In 2001, I wrote a tribute to Susie Martens, a fabulous woman who became great friends with my beloved grandmother thanks to the long and abiding friendship between Grandma and Susie's gracious and distinguished father (and Chris' grandfather) Henry “Hank” Wurzer. Chris H. Martens, the oldest of Susie's children, passed tragically and unexpectedly on June 19, 2022. It was a monumental blow to every single person in Chris's life, a loss that reverberates to this moment with no relief hoped for or expected.

While the remainder of this piece will kind of forced to be All About Me, allow me to raise a figurative champagne flute – figurative because it's actually a glass of chillable red I'll be raising – in acknowledgment of others.

It's primary election season in Scott County (June 7) and Rock Island County (June 28), and there are nearly as many county and state races unopposed as contested within each of the fictionally competing Democratic and Republican primary contests. For this primary election, questions were developed for Iowa and Illinois Democrat and Republican Primary candidates in four separate races: Iowa's Scott County Board of Supervisors (SCBS); Illinois' Rock Island County Sheriff; and both the Illinois State Senate and State House of Representatives. For the Illinois State Senate and House races, we partnered with our prolific and plugged-in columnist Rich Miller, who queried his Capitol Fax blog subscribers for candidate questions. We requested each candidate choose their own destiny via answering five questions of their choosing from the 40 posted.

History will eventually reveal all the malfeasance that allowed COVID-19 to be promulgated as a global lethal pandemic when the narratives in support of this over-exaggeration can no longer overcome the evidence against it.