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.

We're coming up on graduation season, and high-school seniors and their parents will be addressing the tough question about how to pay for higher education.

Although there is no simple solution to resolving this problem, options are available to ease the burden. One is Dollars for Scholars, a national network of community-based scholarship foundations that mobilize communities.

I reread the editorial I wrote on October 2, 2002, Malin Breaks the Mold, critiquing Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin's performance after one year on the job. All I could think was: What on Earth happened?!

"We must operate in the public trust, which means we do things in an open, agile, and purposeful manner to accomplish this," he [Malin] said. "If we do this, even if people don't agree with something the city is doing, they will almost always respect it if it is done openly. If we are to become the best place to live in Iowa, we must be relentless in maintaining an open responsiveness to the community and to each other."

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.