Several community leaders asked for Bean's help in getting the STAR line, a long planned suburb-to-suburb rail system, off the ground.
The system would connect the Northwest and South suburbs along I-90 and the former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroad, linking destinations including O'Hare, Hoffman Estates, Naperville and Joliet.
Click on the following for more details: Daily Herald | Suburban officials, Bean talk funding for transportation, jobs, business
Grand Victoria Casino, a riverboat casino about 40 miles from Chicago in Elgin, Illinois. MGM said earlier this month it would sell its 50-percent stake in the Borgata casino-hotel in Atlantic City after New Jersey gambling regulators said the company's Macau partner, Pansy Ho, had links to Chinese organized crime.
Click on the following for details: Grand Victoria Casino co-owner MGM to be probed by state for possible Asian mob ties | Crain's Chicago Business
Boone County residents are also paying such taxes. In fact, some on the county board were talking about allowing the U of I to seek payment of next year’s levy this year. Imagine that-- paying for next year when the extension office may not even be here next year.
“We’re trying not to close any county offices. That all depends on the financing of the local program, and that’s different in every county,” he said.
Several years ago, many Illinois counties, including Champaign, approved ballot questions to financially support county Extension offices.It’s likely all the centers would close, though their leases expire at different times
Click on the following for more details: University of Illinois Extension mulls closures - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
by Derek Thompson
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
provided by 
If the United States suffers a debt crisis in the next decade, historians may well look to March 15, 2010 as an inflection point
Click on the following to read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/109214/much-ado-about-debt?mod=taxes-advice_strategy
case was filed in 2004 in Kentucky by three men who claim they were abused by priests and claim negligence by the Vatican. Their attorney, William McMurry, is seeking class-action status for the case, saying there are thousands of victims across the country.
"This case is the only case that has been ever been filed against the Vatican which has as its sole objective to hold the Vatican accountable for all the priest sex abuse ever committed in this country
Plaintiffs in the Kentucky suit argue that U.S. diocesan bishops were employees of the Holy See, and that Rome was therefore responsible for their alleged wrongdoing in failing to report abuse.
They say a 1962 Vatican document mandated that bishops not report sex-abuse cases to police
Click on the following for the details: Nation & World | Vatican offers 3 reasons it's not liable for abuse | Seattle Times Newspaper
coalition must collect 288,000 signatures and send them by May 2 to the secretary of state’s office. She said they are working to get 500,000 signatures in case any petitions are challenged but did not have a count yet of how many have been collected.
Ill. redistricting group extends petition deadline - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
