For 30 years, the Reader has memorialized in print and online how nearly all local, state, and national legislators, staff within executive agencies, and jurists, regardless of political party, have epically failed in representing the electorates' interests and Constitutionally protected inalienable rights they swore to uphold as mandated by their oath of office.

What a crock. Last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, when they knew hardly anybody was paying attention, Davenport city officials announced they were giving departing City Administrator Corri Spiegel $1.6 million. The city said $1 million was for the emotional pain and suffering that Spiegel suffered, which the city council said in a statement was due to “prolonged and documented instances of harassment” by some elected officials over the past eight years. They didn’t say what the offending behavior was.

Last Tuesday, November 7, Chicago Teachers Union lobbyist Kurt Hilgendorf told the Illinois Senate Executive Committee that the union had only “one problem” with Senate President Don Harmon’s elected Chicago school board bill. Hilgendorf praised much of the bill during his testimony. But the Chicago Teachers Union has claimed for years that it wants a fully-elected school board, just like every other school district in the state. Right now, all board members are appointed by the mayor.

On October 24, 2023, Iowa Senator Charles (Chuck) Grassley sent a demand letter to Department of Justice (DOJ) Attorney General Merrick Garland and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray, instructing them to provide his Senate Committee on the Budget with all records and relevant information from an enumerated list of 15 items pertaining to the Biden family investigations into foreign entanglements and associated finances during the past five years. The deadline for AG Garland and Director Wray to respond is November 17, 2023.