, Jr.

In Winfield Township races:

Ken Forman vs. Catherine Grabowski

Joanne Ricci vs. Patrick Becker

Hannah Staub vs. Thomas Snowden

Rollie Brauer, Jr. vs. Sherri Ochoa