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* ADDED: Lipinski talks Buy American provision with Lou Dobbs

* FutureGen tangled in stimulus packages

The proposed clean coal technology project reached the top of a House Republican list of “wasteful programs” in the economic stimulus bill now moving through Congress. Some House Republicans claim the plant proposed for construction west of Mattoon was defunded last year by the U.S. Department of Energy “because it said the project was inefficient,” according to a report on CNN.com.

The claim places the energy program with a $2 billion price tag on a long list of political pork projects, which President Barack Obama promised to avoid in the stimulus package.

* Casino proposal may go before Des Plaines plan commission in 6 months

* United reports lower January traffic

* Kraft Foods 4th-quarter profit falls

* Sara Lee posts 2Q loss due to write-down

* 14 want to take the 5th, one stands out

* Quigley slams GOP for failing to support more mass transit funding in stimulus bill

* US Rep. Tim Johnson — Gargantuan spending that won’t work

* DCCC Announces Families First Ad Campaign

* District 150 takes chance on stimulus funds

* In Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois, schools see an oversupply of teachers

* Illinois fails to retain good teachers

* Scott back as school board chief?

Sources said the mayor has decided to team Huberman with the politically-savvy Scott, who resigned in 2006 after five years as board president.

Scott would replace Rufus Williams, who has stepped on toes at the board and City Hall.

Scott is a consummate peacemaker who kept aldermen informed at every turn about decisions that impacted their local schools.

* Housing Preservation Strategy Report

* Hiring victims get tax forms

* Ethics board probing highway OT policies

* Cook’s stealth tax hike

* Sheriff: We can take over forest police

* Cook County sheriff offers to take over patrolling of forest preserves

* City Budget Cuts Effecting Speed Of Ticket Hearings

* Chicago’s ‘Bean’ damaged

Workmen today will begin buffing out graffiti scratched into Millennium Park’s famous bean-like sculpture, Cloud Gate - a defacement that infuriated Mayor Richard Daley.

Hurwitz said the repair work will be done by Hillside-based MTH Industries, which originally welded the stainless steel plates together for the $17 million sculpture

* Daley wants vandals to pay for Bean repair

* Feds say sex offender registries are unreliable, inaccurate

* How the Big Gulp Approach to News Makes Readers Scram

posted by Mike Murray
Wednesday, Feb 4, 09 @ 9:24 am

Comments

These are not stories you want to wake up to unless you live under a foot bridge in Shabonna Woods.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Feb 4, 09 @ 10:05 am
So has the Sheriff figured out a way to keep his cops from protecting drug dealers or do they just want the forests for better cover?

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Wednesday, Feb 4, 09 @ 10:14 am
You’d think as much as the dupes at city hall/Millenium Park paid for that overpriced Bean, there’d be some type of warranty…or at lease decent security.

Comment by Wumpus Wednesday, Feb 4, 09 @ 10:14 am
Regarding the big gulp article - too much information doesn’t make the readers scram. Innane and “inch deep” information is the culprit. Mediocre twaddle and AP releases do not require newsprint…regardless of format.

Look at it another way. If the writer were correct, wouldn’t we all have a daily USA Today subscription?

Save the mcnuggets information delivery approach for advertising and let journalists do their jobs effectively.

Comment by msnyder275 Wednesday, Feb 4, 09 @ 11:07 am
Has anyone actually seen the word “coal” in print in the last five years WITHOUT it being prefixed by the word “clean”?

Hats off to the marketing wizards on that one. We should just make a new word: cleancoal.

Comment by Leroy Wednesday, Feb 4, 09 @ 12:21 pm