CARBONDALE - April 23, 2013. As chair of an Illinois River conservation council, Lt. Governor Sheila Simon encouraged residents along the Illinois River to remain vigilant and take precautions as flood waters continue to rise over the coming days.

"While the northern portion of the Illinois River starts to recede, areas downstream of La Salle-Peru have not yet crested and could see the river raise another four to seven feet in the coming days," said Simon, who chairs the Illinois River Coordinating Council. "I will continue to work with state, local and disaster relief officials to provide aid to these vulnerable communities."

At present, the Illinois River is projected to crest at 29.4 feet early Wednesday morning in Peoria, about a half-inch higher than the previous record. Flood stage for the Illinois River in Peoria is 18 feet. Farther downstream, the river is projected to crest at 29.5 feet in Beardstown on Thursday morning, where the flood stage is at 14 feet.

As flood waters continue to rise, Simon reminded families to exercise caution and avoid driving through flood waters. Residents can monitor flood levels, find updates on road conditions and search for nearby shelters at www.ready.illinois.gov. To donate to the recovery effort or learn about volunteer opportunities, visit www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS.

"With more rain coming down last night and today, flooding throughout central and southern Illinois will get worse before it gets better," Simon said.

Governor Quinn has declared 44 counties as state disaster areas. Counties included in the state disaster declaration are Adams, Brown, Bureau, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Champaign, Cook, DeKalb, Douglas, DuPage, Fulton, Greene, Grundy, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Jersey, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kendall, Knox, Lake, LaSalle, Livingston, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, McHenry, Mercer, Morgan, Ogle, Peoria, Pike, Putnam, Rock Island, Schuyler, Scott, Stark, Tazewell, Whiteside, Will, Winnebago and Woodford.

Lt. Governor Simon and the Illinois River Coordinating Council work with state and federal agencies and local communities to raise awareness of and address watershed issues along the Illinois River. The Council assisted volunteer efforts and agency responses to the 2011 Mississippi River flood in Southern Illinois.

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Rock Island, IL/April 23, 2013 - Augustana College closes its 2012-2013 River Readings series this Thursday, April 25 with fiction writer Donald Ray Pollock. The event will be held at7 p.m. in Wallenberg Hall inside Denkmann Hall (3520 7th Ave). Every reading is open to the public and the campus community alike.

Donald Ray Pollock found fiction writing late in life, spending thirty-two years employed in a paper mill before enrolling in Ohio State University's MFA program at age 50.  After graduating in 2009, Anchor Books published Pollock's first book, Knockemstiff, which won the 2009 PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship.  His work has appeared in The New York Times, Third Coast, Chiron Review, Boulevard, Washington Square, and the Berkeley Fiction Review, to name a few.  Pollock's second book, The Devil All the Time (Doubleday, 2011) has been listed by Publisher's Weekly as one of the top ten books of the year and was released last summer to rave reviews.

The River Readings at Augustana is an annual literary reading series featuring authors from around the country and beyond, working in a variety of genres.

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Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today released details of a timeline on a key Medicare policy decision earlier this month that reportedly moved stock prices when correctly described  by an outside firm prior to public release.  Grassley received information about the timeline from Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in response to his inquiry.  Grassley's office has calculated that the Medicare Advantage policy decision was worth about $8 billion to the health care companies participating in Medicare Advantage.  He made the following comment on the new timeline details and the nomination of Tavenner to serve as permanent administrator.

"This timeline suggests CMS knew it was going to assume a sustainable growth rate fix in the Medicare Advantage rates on March 15.  I don't think anyone who understands the background believes CMS made the decision on its own or that the first time it was known outside of CMS was May 22.  This was a decision not only with a high price tag, but also with political implications for the White House.  A policy decision benefiting the big insurance companies by $8 billion is not a routine undertaking for this Administration.  Given the high probability that the White House, National Economic Council, and Domestic Policy Council were involved in the $8 billion decision before March 15, a significant number of people likely knew what the outcome would be long before the decision was announced.  It seems unlikely that none of them hinted at it to anyone else for more than two weeks.  That's especially true with the efforts from lobbyists and at least one political intelligence firm to get early insight into the decision.  Acting Administrator Tavenner has been responsive to my inquiries on this issue, in a letter last Friday and on a phone call this morning.  I intend to support her nomination and continue to work with her to get to the bottom of what led to the early release of information about the Medicare Advantage decision."

Grassley's April 4 letter to Tavenner is available here.  Tavenner's April 19 response to Grassley is available here.

If you're using social media for marketing, what should you say following a tragedy like the deadly blasts at the Boston Marathon on April 15?

The horrific elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn.?

The October storm that took lives and devastated communities across the Northeast?

Sometimes, nothing at all.

The age of digital marketing brings with it new challenges, including how to respond during a national tragedy. Remember, as recently as Sept. 11, 2001, we had no MySpace, much less Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. Except for email, no vehicle for delivering instantaneous marketing messages existed. After 9/11, one of the most painful days in American memory, most of us had time to pause, reflect and put on hold print, radio and TV marketing campaigns that might be viewed as inappropriate or offensive.

In recent months, there has been lively debate on this topic in the marketing community, including how and when to tie - or not to tie -- a marketing message into the news of the day, a  widely used strategy.

Gaffes can occur with the most innocent of intentions in any media content, marketing or not. Earlier in April, a new episode of the musical comedy "Glee" upset and angered parents in Newtown, Conn., because the plot featured a student bringing a gun to school, where it accidentally discharges.

"A lot of people were upset about it and that I feel horrible about," Jane Lynch, one of the stars, told Access Hollywood Live days later. "If we added to anybody's pain, that's just certainly not what any of us wanted. ... We're always rather topical and rather current."

Usually, however, simply applying your own sense of decency and good taste can help you avoid a blunder. Consider American Apparel's notorious "Hurricane Sandy Sale - in case you're bored during the storm," advertised as tens of thousands of people endured freezing temperatures without power. Most of us wouldn't have even considered such a ploy!

Here are a couple more suggestions for do's and don'ts:

• If you use automated posts scheduled through a site such as HootSuite, turn them off immediately. If people don't find them insensitive and uncaring or silly, they'll likely conclude your messages come from a robot - not a real person - which is just as bad.

• Can you be helpful? Hours after the blasts in Boston, with cell phone service out in the city and family and friends desperately trying to connect with loved ones, Google.org launched "Person Finder: Boston Marathon Explosions." There, individuals and organizations could share information about the status of marathon participants and spectators for those trying to find them.

If your community has suffered a tragic event, perhaps you have helpful information to share. Here in Florida, which is affected by hurricanes, people use social media to help evacuees and their pets find shelter, and to alert others to danger, such as downed power lines. Depending on your area of expertise, you may be able to provide more general information or commentary. For instance, an educator can share tips for answering children's questions about the event. Philanthropists might comment on those selflessly step up to help.

• Of course, social media is also about reactions and, for many, that's a sincere expression of sympathy for and unity with those affected.

If you want to post something and you're unsure about what to say, take a look at what businesses and other brands are sharing, and how online users are reacting. You may decide to just say nothing for a day or two, or whatever time seems reasonable given the nature of the event.

Sometimes, saying nothing at all speaks volumes.

About Marsha Friedman

every Thursday at 3:00 PM EST. Follow her on Twitter: @marshafriedman.