Illinois Democrats won a historic victory at the polls this month. Not since the Franklin Roosevelt landslide of 1936 have Democrats controlled every statewide office, both chambers of the General Assembly, and the Illinois Supreme Court.

But you'd never know it if you were in Springfield last week. Instead of bringing them closer together, the landslide has driven them further apart.

Iowa Public Radio (IPR) has announced the creation of a statewide news and information programming service as the culmination of a listener-driven process. The network, which was created in 2005 to align the stations of the WOI Radio Group in Ames, KUNI/KHKE in Cedar Falls-Waterloo, and KSUI/WSUI in Iowa City, is continuing its evolution as a statewide radio service for Iowans, with listener feedback as a critical component. For the past several months, Iowa Public Radio has sought input and feedback from Iowans as part of a "listening project." The information derived from these sessions provided the basis for a shared vision for public radio as IPR looks for ways to best serve all Iowans. The statewide news and information programming service will kick off January 1. Listeners in Iowa will hear new programs, including The Diane Rehm Show, and Iowa hosts for popular NPR programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered will be consistent across the state. Several locally produced programs, once limited to one station's coverage area, will now be available across the network. A full schedule of the news and information service is available at (http://www.iowapublicradio.org). Enhanced classical- and alternative-music programming are currently in development and will be released in mid-2007. 

 

Editor's note: The following was posted on the River Music Experience (RME) Web site in the days after the organization's president and CEO, Lon Bozarth, resigned.

 

Over the past 20 months, there has been a purposeful transition of the RME from a museum-based tourist attraction to a mission-based organization that supports the idea that original and diverse live-music performances are a needed component of a modern community.

Shannon Curfman Shannon Curfman is an old soul in a young person's body.

"Buddy and I were ... talking about that actually - Buddy Guy," Curfman said in a phone interview last week. "He was kind of making fun of me. ... He's like, ‘You know what? That's bullshit. ... You're 20 years old and you've already gone through this. It took me until I was almost 70 to realize half this stuff.'"

"This stuff" is the nearly inevitable souring of a major-label musician on the business of selling records. Many performers need decades of being exploited by big corporations before they realize there's a better way. Curfman, who is now 21 and will be performing this Saturday at the Redstone Room, figured it out in her teens.

A couple of notes now that the election is over:

Positive campaigning works: See Elesha Gayman's win.

Negative campaigning fails: See Mike Whalen's loss.

Last week's election gave Illinois Senate President Emil Jones more bragging rights than anyone else at the Statehouse.

Jones' Democrats picked up five seats on Tuesday, giving them one more than the minimum needed for a veto-proof majority. Jones' 37 seats compare to just 22 for the Senate Republicans.

To say that the Senate Republicans are now irrelevant for at least the next two years would be putting it mildly. The Senate Republicans won't be able to stop anything, including bills for new state construction-bond programs, which require a minimum of 36 votes.

Holiday Pops

The Mark of the Quad Cities

Saturday, November 18, 7:30 p.m.

 

Rebuilding Together Quad Cities began work Monday, November 13, on phase one of "Project Neighborhood Impact," which will repair a number of homes in the Douglas Park area of Rock Island. Funded with a $43,500 grant from the Doris & Victor Day Foundation, "Project Neighborhood Impact" also involves a public/private partnership between Rebuilding Together Quad Cities and the City of Rock Island's Planning & Redevelopment Division. The two-phase project will renovate two homes this fall, and up to three more homes in spring 2007. The inaugural program targets the neighborhood bordering "Habitat Park" in the Douglas Park neighborhood of Rock Island. The project is also part of the new Old Chicago Plan. Rebuilding Together annually repairs more than 50 homes locally. Homeowners living in the targeted area who wish to be considered for the second phase of the program should contact Rebuilding Together at (563) 322-6534. Applications are also available online at (http://www.rebuildingtogetherquadcities.org).

 

Reader issue #606(This is the first in a series of articles looking at the components of River Renaissance five years after Scott County voters agreed to contribute $5 million to the effort. While that amount was relatively small in the projects' financing, it secured $20 million in Vision Iowa funding from the State of Iowa.)

 

Evaluating the Figge Art Museum five years after the River Renaissance vote is an exercise in perspective. The choice of how to measure its success determines the outcome.

How many times have you watched some movie or TV show depicting the villain as extreme governmental control, with severe abuse of innocents as the cause of rebellion? We sit through these horrors, reassuring ourselves that this would never happen in America. Why? Because, we tell ourselves, we would never allow things to deteriorate to such a degree that the level of control and abuse we are witnessing could occur.

Well don't be so sure. How do you think those film scenarios were conceived? Certainly from lively imaginations, but also from history; mankind has a long tradition of cruel, suppressive conduct toward his fellow human beings.

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