I am a federal employee and long-time investor in the Thrift Savings Plan. During my career, I spent nearly 14 years as editor of the Target, the newspaper serving the Rock Island Arsenal, and I became very familiar with the Thrift Savings Plan both through personal experience and by researching and writing numerous articles on the subject.
Former Lieutenant Phil Yerington has decided to fight the good fight in district court in hopes of overturning the Davenport Police Department's (DPD) decision to terminate his employment as a police officer after 32 years of public service.
In my opinion, 2004 was the weirdest year in Illinois political history. January: Governor Rod Blagojevich used most of his State of the State address to blast the State Board of Education for being a "Soviet-style" bureaucracy - the first time a sitting governor red-baited a state agency.
Isle of Capri (IOC) casino officials recently rolled out a public-relations campaign consisting of two "public courtesy meetings" featuring multimedia presentations, and face-to-face presentations to the editorial boards of the River Cities' Reader and the Quad-City Times.
At a meeting on December 20, officials from the Isle of Capri (IOC), its architectural firm, its construction firm, and the Riverboat Development Authority visited the offices of the River Cities' Reader to give their pitch for a riverfront hotel/casino complex that it hopes the Davenport City Council signs off on early next year.
It was probably no accident that Governor Rod Blagojevich chose a Naperville school last week to unveil his proposal to criminalize the sale or rental of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors. If he had used an impoverished inner-city school as a backdrop, the assembled parents might have asked him about the real-life violence that their children face every day.

Locked Up

On Thursday, December 9, two River Cities' Reader staff members participated in the Moline animal shelter's "media lockup." The program was meant to attract people to the shelter to adopt animals, as well as raise awareness through articles in the media.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is widely believed to be the teachers' unions' best friend. Madigan passed the "temporary" income-tax surcharge years ago, which earmarked half of the new money for schools.
I would like to submit a counter-proposal to the riverfront hotel casino complex now being lobbied for by Isle of Capri interests with the City of Davenport. That is: Develop the Hotel Blackhawk as the axis for a casino convention center complex.
The dust isn't even settled yet from the 2004 campaign, but candidates are already lining up for the 2006 race. You and I might be sick of campaign news, but to these people the game is just beginning. Joe Birkett, the DuPage County state's attorney who narrowly lost the 2002 attorney general's race to Democrat Lisa Madigan, sent a letter to Republican leaders late last month telling them he is looking forward to being on the statewide ticket.

Pages