As we enter a new year, the running-battle between the world's governments and the world-changing technology known as "cryptocurrency" continues. As 2019 drew to an end, Swiss president Ueli Maurer asserted that Facebook's digital currency (not a real cryptocurrency), Libra, has failed "because central banks will not accept the basket of currencies underpinning it." Politicians want to regulate — or, if possible, kill — cryptocurrency.

As the calendar prepared to flip from 2019 to 2020, protesters stormed the US embassy in Baghdad. As I write this, the action — a response to US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria which killed at least 25 and wounded more than 50 — hasn't yet become a reprise of the Iran hostage crisis of 40 years ago, but it's eerily reminiscent. Although few Americans seem to notice, Iraq is arguably the second-longest war in US history.

“And so this is Christmas And what have we done Another year over A new one just begun. And so happy Christmas We hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young. A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear. War is over, if you want it War is over now.” ― John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS (December 20, 2019) — Ray LaHood, former long-term Illinois Congressman and the US Transportation Secretary from 2009 to 2013, will be the featured speaker at the annual Abraham Lincoln Association (ALA) Birthday Banquet on Wednesday, February 12 in Springfield.