Rod Blagojevich appears to be coming to terms with the reality that his political fate will soon be sealed. He has acknowledged in recent days that the Illinois Senate is likely to convict and strip him from office. And this week he started showing displaying symptoms of severe impeachitis, playing hooky from work to hit […]
R. L. Nave
Posted inNews
Contamination examination
Ameren Illinois Utilities has made no secret about what’s going on under those big white tents just blocks away from the Capitol. As has been widely reported, the utility company is excavating the remnants of a manufactured-gas plant that operated there from 1854 until the 1930s and removing coal tar, a byproduct of the process, […]
Posted inNews
Truth about rising tuition
Just about everyone applauded the enactment of Illinois’ so-called truth-in-tuition law. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who signed the legislation in July 2003, said the bill, which freezes freshman tuition rates for four years, would stabilize the cost of education at state universities. The bill’s author, state Rep. Kevin Joyce, D-Worth, believed that college-bound students and their […]
Posted inNews
The breakfast snub
In Illinois, breakfast apparently isn’t such an important meal after all. In a study released last week, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), headquartered in Washington, D.C., reported that Illinois ranks 51st in providing breakfast to low-income children, just behind Utah. A previous FRAC study, conducted in 2005, ranked Illinois 50th in the nation. […]
Posted inNews
Governor’s healthcare record a mixed Blag
Gov. Rod Blagojevich responded to the Illinois House of Representatives’ decision to impeach him last week in Chicago, flanked by eight individuals that the governor said have been helped by his administration’s healthcare policies. Except for one young man identified by the governor as Omar Castillo, Blagojevich didn’t name any of the other people standing […]
Posted inNews
Gifts of life from Springfield to the world
So seemingly humdrum are the operations of Mission Outreach that one of the most difficult tasks for chief executive officer Bruce Compton is creating promotional materials. “Beyond taking a picture of some guy’s back while he’s loading a truck,” little can really capture the significance of the work going on at the facility, he says. […]
Posted inNews
WTF, Facebook?
After his wife and several friends signed up, Bill Carter decided to create a Facebook profile six weeks ago. Not long ago, Facebook served primarily as a vehicle for college kids to rag on their professors and ascertain the location of the next beer pong tournament. Now the world’s largest social networking site, Facebook is […]
Posted inNews
Inspecting the DHS inspector general
The Department of Human Services’ Office of Inspector General needs to improve its handling of investigations, according to a review by state auditors. The inspector general is responsible for probing neglect and abuse claims at state-supported mental-health and disability service agencies. In the 2008 fiscal year, there 1,631 allegations of abuse and 329 of neglect […]
Posted inNews
Kent’s state
Kent Redfield has been a go-to-guru of Land of Lincoln politics since forever. A regular on WICS Channel 20 and in the pages of the State Journal-Register and this newspaper, the emeritus political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield is frequently sought out by quote-seeking journalists outside of Springfield as well. For […]
Posted inNews
Ghosts of unpopular decisions past come back to haunt Blagojevich
For the past six years, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has rarely missed an opportunity to make an enemy, many of whom have been regulars in Room 114 of the Capitol since the Illinois House’s special investigative committee met for the first time on December 16. Aside from considering the charges contained in the federal criminal complaint […]
Posted inNews
The ‘corruption tax’
Being a national laughingstock has been bad enough. Sadly we’ve gotten used to the leadership vacuum that exists among state elected officials. But now Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s most recent legal troubles are really starting to hit Illinoisans where it hurts: in the state treasury. Long before Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were […]
Posted inNews
Illinois in running to host nuclear waste reprocessing facility
Illinois could become more radioactive than a Rod Blagojevich Senate appointee under a little-talked-about Bush administration energy initiative to create the next generation of nuclear power plants. Already home to more nuclear facilities than any other state in the nation, Illinois is one of 11 states in the running to host a national spent fuel […]
