As I have shared in the past, every now and then I have the privilege (and, yes, personal indulgence) to write about people near and dear to my heart. Such is the case with Gregg Johnson and his candidacy for the Illinois State Senate's 36th District. And in the spirit of full disclosure, he is my favorite boy cousin on my mother's side.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a landmark decision (Naperville Smart Meter Awareness v. City of Naperville) on behalf of all Americans by determining that the Fourth Amendment protects smart-meter data collected by energy companies from being searched or seized by government without probable cause and/or appropriate warrants.

Need To Knowtes

The 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) prohibits businesses from making auto-dialed or pre-recorded calls to a person's cell phone and similar telemarketing calls to home phones. However, this law does not apply to the federal government, nor to contractors working on the government's behalf. The only prohibition for the feds is political campaign telemarketing (RCReader.com/y/ntk1).

Immigration in the U.S. has become one of the most emotionally charged issues of our time, due to precious little factual data informing it, regardless of whether you are sympathetic to illegal immigration or opposed to it.

On April 19, 2018, the Scott County Board of Supervisors (SCBS) voted 3-2 against posting the Board's audio-recorded meetings at both the Board and Auditor Web sites (audio: rcreader.com/y/scbs1). Supervisors Carole Earnhardt-R, Tony Knobbe-R, and Ken Beck-R voted against, while Diane Holst-R and Brinsen Kinzer-D voted in favor of this fundamental public good.

Tony Knobbe is fast proving to be a questionable choice for Chair of the Scott County Board of Supervisors. As a former banker (an executive for Wells Fargo in Davenport), is it any surprise that he appears to be institutionally incapable of comprehending that transparency is the best practice for a publicly elected board?

There is nothing more satisfying than sharing inspiring stories. And few things meet that criteria like Iowa Miles of Smiles Team's (Iowa MOST's) annual medical mission to the Western Highlands of Guatemala to save children from lives without hope. Its 13th mission will commence February 24, 2018.

The standard operating procedure for minutes of the meetings is to only provide the public with the most stripped-down version of what happened. In Scott County, this means all that is recorded is the time the meeting started and ended, who made or seconded a motion, and how each supervisor voted on said motion. No inclusion of who was a guest speaker from the private sector or other governments, or which staff member spoke on which agenda item, or what any of the discussion around an agenda item consisted of.

How do Americans square their claim of a free and open people when we surrender our privacy and personal details of our lives for nothing more than convenience without question or the most rudimentary concern for the consequences?

In our Constitutional Republic, the citizenry still has the power and political tools to create whatever change we truly desire as a Republic. Alarmingly, however, we have lowered the bar for our participation so far that 'We the People”'s role in governance is almost obsolete. Coalescing now, to right our country's ship, is unachievable if we don't first acknowledge systematic displacement due to our willing abdication of our civic roles.

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