The Rockford Register-Star takes a big whack at Governor Rod Blagojevich today for promoting his prescription drug import plan while the state’s public schools are left to rot:

Across the state, school boards and district administrators are feeling sick. All that red ink they face in their budgets is enough to make them ill. Indeed, some districts are fighting for their lives.

Yes, it’s that serious. Last year, 82 percent of the public school districts in Illinois ran budget deficits. Combined, they overspent their budgets by $2.31 billion.

BUT WAIT! There is Gov. Rod Blagojevich with a cheap pill for whatever ails you. Surely he knows what to do.

That’s a very good point. The governor loves to paint himself as fighting courageous battles while big problems are allowed to burn in the background.

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Everybody seems to run stories about Alan Keyes saying he might just stay in Illinois after the election is over (God forbid). Here’s the Sun-Times version:

Republican Alan Keyes opened up with both barrels Sunday, blasting Democratic front-runner Barack Obama for taking “the wicked and evil position” on issues such as abortion and vowing to stay in Illinois to rebuild the tattered Republican Party — whether he wins or loses Tuesday.

“There is no way on this Earth that I would leave the good people of the Republican Party I’ve met prey to some of the leadership I’ve seen … that is corrupt, that lacks integrity and has betrayed their best values and their best interests,” Keyes said. “They are history.”

No, Alan, you are history. Scat. Here’s a bit from the Tribune’s story:

“Any Roman Catholics who vote for Barack Obama are committing, in the opinion of the pope and the Holy See [Vatican City], a mortal sin,” Keyes told reporters after a Crusaders Ministries service on the South Side. “He stands for the destruction of innocent life. He stands against the respect for the male-female family. On embryonic stem-cell research, on all the key issues of conscience, he stands for the position that has been identified by the Catholic Church as objectively evil.

And the State Journal-Register runs an AP story with this Obama reaction:

“That’s sort of his schtick, and I don’t think it’s playing particularly well here in Illinois, and I suspect that after Tuesday he’ll be taking his show on the road.”

“At least, he didn’t call me the anti-Christ,” Obama added, joking with reporters.

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Meanwhile, the Alton Telegraph has a story about medical malpractice legislation in the upcoming veto session. Crain’s Chicago Business has a (subscription required) story about another possible pension borrowing scheme. And the State Journal-Register has a story about payday loan regulations that could be introduced next spring.