Below are links to news stories of interest from newspapers that came up during a search today. These links were active at the time of this e-mail, but should you want to save a story, printing it or cutting and pasting the entire article and saving it to your computer is recommended.

State News

Kaneland teachers to vote on contract talks
Geneva Kane County Chronicle – Teachers in the Kaneland School District will decide this weekend how far they are willing to go to help the cash-strapped district balance its books. Members of the Kaneland Education Association began voting Thursday on the question of whether to begin talking to the Kaneland School Board about the possibility of renegotiating their collective bargaining agreement.

School District U-46 holds forums on budget reductions
Dr. Jose M. Torres, superintendent of School District U-46, has scheduled six public forums in order to receive feedback from the U-46 community and employees regarding possible budget reductions for next school year.

U-46 financial crisis has a distinct taste of déjà vu
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – With every new story I read, and with every new piece of information that comes in, I can’t help but have an overwhelming feeling of déjà vu. Elgin Area School District U-46 is in dire financial straits again.

District 205 Leaders, Union Put Aside Differences WIFR – Recent tension between District 205 leaders and the teachers union could play a role in Rockford schools ability to get federal money through a grant called ‘Race To The Top.’ Right now, they’re working on that relationship to get it.

Oswego schools plan for $5.5M deficit
Caught up in the state’s delay on payments and the decline of local property values, Oswego school officials are proposing a plan to make up for a projected $5.5 million deficit.

Budget woes force school cuts
The state’s financial woes have trickled downhill and area schools are paying the price. Effingham Unit 40 isn’t an exception to the number of schools feeling the state’s financial pinch. Unit 40 trimmed about $900,000 from its budget last year, but the state’s financial situation has continued to disintegrate, resulting in late or nonexistent payments to local school districts.

Illinois’ MAP grant dilemma vexing students
Roughly 138,000 Illinois MAP recipients got a big shock last fall when, just weeks before classes started, the state made huge cuts to Illinois’ $400 million financial aid program. Students were told they’d get aid in the fall, but that no money remained for spring. Finding a permanent funding stream for the grants remains a problem – meaning students are leery of relying on MAP awards.

Southland schools look at layoffs, program cuts over state aid delays
Illinois is $650 million behind on education payments. It owes Southland school districts more than $24.4 million. The district has enacted a hiring freeze for several positions and is holding off on raises for many non-union workers. Most drastic, however, is a move to lay off all non-tenured first-, second-, third- and fourth-year teachers – more than 100 of 300-plus teachers in the district – before rehiring some of them back before the next school year.

Forum on Jacksonville school budget Tuesday
Springfield State Journal Register – Current projections for the next school year are that there will be a $2 million deficit in the district’s education fund. The Jacksonville school board is holding the forum to give the community an opportunityto offer suggestions or ask questions about budget cuts that likely might be necessary.

Don’t lay off Dist. 202 teachers
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – Letter to the Editor – The teachers do a great job in our schools and are not the problem. You can find millions of dollars of waste and programs that are not needed. Get rid of all the assistants that make six-figure incomes. The $250,000 our superintendent makes, along with all the secretaries and assistants, would be a nice place to start. Our teachers deserve better.

In My View: We need black teachers in the classroom
Springfield State Journal Register – During this set-aside time of the year for black history lessons, lest we forget, in the past 55 years after the implementation of Brown v. the Board of education (1954), black teachers in America’s K-12 classrooms have trickled down to almost non-extant, a reported 66 percent decline, with black teachers today representing less than 8 percent

Our Opinion: Project funds aplenty; none for city schools
Springfield State Journal Register – As a result of the cuts to the federal stimulus, the Springfield School District lost out on $6.4 million in funding in 2009, while Ball-Chatham lost $239,700, according to an analysis of proposed stimulus spending produced by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization.

Plains officials eye sales tax to rebuild high school
Springfield State Journal Register – The challenge, however, is finding a way to pay for renovations without asking property owners to foot the bill, school board president George Murphy said. “I don’t think there’s sentiment on the board to raise Plains’ property taxes to have the (upgrades) done,” Murphy said.

Illinois budget crisis touches all stakeholders of state universities
A stark reality faces the University. Illinois is woefully behind on paying the universities nested within this state, almost $750 million to the different University of Illinois campuses alone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the money will come any time soon.

Chicago schools pile up lunch waste
Chicago Tribune – Every day, kids in the Chicago Public Schools district throw out nearly a quarter of a million lunch and breakfast trays made of polystyrene foam. That’s more than 1 million a week, about 5 million a month. And those trays are just the start of a river of trash from school meals that ends up in landfills, including nacho-stained containers, half-empty milk cartons, plastic cookie wrappers and plastic tubs that will sit in thick polyethylene bags for centuries without biodegrading

Political News

Editorial: State deficit demands attention
Hapless schools, universities and social service agencies have been standing by, waiting for the state to pay its bills – for classes already taught, drug treatment already given, home health care already provided – but the state hasn’t ponied up because, quite simply, it doesn’t have the money.

Insiders left speechless by primary results Herald & Review – On Thursday, more than 40 hours after the polls had closed, state Sen. Bill Brady was back home in Bloomington, whispering his way through an interview

Finke: Second time – and voter apathy – is the charm for Bill Brady Peoria Journal Star – What a difference a couple of years makes. Well, a couple of years, a couple of more candidates and a whole lot of apathy.

400 votes down, Dillard not out in GOP gov race
Chicago Sun Times – important, every vote must be counted.” Waiting until the count is completed won’t put the eventual GOP nominee — no matter who it is — at a disadvantage in the November general election against Gov. Quinn, Dillard said. “We have the earliest primary in America,” said Dillard. “We still have plenty of time. Our party is not losing any ground here.” Election officials have until Feb. 16

Brady stays on campaign trail, targets Quinn
Journal&Gazette Times-Courier – Although the outcome of the Republican race for governor remains in flux, state Sen. Bill Brady headed out on the campaign trail Friday.

Cohen exits lt. governor’s race amid furor over arrest The Democratic nominee for Illinois’ lieutenant governor dropped out of the race Sunday night, less than a week after

Ex-girlfriend at center of Scott Lee Cohen scandal: Lt. gov. nominee not fit to hold office
Elgin Courier News – The ex-girlfriend who accused Democratic Lt. Governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen of threatening her with a knife said Saturday she “does not believe he is fit to hold any public office.’’ Amanda J. Eneman’s statement, issued through well-known celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, are the first public comments by the convicted prostitute since details about Cohen’s background emerged following his victory in the primary Tuesday.

212,902 reasons Cohen shouldn’t have quit
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – There are 212,902 reasons that Scott Lee Cohen should have been left alone. That is the number of Illinois Democrats who voted for him to be their lieutenant governor candidate.

Should Illinois lieutenant governor position be eliminated?
Freeport Journal Standard – PEORIA, Ill. — In the wake of a burgeoning scandal over the Democratic lieutenant governor nominee, state lawmakers want to re-examine the post or investigate the possibility of eliminating it all together. Damaging revelations about Scott Lee Cohen’s personal life surfaced this after Tuesday’s primary.

Quinn: Hynes doesn’t want #2 spot WGNtv.com – Pat Quinn’s running mate Scott Lee Cohen reluctantly stepped aside after a series of embarrassing personal revelations led to calls for his ousting.

State lawmakers returning this week to packed agenda Illinois lawmakers return to work in earnest this week and have an overflowing agenda of problems to deal with from now until May.

The chips are down for Gov. Quinn
Chicago Tribune – Eric Zorn – Gov. Pat Quinn has a whole raft of words and sayings he falls back on — “Taxes should be based on the ability to pay, it’s a principle as old as the Bible,” for example. So I decided to create a Pat Quinn Bingo game to play whenever he’s giving a news conference. As I was gathering entries for the grid, I discovered that Quinn’s campaign staff had already made a game board of their own. I added some of theirs to some of mine and came up with this

Political janitor needed to cleanup Illinois’ mess
Quad Cities Dispatch Argus Leader – Given the closeness of both the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries, it seems that there isn’t anyone voters are really enthusiastic about heading up state government here in Illinois. As I was ruminating about that, I began to wonder why anyone would want to be governor of Illinois at this point in time, given the fiscal mess the state is in.

Quinn Still Wants Cigarette Tax Increase WGIL Radio News – ? Pat Quinn says he is still for an increase in the state’s cigarette tax, a plan that has been talked about since last year.

Republican Governors Association Using Dan Hynes Campaign Ads To Attack Pat … Huffington Post (blog) – ?Even though the winner of the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination remains unclear, Republicans are already attacking Gov. Pat Quinn–and using fellow Democrat …

Durbin to chair Giannoulias campaign U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Sunday he will chair Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign for the Senate seat being vacated by Roland Burris and previously held by President Barack Obama.

Core Chicago Team Sinking Obama Presidency Serious critiques of the internal game around Obama have to be read — because Obama is not winning. He is failing, and people need to consider why.

Rep. John Murtha dead at 77 Washington Post – Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), 77, a Vietnam veteran who staunchly supported military spending and became a master of pork-barrel politics, died today at Virginia Hospital Center.

National News

Senators, with teachers on their side, seek control of Missouri tax credits
Columbia Missourian – Also supporting Crowell were two prominent teachers’ groups — the Missouri National Education Association and the Missouri State Teachers Association …

TIME.com Today’s Top Stories

The Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials of 2010

TIME TV critic James Poniewozik grades the ads of Super Bowl XLIV

Five Lessons from the Tea-Party Convention

Rather than form a new party, the movement will remain leaderless and campaign for approved conservatives. And they all love Sarah Palin

Collateral Damage: The Downward Spiral of Private Steven Green

The first of two excerpts from TIME contributing editor Jim Frederick’s new book, Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent Into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death

Republicans Must Embrace the Vital Center

Moderate Republicanism has imploded. But a new wave of conservatives could bring it back

Venezuela: Opponents Hope to Strike Out Chávez

The fiery President’s popularity has been plummeting and his opponents took advantage of the situation by heckling him at a popular baseball series

A Year After Fires, Australia Debates What Went Wrong

On Feb. 7, Australia will mark the one-year anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires, the worst natural disaster in the continent’s recorded history

European Vacation: Pope Talks Tough in His Own Backyard

For his next two trips abroad, Pope Benedict XVI is traveling to Britain and Portugal to try to counter the forces of secularism sweeping the continent

Seeing Light Through the Economic Gloom in Davos

As political and business leaders gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, they will be breathing a sigh of relief. But be in no doubt; the world has changed

We Have Lost the Habits of Citizenship

For much of this period, concern about public fecklessness was an essentially conservative argument: How do you deal with a public that wants lower taxes and more services?

Why the U.S. is Back on the Road to Damascus

The Obama Administration is moving to send an ambassador to Syria five years after President Bush called home the last one. That could help U.S. goals in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere, but trouble may be looming on the Israeli-Syrian front

Most Viewed Articles on washingtonpost.com

1) Once again, Letterman’s ‘Late Show’ promo is spot on

CBS may have stolen its own show last night with the telecast of Super Bowl XLIV, thanks to a network promo that stole thunder from all the costly commercials sprinkled liberally through the game.

2) A wounded but dangerous enemy

In the past six weeks, Americans have witnessed two jarringly different — but completely accurate — views of al-Qaeda’s terrorist network. One image was that of terrorist leaders being hunted down and killed by satellite-guided, pilotless aircraft. The other was of an agile foe slipping past U….

3) Digging out, with a wary eye on the sky

In the aftermath of the weekend’s massive snowstorm, the region came to grips with the fact that digging out will take days, even as more potentially paralyzing winter weather appeared headed this way by Tuesday.

4) Obama embraces new media, which piques the old guard

Six months ago, network executives were complaining that the White House was costing them tens of millions of dollars by pressing them to carry presidential news conferences in prime time.

5) Wind farm off Massachusetts meets strong resistance

ABOARD THE IDA LEWIS — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar journeyed out into Nantucket Sound on a Coast Guard vessel last week to signal the Obama administration’s readiness to put some muscle behind wind energy. To do that, Salazar has to resolve a battle over building a wind farm on 25 square mile…

6) ‘Finish the kitchen’

If the Democrats do not deliver on health care, they will face the wrath of voters.

7) Official: About 5 unaccounted for after CT blast

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — A section of an under-construction power plant that exploded was too unstable to search Monday, and left questions about whether anyone was trapped inside because authorities do not have an exact roster of everyone who was on duty at the time of the blast.

Word of the Day for Monday, February 8, 2010

approbation \ap-ruh-BAY-shuhn\, noun:

1. The act of approving; formal or official approval.
2. Praise; commendation.

In the News ~ Feb. 8