I have a couple of stories up this week at ilnews.org.
Check out this piece on Illinois possibly moving prevailing wage notices from newspapers to the web. It could be a first step toward digitizing a whole bunch of public notices that local governments are mandated to publish.
Then read here, especially if you’re heading to southern Illinois for the upcoming solar eclipse and are looking for a place to stay.
With my recent move from Illinois to Michigan, I’ve experienced a significant change in the education environment. Michigan is a “Schools of Choice” state, providing parents options as to what school children may attend:
Schools of Choice programs provide students with additional enrollment opportunities, which range from allowing students to determine which school within the resident district they will enroll, to allowing non-resident students to enroll in a district other than their own.
School choice, vouchers, and charter schools long have been an interest of mine, so it was wonderful to talk with Rick Hess, Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. His new book is “Letters To a Young Education Reformer“. Here’s the audio:
Budget, schmudget. Are you curious as to what Illinois lawmakers are doing about performing elephants in the state? I’m your man.
Despite a strong showing by Donald Trump in Illinois’ 17thCongressional District, local Republicans still see defeating Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, as a tough task.
I wrote about it for Illinois Radio Network/Illinois News Network. Check out the story here.
Independent minor league baseball in Illinois could be threatened without help from lawmakers in Springfield, the attorney for a league with six Illinois teams said.
I wrote about it for Illinois Radio Network/Illinois News Network. Check out the story here.
Personal PAC/Facebook
A joke about placing duct tape over the mouth of a politician is unacceptable speech and the language of a rape culture. Actually placing duct tape over the mouth of a politician in a web ad is a sharp way to get your point across.
These divergent points of view are brought you by Illinois Democrats, who less than a month ago were apoplectic about an effort at a bad joke by Chicago radio host Steve Cochran. While Governor Bruce Rauner was on the phone line as a guest on his show, Cochran referenced a Rauner ad featuring duct tape as a metaphor for short-term fixes in Springfield. (more…)
This was a blast. Virtually anyone who knows me knows how much I love “The Twilight Zone”. I’m the guy who watches the twice-yearly marathons on SyFy, even if I’ve seen the episode 15 times. So, talking to a guy who literally wrote a book on the topic? Yes, please.
Mark Dawidziak is the author of the new book, “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone“. In essence, taking life lessons from episodes of the series. I’m actually thinking about trying to teach a seminar course on “The Twilight Zone” & American society in the late 1950s/early 1960s, so this was great prep.
Here’s the audio:
