Transparency Checklist

It is hardly a piece of cake to be a member of the Sunlight Foundation‘s organization for state and local bloggers known as the Citizens for Open Government (COG) group. I kid you not. The number of e-mail messages can get crazy some days. Most of the group are “transparency professionals,” such as newspaper reporters…

Northern Star Fighting for 3rd Ward Names

The Northern Star has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the names of the persons considered by the mayor for the vacated Third Ward alderman spot. With the questionable past of the 3rd Ward, it is interesting to see that the city has decided to withhold this information from the public,…

Park District & TIF

Here are facts obtained recently from the DeKalb Park District about its agreements with the City of DeKalb: Once upon a time, the Park District would submit requests to the City for reimbursements of Tax Increment Financing (TIF)-eligible expenses incurred on a project-by-project basis. The projects had to occur within TIF districts and there was…

Local History, Art, and Stories Sneak Peek

The Lincoln Highway Association will hold its annual conference in Dixon this June. At some point, there will be a public call for artists, photographers, storytellers, historians, and anyone else interested to participate in an artists’ reception and/or to write their recollections of the Lincoln Highway in Illinois for a booklet. You heard it here…

CROP Walk Funds Going to Haiti

If you pounded the pavement in DeKalb County’s Sondra King Memorial CROP Walk for Hunger last fall, or sponsored someone who did, your dollars are helping in Haiti right now. And if you can spare a couple more bucks, donate here.

An Observation or Two About Domestic Violence Attitudes

Whenever domestic violence cases reach the newspapers, some people end up making really ignorant statements about them. Here are a few doozies I’ve heard over the past several months. They’ve happened to be referring to adult female survivors of violence by male perpetrators, so my pronouns will be consistent with that scenario. And when I…