The costs to Illinois’ government because of the new Republican congressional budget-reconciliation law will be steep. However, the state has some time to prepare itself, and possible Democratic gains in the U.S. House and Senate next year might be able to reverse or mitigate some of the steepest cuts to food-security and health-care programs before the vast majority of them take effect after the 2026 elections.

No amount of media manipulation of election coverage, past or present, can restore the trust that has been lost relative to the security, fairness, and authenticity of U.S. elections, especially in the last decade. The election bureaucracy, in full cooperation with mainstream media, have maintained a pathological denial and suppression of widespread irregularities, including compelling supporting evidence, dooming its credibility going forward.

The Friends of Milan Bottoms (FMB) are a group of local individuals and organizations who are against locating a truck stop and cannabis dispensary on a specific 10-acre site adjacent to vital wetlands. We are not against Puffing and Pumping. However, locating those businesses there will cause extreme noise and lighting that will destroy the largest Bald Eagle winter night roosting area in the Lower 48 States and jeopardize the long-term health of our area’s only real touch of wilderness, as well as pose a potential drastic risk for oil/gas contamination over the decades.

Last Wednesday evening, I got a text from a concerned citizen alerting me to the video of that evening's Davenport City Council meeting. Two people made presentations to the council about accessing the grand jury and did I know these people? Of course, I was glued to the playback of the council meeting that evening. After watching the video playback several times, my “Spidey-Sense” was tingling. I thought, “Is this crazy-bait? Are these people legitimate or have they been sent here to disrupt or discredit the critical discussion regarding the grand juries?”