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 
Future teachers worried budget cuts could affect them
Quincy WGEM (NBC) 10 – -The cuts vary by district, but most involve firing teachers, classroom aides, and support workers, and districts say they must cut staff to make ends meet. This is bad news for those ready to graduate and pursue a job as a teacher, but for a pair of education majors, the current economic condition won’t stop them from following their dreams.
Teaching no longer a ’stable’ career
Chicago WLS (ABC) 7 – A new survey of state schools reveals districts are preparing to cut an even greater number of staff than previously thought. The Illinois Association Of School Administrators says nearly 20,000 school workers – ranging from teachers to support staff – can expect to lose their jobs thanks to budget cuts. Teachers are on the front line of those losses. With all the uncertainty, teaching, which was once considered stable career, is anything but.
State’s only school for blind and deaf students in jeopardy
Chicago Tribune – “It’s an enormous burden.” The Rock Center is one of many schools being stung by a recession that has diminished state revenue and property taxes, forcing numerous teacher layoffs. But while traditional school districts are able to fall back on property tax revenue for funding, the Rock Center relies entirely on the state.
Grayslake teachers accept lower raises
Chicago Daily Herald – Grayslake Elementary District 46 teachers have agreed to contract concessions in an effort to help bridge a $2.27 million budget gap projected for the 2010-11 school year.
Board may recall 34 teachers at April meeting Geneseo, Ill. – Thirty four of the 66 non-tenured teachers who were dismissed by the Geneseo School District are expected to be rehired at the school board’s April meeting.
Mautino to schools: ‘We’re looking at cuts’
Ottawa Daily – “This is a good sign for us,” Mautino said. School officials questioned Mautino about recent pension reform and how that will impact the teachers’ Retirement System. Mautino acknowledged that some of the changes made to when a person can retire may need to be tweaked for educators. No one, he said, wants a 60-year-old forced
Dist. 220 superintendent’s contract extended to 2014
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – Tom has made a commitment to the district for another four years,” Battle said. But the head of a local tax watch group criticized the contract as excessive at a time when both teacher salaries and state funding issues are causing the district to trim personnel and student services. The contract extension gives Leonard a 3.6 percent raise for the current school year,
Attorney general probes Rich Township SD 227 Board
Park Forest Star – The school board is expected to approve Leak’s contract, which has yet to be negotiated, at its April 20 meeting, board president Sonya Norwood said. Tuesday’s announcement that Leak was the board’s top choice followed an explosive board meeting that drew a crowd of about 200. Members of the teachers union, the student body and elected officials from Richton Park and Olympia Fields read statements, criticizing the board’s actions.
Beloved Prospect Heights band instructor retiring after 40 years
Chicago Daily Herald – Not many people stay at the same job for 40 years – especially one involving adolescents – but Dave Thomas, the MacArthur Middle School band director, has stuck around to teach generations of children how to excel as musicians. Thomas is retiring from the Prospect Heights school after almost four decades.
Students line up as colleges add more ‘green’ programs
Chicago Daily Herald – from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows. Jobs are being created for people of all skills and educational levels, the report says, including positions like engineers, plumbers, marketing consultants, teachers and administrative assistants. And interest is only expected to rise, with President Obama’s pledge to create millions of green-related jobs in the energy, transportation and manufacturing
Stimulus cash helping District 116 technology needs
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – Round Lake Area Unit District 116 has been awarded $850,000 in federal stimulus money to upgrade technology for students. Illinois State Board of education officials announced the District 116 award Wednesday. The Round Lake area’s school system was one of 15 across Illinois selected to share in $10 million in federal stimulus cash for school
Bradley students ask administrators for new mascot
Quad Cities Dispatch Argus Leader – Bradley University’s nickname is the Braves, but the school officially has no mascot — something students at the private university in Illinois say they would like changed. The Peoria school’s students voted Monday and Tuesday in a nonbinding referendum to call on administrators to come up with what their ballots called an ‘appropriate’ mascot, school spokesman Shelley Epstein said Wednesday.
Time has come to increase income tax
Chicago Daily Herald – Letter to the Editor – Thousands of Illinoisans are losing their jobs because of the state’s inability to pay its bills. Illinois schools are drastically cutting programs. Medicare and Medicaid bills are not being paid to health care providers
Chicago schools adopt healthier menus
Chicago Tribune – many schools will earn certification next year remains unclear; the district wouldn’t offer a target number. Certification would also require the schools to offer daily recess, increase physical education to at least 90 minutes per week and offer nutrition education in half of all elementary grades and in at least two high school classes required for graduation.
Restructuring of Board of Trustees on hold Daily Illini – The bill currently in the Senate, introduced by State Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-52, would require one of the nine trustees to be affiliated with agricultural pursuits. Reis said this bill could be amended to include further changes, but said it might not pass if it requires a specific agricultural group to be represented among the trustees.
Political News
Poll Shows Brady Lead Narrowing MyFox Chicago – The latest poll in the Illinois governor’s race shows Republican Bill Brady in the lead over incumbent Governor Pat Quinn. …
Problems traced to history and power MyWebTimes.com – It’s been three decades since Illinois government worked well. That was the last time the state had a governor with enough personal power and political muscle to bring together the legislative leaders, lock them in a room (at least figuratively) and keep them there until they hammered out a budget that was balanced and realistic
Springfield’s real political power, Since 1983, Michael Madigan the ‘real’ governor among the ‘Four Tops’ Streator Times-Press – Madigan, who has been speaker for 25 of the last 27 years, is one of the four Illinois legislative leaders known collectively as the “Four Tops.” The others are Democrat John Cullerton, the Senate President who presides with a 15-vote majority, and Republicans Tom Cross, who is House Minority Leader, and Christine Radogno, Senate Minority Leader.
Atheist Rob Sherman files $2.3 Billion lawsuit against Gov. Quinn Chicago Daily Observer – ?Most of the grants challenged by Sherman, Illinois’ leading atheist, go to religious organizations — houses of worship, parochial schools and religious ministries. Clear, unambiguous language in Article X, Section 3, of the Illinois Constitution says that no grant of money shall ever be made by the State to any church for any purpose. Article X, Section 3, also strictly prohibits public funds from ever being used to help support any parochial school. In addition, Article I, Section 3, of the Illinois Constitution provides that no person shall be required to support any ministry against his consent.
Senate Dems Propose Changes To Redistricting MyFox Illinois – With the federal government conducting the decennial census, Democratic state senators have introduced a …
Remap debate to have far-reaching consequences
Springfield State Journal Register – Illinois lawmakers’ upcoming debate over how to redraw their legislative districts will have political consequences for the next decade. Democrats and Republicans are pushing rival constitutional amendments to overhaul the system used after each census to remap legislative voting districts. In recent decades, legislative deadlocks have resulted in a map being chosen by lottery.
Feds: Make former Blagojevich lawyer testify
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – the attorney-client privilege” but that the governor has declined to expressly waive that privilege. Communications between a lawyer and client usually are exempt from being used in court. Gov. Pat Quinn, after replacing Blagojevich in February 2009, waived any notion of privilege on Quinlan’s behalf, and the motion cites case law that there’s no privilege between a government official
Helen Thomas: ‘I want to die with my boots on’ JACKSONVILLE — Long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas believes passage of President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan was critical to his presidency.
National News
Nearly half of US households escape fed income tax
Quad Cities WHBF (CBS) 4 – Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it’s simply somebody else’s problem. About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That’s according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.
Schools Could Soon Sell Ads on School Buses News On 6 – One of Oklahoma’s lawmakers is trying to give school districts the ability to make money from mobile advertising. Faced with significant reductions in the budget, school districts across the state are looking for ways to save money and increase revenue. Representative Seneca Scott, a Democrat from Tulsa, has filed an amendment to SB421 to allow businesses to advertise on the side of school buses.
Iowa balances budget; but cuts still looming
Quincy KHQA (CBS) 7 – But the General Assembly has worked during the session to fill in some of the funding gaps in the state’s priority areas. That means the cuts won’t be as deep for education, corrections and public safety and economic growth. He says 60 percent of the state’s budget goes to education in some way, from school districts to state universities.
Low achieving schools getting $18.7 million
Quincy KHQA (CBS) 7 – The U.S. Department of education is sending $18.7 million to Iowa to help the state’s lowest achieving schools turn around. The money is being made available through the department’s School Improvement Grants
Missouri bill could give PE credit for sports, band
Quincy KHQA (CBS) – That’s the premise of legislation given first-round approval Wednesday by the state Senate. The bill would let school districts award one unit of physical education credit to students who participate in at least three years of interscholastic sports or marching band. The legislation also requires regional “professional development centers”
TIME.com Today’s Top Stories
‘Too Big To Fail’: Still a Problem Too Big to Solve?
Giving regulators the authority to liquidate the biggest banks doesn’t mean those banks won’t still rank as too big to fail and that, critics say, is the big problem with Senator Dodd’s financial reform bill
Kyrgyzstan: Did Moscow Subvert a U.S. Central Asian Ally?
Kyrgyzstan is important to Washington for its supply line to the U.S.’s Afghanistan war operations. Moscow has tried to disrupt the U.S.-Kyrgyzstan relationship before. Has it tried again?
Daimler, Renault and Nissan: a Green Auto Alliance
The three companies at the heart of the auto industry’s latest alliance are taking an environmental approach, developing a new generation of small cars and green engines in line with new E.U. regulations
U.S. Officials Downplay Rash of Baghdad Attacks
Despite the recent wave of bombings in Baghdad, the U.S. military insists that the enemies of Iraq, including al-Qaeda, are on their last legs
In India, Getting Mothers Talking Saves Babies’ Lives
Researchers say they’ve found a way to keep more newborns alive in the poorest corners of eastern India: Get their mothers talking
Word of the Day for Thursday, April 8, 2010
interlard \in-tuhr-LARD\, transitive verb:
To insert between; to mix or mingle; especially, to introduce something foreign or irrelevant into; as, “to interlard a conversation with oaths or allusions.”