Eileen's Blog

Thank you so much for your emails! Great to see that so many of you are responding to our guests and topics. I reached out and called today's guest, PAUL FRIEDMAN, former Executive Producer of World News Tonight after I saw his column about CBS News and the decline in network viewership in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. It was also great to have on Lt. Governor Pat Quinn and Steve Reidel of the Illinois Beverage Licensing Association as they debated the wisdom of the 5 cent return on bottles and cans. We also spoke with the VP of Communications at Trinity International University, Gary Cantwell about the "hate mail" that came, allegedly, from one of its students and now the news has affected the campus.

Let me tell you what we have in store for Monday. ARE YOU A WOMAN trying to grow your business or just getting started? We will be giving away free tickets to next Tuesday's Woman Leadership Exchange Conference. The seminar topics include branding through marketing, idea generation, growing your employees to grow your busniess, how to obtain financing and how to be a better leader and communicator. We will be talking to Leslie Grossman the Executive Director! TUNE IN BETWEEN 9am and 11am for the interview and to call in to win!

Also...if you're looking for some fun...and WHO ISN'T....join me, Christina Filiaggi and Teri O'Brien for CINCO DE MAYO, May 5th....at Pepe's in Hickory Hills...8128 W. 95th Street. We will have free food, music and a FunJet Vacations Pinata with a trip for two to MEXICO. I wish it was tomorrow!!!! Corona and Modelo Beers with limes await you! See you then. --Eileen

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Hi. Want to tell you about a special benefit for a child....Daniel Ramsden....born on July 11th, 2002....to Dan and Maureen Ramsden. Little Daniel suffers from hemimegalencephaly...a rare disease that enlarges one half of the brain. You can read more about him and his condition at 4daniel.org

There's going to be a benefit for him at 115 Bourbon Street from 1-7pm this Saturday. If you are in the area, and would like to help out....please check it out. His parents are suffering with escalating medical bills and therapeutic equipment not covered by insurance. Thank you for helping! I know his family appreciates it.

TO KELLY.....I AM TRYING TO RESPOND TO YOUR VOICE MAIL...BUT YOU SAID YOUR PHONE NUMBER SO FAST, I CAN'T DECIPHER THE LAST FOUR DIGITS. IS IT 7110? IS IT 7010? I KNOW THE FIRST DIGIT IS 7...THEN A 1....THEN THE LAST IS 0. I'M TRYING TO CALL YOU.

I'm always fair to both sides of view. And I welcome a discussion. But not just to make fun of Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction. That's just mean-spirited. And if you don't think so...how mean-spirited would it be for me to talk about Senator Obama and always refer to his past mistakes. More to come...but I'm on the way to Eagle Ridge and will write again soon. Thanks.

As promised...if you feel as strongly about the subject of illegal immigration as I do...some numbers for you to call. Tell your representative that you don't support drivers' licenses for illegals. This is a key issue for Senators Durbin (312-353-4952) and Obama (312-886-3506). Make your voice heard!

13th District:

Judy Biggert: 630-655-2052

12th District:

Jerry Costello: 618-233-8026

7th District:

Danny Davis: 773-533-7520

5th District:

Rahm Emanuel: 773-267-5926

17th District:

Lane Evans: 309-793-5760 (Moline)
217-422-9150 (Decatur)


4th District:

Luis Gutierrez: 202-225-8203

14th District:

Dennis Hastert: 630-406-1114 (Batavia)
815-288-0680 (Dixon)

6th District

Henry Hyde: 630-832-5950

2nd District

Jesse Jackson Jr. 202-225-0773
708-798-6000
773-241-6500

15th District

Timothy Johnson 309-663-7049 (Bloomington)

10th District

Mark Kirk: 202-225-4835
847-940-0202 (Deerfield)

18th District

Ray LaHood: 309-671-7027 (Peoria)

3rd District

Daniel Lipinski: 312-886-0481

16th District:

Don Manzullo--815-394-1231 (Rockford)

1st District:

Bobby Rush: 773-224-6500

9th District:

Jan Schakowsky--773-506-7100

11th District:

Jerry Weller: 815-740-2028

8th District:

Melissa Bean--847-519-3434

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Great news! Just booked--Monday morning, we'll be talking to Roger Hedgecock of KOGO Radio...probably better known as Rush Limbaugh's fill-in host to discuss their upcoming trip to Washington DC---the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire--A National Drive for Immigration Reform" from April 23-28th. They've also invited me to come with them. I would LOVE, LOVE to go. We'll see!

Geez. Sometimes you can't win. When you have a school shooting, everyone wrings their hands and we say..."We need to better communicate with our teenagers and try better to understand the enormous pressure they are facing. Competition...growing up in a sex-crazed world...peer pressure to have oral sex (...it's not REALLY sex)...and the internet. " A lot of these issues we have not faced when we were coming up.

So, I talk to two teens this morning to start the dialogue. Do teens appreciate when parents try to be their friends ?("No, they want limits and need parents. We have enough friends.") Should we the parents snoop on our teens? (They said no...I said yes. ) How to handle curfew extensions? (Depends on the teen, if they show they are responsible enough to make the regular curfew, exceptions can be made on special occasions.) I thought it was a helpful interview. Here are some of your responses:

G: "Ask the girl if they can go through sustenance without saying...YOU KNOW. I must have heard them say it no less than 20 to 30 times. "

MY RESPONSE: I don't think you mean sustenance...this is not a debate over a feeding tube. But if you mean sentence....they are seventeen and not media savvy and might be nervous. Thanks for being sensitive!

Mike: "Although your guests are articulate, they are still kids. They simply don't have the life experience yet to be making big decisions. Even the most well-behaved and normally trustworthy kids need to fall in line with their parents' rules and decisions. The good parents will grant permissions in keeping with their child's maturity and demonstrated decision making track record in each given circumstance. Love your show."

MY RESPONSE: Thanks Mike. I am glad you enjoy the show. I disagree in regards to the teens making "big decisions". If you read their book, "Breaking The Code"....they are advocates for parents. Their concern is that there are better ways to communicate with parents so we don't have to endure slamming doors, exasperated, loud sighs, and the inevitable: You are so unfair! You don't understand anything! And the teens are even worse! ha ha!

Caro: "Hi Eileen. One thing we did with my two sons over Spring Break was to network with other parents and see where their families were going over break and meet them there. Several years in a row we took our boys and us and met up with other families we knew from school at Disneyworld. The adults relaxed by the pool and the kids ran around as a group at the waterparks, parks, etc. We gave the kids lots of leeway at curfew time as long as they stayed together as a group. They would end up at the parks then Disneyquest til closing then come back for a late night swim. We all had dinner together each night. Of course, we also kept in touch by cell phone. If we couldn't find anyone going to a destination we wanted to go to we would simply invite one or two of my sons' friends to join us on the trip. Everyone was happy and safe. Just another idea."

MY RESPONSE: Sounds fun! We were never allowed to go away on Break when we were in high school. My sophomore and senior years I was allowed to go with my girlfriends to Hilton Head, SC and Dominican Republic, respectively. Great time. My Mom trusted me...and also, by then, knew and trusted my girlfriends' parents and wanted a phone call every night and on the road. I think we were more responsible in college than we were in our twenties! Good parenting and tough discipline early on ensured good teens and (relatively!) good adults. Thanks for writing.

Tomorrow, we will have media analysis over the Pope's funeral coverage and talk to a reporter for Time magazine. On a waaaay lighter note, Cisco and I got into an argument over comic strips, believe it or not! The writer/illustrator for the comic "Brenda Starr" died and I said to him...that's too bad...but that comic strip blew. He agreed and then said, he HATES "Love Is..." How could ANYONE hate that one?! It's so sweet! Anyway, the discussion should be funny. Or at least funnier than some of these lame strips. (I hate "For Better Or Worse") Thanks for listening and reading! See you tomorrow...Eileen Byrne

If you have teenagers and are struggling to communicate with them...that sometimes everything you say and do sets them off....help is on the way! There is a great new book called "Breaking the Code" written by teenagers...to help parents better communicate with their kids. I read it over the Easter weekend and was fascinated by it...particularly because it details scenarios...when you find cigarettes in Tim's jacket pocket....what to do when your teen blows her curfew....and not just what to say, but how to say it....and not to take the bait when your teenager talks back. I really loved this book. We'll talk to the teens tomorrow morning.

It was great to have some good news this morning about Carver Military Academy and their trip to Florida. (See blogs below) It was very educational for me to meet so many of the students and their parents--to hear exactly what they did to raise $9,000 that was then ripped off. My heart was breaking just listening to them. But to see their faces when they learned that we are going to help and the trip was back on...I'll never forget it. THANK YOU to HEMISPHERE EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL.. they arrange student tours to Washington DC, New York, Florida, Springfield and Chicago, among other locations...this trip is going to include DISNEY, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, PIRATES DINNER SHOW, ARABIAN NIGHTS DINNER SHOW as well as a keepsake video of their trip! All donated.

Great interview with Alderman Natarus this morning! His true colors revealed! See you tomorrow. Eileen Byrne

We are having a meeting tonight at a library on the South side to assist the Carver Military Academy students and get them to Orlando. (See blog below for how these students got ripped off!) We are making great progress...getting a 100% commitment from Universal Studios to provide them with free passes as well as a VIP tour. The life and passing of Pope John Paul II is a reminder to us all, Catholics, non-Catholics, non-Anything that we can have a great impact on each other and demonstrate that a lot of good can come from someone's evil and indifference. I'll let you know how it goes. We are working on tracking a very special guest in the near future on the subject of illegal immigration. Thanks for listening. Eileen Byrne

Update 1: I have a date with my cab driver today at 4pm to pay my fare from this morning...plus a little extra for not calling the Chicago police on me!

Update 2: Great news about Carver Military Academy's Class of 2005 trip to Orlando. If you read page 30 of today's Chicago Sun Times, you know that a group of students and their parents were conned out of $9,000 and missed out on their trip to Florida. The man who bilked them used the money, allegedly to pay his own bills. I mentioned the story today on the air and asked if anyone could help. Hemisphere Educational Travel has stepped up to the plate and has agreed to donate some of the services to make the trip possible. We are also working on getting these kids some passes to attend Disney World and covering some of their hotel expenses.

Innocent students shouldn't have to suffer for another's criminal behavior and we can do a lot for each other if we put ourselves in someone else's shoes. The disappointment I felt for these students motivated me to get involved. I know you guys don't want to hear me go on about Terri Schiavo (some of you do..I appreciate that)...but the issue can teach us a lot about the need to stand up those who have been hurt by others.

Thank you for reading! See you tomorrow at Woodfield Mall from 12-2pm at the Select Comfort store! -Eileen Byrne