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A futile attempt to clear out my “in” box.

Not to take anything away from the Sun-Times’ very good series on cellphone privacy, but Macleans had a story about this very disturbing subject last year.

You can find AFSCME’s prison report that I wrote about yesterday here.

The Kentucky legislature won’t accredit bloggers. I went through much the same thing that a lot of bloggers are going through now back when I first started covering the General Assembly. Maybe I’ll tell that story one day.

Failed Supreme Court candidate Gordon Maag’s defamation suit was dismissed for the second time.

Here’s a nice piece on Joel Brunsvold’s retirement as IDNR director. This happened during my Christmas vacation and I never wrote how much I have enjoyed knowing Joel over the years.

Andy Plonka has a photo of Governor Blagojevich jogging in his neighborhood during the day. Check Andy’s comments after I asked what time that photo was snapped.

I’d like to make this a local news update thread. What’s going on in your town, ward, county, etc?

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 3:57 am

Comments

Mike Nardello has gotten his yard signs out this week in the 39th Senate Primary against Don Harmon. Does anyone have any thoughts on the race? It will be interesting to see how Harmon does in his first contested race.

Comment by The Cheese Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 5:49 am
How much did Brunsvold’s pension go up by stopping by the offices of DNR?

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 6:20 am
FOP in Lee County backed Varga yesterday. There’s like 5 Republicans in the race, no Dems.

Slow news day here, I guess.

Comment by Tessa Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 6:23 am
I went to the Obama townhall meeting at College of DuPage on Tuesday. I saw supporters for Christine Cegelis and Lindy Scott in the lobby — apparently they didn’t let people go into the wearing their candidates gear — and I saw Christine shaking hands with folks after the meeting broke up.

But I didn’t see any Duckworth supporters. Struck me as odd that they didn’t take the opportunity to be seen at a meeting called by DuPage Co’s most popular Democratic elected official. Maybe they were there — but I sure didn’t see them.

I plan to write up my thoughts on the meeting this weekend. If it turns out to be semi-worthwhile, I will post it at Illinoize.

But even if it turns out to be pure crap, I’ll post it at my site.

Happy Weekend.

Comment by So-Called "Austin Mayor" Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 6:27 am
Rich, about bloggers getting ‘accredited’, I always wondered what it took to get recognized as part of the “official” Springfield press corps. Is it just having your company submit your name on letterhead, to whom, and has anyone ever been turned down as far as being recognized as new media? How’s that work?

Comment by Some Guy Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 7:35 am
Rock Island Argus headline today - Sen Todd Sieban wants to pass a bill rating teachers excellant, satisfactory, and unsatisfactory.
How about a bill rating State Senators the same way? Come on Todd? Let’s introduce some worthwhile legislation.

Comment by jimbo Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 8:36 am
Hey Austin -

You don’t need supporters in this phase of the game…Washington money will buy them later.

Plenty of time & money to go around for everyone.

Comment by Leroy Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 9:33 am
Macleans may have had the story last year, but nothing happened until the Sun-Times ran their version.

Comment by me Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 10:46 am
Recently, Don Harmon actually started going to some neighborhood events in Oak Park…so he must be getting nervous. Although he lives there, he is rarely seen publicly. I’ve never seen him in person nor have any of my friends.

While the needs of the West Side are, I agree, important, so are those of Oak Parkers, who continue to fight crime and bad schools unaided by the Dems they always vote for overwhelmingly.
That recent positive crime report played down the fact that violent crime in Oak Park has gone UP in recent years. Who cares about the reduced pilfering of bikes and garden hoses. Residents can no longer walk safely in the evening, not alone anyway, the homeless have taken over the main public library, drug addicts stalk pedestrians asking for money, property taxes are going up up up, and some extravagantly funded elementary schools are failing. Mr. Harmon has been largely absent in finding solutions for these problems.

Nardello can’t win because Harmon has the black West side vote. But I plan to vote for him because a large enough vote might remind Harmon that the West Side is not his only constituency and that he has to start doing something for Oak Park.

Comment by Cassandra Friday, Jan 20, 06 @ 11:35 am