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.

For several weeks now, the Illinois General Assembly's spring session has been a slow-motion train wreck. Those of us who work at the Statehouse are moving around in real time watching it happen all around us, saying to ourselves, "Oh, this is gonna hurt."

Be forewarned the following commentary is a shameless effort to provide publicity for the River Cities Rumble Disc Golf Tournament, a sporting event the Reader co-founded last year with the Quad City Disc Golf Club (QCDGC).

Just over a year later the QCDGC (started in 1999), led by tournament director Chad Eng, has succeeded in securing a couple significant milestones for the second-annual River Cities Rumble.

As political tides continue to turn against the Iraq war, Hillary Clinton's opponents have highlighted her refusal to apologize for supporting it. It's a fair critique, because the next American president will face a host of foreign-policy challenges while attempting to repair our post-Bush position in the world.