According to the website tipping.org, your server should be tipped 15% to 20% of bill. If you receive excellent service, or if it is a 4-star restaurant or you have a large group, a 20% or greater tip is recommended.

Servers rely on tips to make even minimum wage. According to Illinois State Wage and Hour Law, restaurants may pay their servers as little as $4.65 per hour (minimum wage is $7.75 per hours as of July 1) and tips must make up the difference.

Several Sound Off callers said they don’t tip if the service is bad, or if the food is cold or incorrectly prepared. These callers seemed to think the only way to express their displeasure with the restaurant is to punish the server. In my opinion, withholding the tip (or cutting the percentage) does nothing to punish the restaurant operator, just your server.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t fully tip for less-than-adequate service, but I do try to determine if the problem is with my server, or something beyond their control. Servers don’t control the cooks. If there is a problem in the kitchen, that’s not the server’s fault. If my steak is well done and I ordered rare, that’s not the server’s fault. I may send it back, but I won’t punish my server by withholding the tip.

Now on the other hand, if I see my server giggling with friends at another table, or chatting up the bartender while I’m waiting ten minutes for an iced tea refill, I’m not pleased and may reduce the tip. But if I’m with my whole family, and the server seems to be hustling to do everything right I’ll go above and beyond the “standard” 15% tip.

So in support of all the friendly (and sometimes not-so-friendly) servers out there, I’ll ask you to be fair. If the service problem is with the restaurant operation, ask to talk to the manager and see if they’ll make it right. If the problem is with your server, then it is fair to reduce the amount of the tip. Just don’t punish the server for the manager’s mess.

Remember, these servers have a tough job, and aren’t getting paid much per hour. Many times servers are the only contact you have with the restaurant. If they are doing their jobs, reward them. They’ll appreciate it.

We all can name a list of former St. Louis icons that became less-than-willing acquisitions: May Company (Famous-Barr), TWA, McDonnell-Douglass, Stix, Baer and Fuller, Ralston Purina, and, even the St. Louis Cardinals all denied early on that they would be sold. At least the Cardinals are still here. (Stay tuned, we’ll see about the Rams.)

But the message being sent by some A-B supporters of “if the deal goes through, I won’t drink Budweiser” is a knee-jerk and overly emotional reaction to the deal. My first question to the “boycotters” is, if not Bud, what? Miller? It’s owned by SABMiller and the SAB stands for South African Brewers. Coors? Just merged with Miller. St. Louis based Schlafly? Good as long as you can get it, but their brewing capacity and distribution network can’t keep up.

Secondly, the combined AB/InBev will control 50% of the world’s beer sales. If you want to make a “no Bud” statement to make yourself feel better, that’s fine. If you think you’re bring down the giant with your slingshot and pebble you’d better have a lot of friends willing to join you.

And third: the only people hurt by your switching brews are exactly the people we want to support, the St. Louis area A-B workers, brewers, truckers and sellers.

Now I prefer Busch beer, and have been drinking it my whole adult life (and maybe a time or two before I was an adult.) I have often said that I drink Busch because nobody in the brewer’s family was named “Bud” and somebody has to keep the name alive. So unless AB/InBev decides to rename my Bavarian beer “Brito”, I’ll continue to “head for the mountains with Busch.”

In August of 1993, I was the publisher of The Times-Reporter in New Philadelphia, Ohio. If you lived through the flood of 1993, you know what was going on here. In Ohio, we started picking up news items and pictures on the flooding in the River Bend. We were getting calls in the newsroom asking what could be done to help when the idea to have a community donation site came about.

A local radio station team from WTUZ in New Philadelphia wanted to help. And with a great theme (thought up by one of the radio folks) we launched “From the Heart to the Heartland” flood relief. The radio promoted the donation effort and the news paper continued to publish the details of the flooding and the effort to help.

Donations came from all over the county. Mops, buckets, cleansers, squeegees, towels, etc., were delivered to the newspaper’s parking lot on a designated Saturday. A bank account was established to handle cash donations. A local trucking company donated a 40-foot trailer, the truck, the fuel and a driver to deliver the collections to the local Salvation Army.

In about 4 hours, we stuffed that 40-foot trailer full to the the brim. And, if memory serves, we sent about $15,000 in cash relief along to the agency.

It’s hard to believe it has been 15 years already. My thoughts are with all displaced by the flood of 2008, especially those hard hit up river from us. Thankfully, our area didn’t need all the help we received in 1993.

My editors told me I should write about things I know. Well I know this, I like to eat. So this week I’ll write about one of the River Bend’s restaurants. I’ll write later about some more favorite culinary establishments. Don’t think of this as a restaurant critique, it’s not. Just think of it as my restaurant ramblings.

And before you ask, I’m not getting anything for free here. The restaurants don’t know that I am going to write about them. So here we go……

One of my family’s favorite local restaurants is Casa Romero in East Alton. Located two doors down from The Airliner on Airline Drive, this Mexican restaurant offers something for almost any palate.

My personal favorite is Chili Colorado. Small chunks of beef simmered in a spicy (not hand me the extinguisher hot) sauce, this one is my most frequent order at Casa. It’s served with arroz (rice) and frijoles (refried beans) with a touch of pico de gallo and tortillas. You can eat this dish fajita-style (put the meat and fixin’s on a tortilla) or eat it with a fork and use the tortilla to mop up all that great sauce. (For an interesting twist, ask the waiter to bring it in verde (green) chili sauce. Still good, but I prefer the red sauce. My second choice: Enchiladas Suizza. For treat try Camerones Diabla – shrimp simmered in the red Colorado sauce.

My wife Barb’s favorite can be a toss up, but it will involve chicken. Pollo Palapa is a butter-flied chicken breast cooked on the familiar fajita skillet, smothered in a mild white cheese. Pollo Parilla is very similar, though subtract the cheese, add vegetables and Casa Romero sauce. Both are served with the above mentioned arroz, frijoles, tortillas with guacamole and sour cream added for good measure.

Son Trey is also a chicken eater, but at age 16, he prefers food that’s less of a challenge to eat. He likes chicken tenders, but these aren’t nuggets in a box. Casa serves them smothered in white cheese and pico sauce. And rather than the standard arroz and frijoles, Trey orders a substitute of French fries (surprise!) and dips the fries in the drippy cheese sauce.

Daughters Carrie and Sarah both like Arroz con Pollo (Chicken with rice), but Carrie has them hold the rice. So I guess Carrie orders Frijoles con Pollo. Son-in-law Kyle likes a variety and regularly adds a side of white cheese – sometimes melted – for an added touch.

If you know me, you know I’m a beer drinker. Casa Romero has a full bar if you’re into magaritas or daquiaries, shots of tequila or the like, but I’ll stick with cerveza fria (cold beer). Casa has all the standard domestic brands, but I prefer Mexican beer with Mexican food. Casa carries a wide variety of beers from south of the border: Dos XX, Modelo, Sol, Tecate, they’re all here. My favorite is somewhat less well known. I like Pacifico Clara, a crisp, light-on-the-tongue beer from the Mazatlan region of Mexico. Barb and I discovered Pacifico in Mexico about 10 years ago and it’s my favorite Mexican brew, and I’ve tried ‘em all. (For you A-B supporters, Grupo Modelo, brewers of Corona, Modelo and Pacifico, is half-owned by Anheuser Busch.) I prefer mine with a squeeze of lime.

Now the all important presentation of “la cuenta” (the bill): Barb and I can have dinner at Casa Romero with a couple of Pacificos included and get out for about $26 plus tip. That’s pretty good when $5.50 of the bill was my beer!)

The waiters at Casa are great. Leo, Stephen, Issac, “Berto”, Jake… any and all give great service. If you want something a little different or need a substitution, just ask. New to Mexican food? Tell ‘em what you like, they won’t steer you wrong.

So try Casa Romero, I wouldn’t steer you wrong either. Just tell them “Jamie” (hy-may”) sent you.

The $55.00 (each) face value tickets were for seats five rows behind the Cardinals’ dugout. I have been lucky enough to sit in some good seats at the “new” Busch Stadium, the “old” Busch stadium, and even the “first” Busch stadium, but these were excellent seats.

The game was a 12:15 game on Thursday, April 3. It was cold and rainy, but I took a day’s vacation so we could attend.

Barb had four tickets, but only our son-in-law was off work that day, so the three of us headed to St. Louis. (I know that it is now legal to stand outside the stadium and sell tickets, but they were free, so I wasn’t worried about getting my money back on the unused ticket.)

As I said, it was cold and raining, so we wanted to park close. I chose the Stadium Garage East, right across the street from the stadium. Price: $20.00

We hadn’t had lunch, so after we found our seats, we decided to grab a bite to eat. We had three cheeseburger baskets from the Hardee’s in the stadium, and three large soft drinks. Price: $48.75

Also purchased were a small hot chocolate ($2.50), a bag of peanuts ($4.00) and one 16-oz. A.B. product ($7.75). Price: $14.25.

We sat in the cold and drizzle and saw a winner as the Cardinals defeated the Colorado Rockies. And the best part: Barb’s “free” tickets only cost me $83.00!

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she made a mistake in claiming that she came under hostile fire in Bosnia 12 years ago, as rival Barack Obama’s campaign continued to challenge her credibility.

In a recent speech and interviews, the New York senator described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in 1996. But video footage of the day showed a peaceful reception in which a young girl greeted the first lady on the tarmac.

In case you missed it, here it is in a nutshell: Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claimed in a recent speech and interviews that when she and daughter Chelsea visited Bosnia in 1996, “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

Imagine the horrors: the First Lady and First daughter fly to war-torn Bosnia and are greeted by sniper fire and have to run for their lives! There’s just one little problem: It didn’t happen!

Clinton started back-peddling when journalists checked the files. Instead of being greeted by sniper fire as claimed, Mrs. Clinton and daughter were greeted peacefully on the tarmac by a young girl. I doubt the young girl was heavily armed.

Now I know that campaigning is a long and arduous task. I also expect momentary glitches in memory from time to time. So, when journalists challenged Clinton on her account of the day, I expected her to say that she had confused the Bosnian trip with another trip during which she was greeted with sniper fire. There’s just one little problem: It didn’t happen!

So now Presidential candidates can make up harrowing stories of near death, and when disproved can just apologize and say that they “misspoke.”

I guess we can’t blame Hillary - she learned from one of the best. Remember that her husband “misspoke” when he looked you straight in the eye and claimed “I never had sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.”

You can call it a “misspeak” if you want. I’ll just call it a lie.

The proposed ordinance would affect private clubs that serve alcohol to members or guests, and it seemed to me that the ordinance must be much ado about nothing. A couple of buddies playing cards and sharing a case of beer, or a group of ladies having wine with a monthly luncheon shouldn’t require a liquor license.

In my way of thinking, a “private club” was a bunch of like-minded individuals that share a common interest, be it fishing, antique cars, quilting or yes, motorcycles. If they pool their funds and rent a storefront to hold their meetings (rather than meeting at someone’s home), that’s fine by me. If everybody wants to chip in and buy a pony keg for after the meeting, there are DUI laws in place if they over imbibe.

I still feel that way.

However, we have heard from more than a few readers that brought to my attention a much larger concern in Alton. Apparently there are some in town that want to form a “private club” in order to skirt state and local liquor ordinances. The idea is to form a “private club” to restrict entrance and sell or supply alcohol without having the necessary licenses and insurance required by state law. I don’t agree with that.

So, at the risk of contradicting my own editorial, I guess we need a new definition for the term “private club”. If the “club” is really a front for a private tavern, it needs to have the same licenses and insurance as any other tavern.

Now, I don’t really know a lot about television other than watching it. As a kid I was on “Cookie and the Captain” when Jim Bolen roamed the halls of Channel 4, and I was on “Captain 11″ when Harry Fender showed Three Stooges shorts from the upper floors of the Chase Park Plaza.
More recently, and for the past 8 years or so I have been a panelist on MetroTalk on LCTV, but for the most part I’m a print guy (though I’ve been told I have a face for radio).

So what qualifies me to be a TV news producer? It would be easy, and I’ll bet you could do it too! Want proof? Here’s what I’ve observed lately on our St. Louis television news broadcasts:

“Welcome to Your 1stSource NEWS. Our Top news story tonight, ‘Highway 40 finally closes’. Let’s go to Len Zoom for a Live 1stSource NEWS report:”

“Thanks, Chuck. I’m standing here on the closed section of Highway 40, and as you can see behind me there is no traffic. If this stretch of highway was open, I couldn’t be standing here now, I am sure. This section of highway would be full of commuters trying to get home from work. I’ve been here several hours, and MODOT reports no problems on this section of the closed highway. I’m Len Zoom for Your 1stSource NEWS.”

“Great report, Len. Gosh, I’ll bet it’s cold out there! That wind seems brutal. Try to get warm and we’ll check back with you later. Now let’s check with Dawn Light for a 1stSource NEWS look at the other major highways.”

“Chuck, we’re getting reports from MODOT that due to the closing of Highway 40, there is more traffic on all other area highways. As you can see behind me, rush hour really brought out the traffic on Highway 44. I can see a string of red taillights for miles! Add to that the cold temperatures and the strong, gusty winds, I’m having trouble holding onto my hat. For a look from the 1stSource NEWS SkyBird Traffic copter, let’s check with Capt. Tom Lands.”

“Thanks, Dawn. I’m flying over the closed section of Highway 40, and it’s almost spooky down there. Usually it would be bumper to bumper down there this time of night. I’ve checked the other area roadways, and it appears traffic is heavier than usual on the other interstates and feeder routes. All I could see on Interstates 55 and 70 was a long string of headlights heading out of the city. Now, let’s send it back to Chuck in the 1st Source NEWSroom.”

“Thanks for that team coverage 1stSource NEWS report. We’ll check back with all of you later in the newscast. Now to check the impact the weather is having on the Highway 40 closing, let’s check with Meteorologist Sunny Deigh with the 1stSource NEWS Lookout Forecast. Is the weather causing any problems for those displaced Highway 40 drivers, Sunny?”

You get my drift, right? I can be a TV news producer. I could sit in my warm cozy office with six TV screens and decide, “This Highway 40 closing is gonna be a big pain in the butt to commuters. I’ll send Len and Dawn to stand on the shoulder of the road. Maybe it will be windy so we can laugh at Dawn trying to hold on to her hat! I’ll get Capt. Lands to do a live flyover and show how dark it is on the closed section of the highway. And he can say something about the miles and miles of head and taillights on the other interstates. And the weather has an impact on everything! And, I’ll bet Sunny can do a weather map with little road barricades to show where the highway is closed!”

It couldn’t be that simple could it? Then I saw the TV news last night during the snowstorm. How many 1stSource NEWS reporters did you count standing in the snowstorm reporting that “the snow is really coming down out here now, Chuck.”?

Rudy Giuliani bowed out as well today from the Republican race. The former mayor of New York who generated as much dislike as like in the turbulent days following 9/11, just couldn’t tie together a cohesive campaign and pulled out before “Super Tuesday.” Don’t feel bad for him, though. He said in his going away speech that he had put several “lucrative” business deals on hold while running for the nomination, so he won’t be living in a cardboard box in Central Park.

The candidate that I missed completely was John McCain. I opined that in all the calls for “change” in Washington, John McCain seemed to represent more of the traditional presidential candidate. I thought he’d be gone before February 5th. Boy, was I wrong. McCain just keeps getting stronger and absolutely kicked butt in Florida. A poll released today even shows McCain beating Clinton or Obama if the election were held today. Maybe voters don’t really want change, but take comfort in real world experience. We’ll know Tuesday.

‘See why I don’t bet on horses?