Governor Rod Blagojevich made a last-minute attempt last week to at least show he was trying to get the hopelessly stalled budget negotiations back on track. Blagojevich, who has tried harder to avoid blame for the current overtime session than to actually negotiate in good faith, walked into House Speaker Michael Madigan's office unannounced last week in what was supposed to be a dramatic gesture of goodwill and harmony among Democrats.

I never really wanted an intern. I'm sort of a lone wolf who prefers to work alone. But a longtime friend of mine, Jim Nowlan, pretty much demanded that I take on one of his prized students, Paul Richardson, as an intern this legislative session. I resisted at first, but eventually met with Paul and was impressed.

Federal prosecutors have recently been handed a couple of big setbacks in their ceaseless pursuit of government corruption. But you would hardly know it considering the lack of press coverage the cases have received here.

The real electoral surprise last week was not in Chicago, where five tired, old incumbent hack aldermen went down to defeat. The big shocker was the Carbondale mayor's race, in which Sheila Simon - the daughter of the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon - was trounced by Republican incumbent Brad Cole.