Western Courier

I agree whole-heartedly with this article. Our wonderfully stupid Govenor has a bad habit of promising funds with no concern or care to where the money comes from. He is trying to give himself a shot in the arm to prop up his divebombing political career. Perhaps the Govenor could fund this new construction project by cutting out his travel expenses to and from Springfield by taking up residence in the Govenor's Mansion that the Tax Payers already pay for. I feel very deeply for the NIU community I have several friends and a few relative that attend classes at NIU, but tearing down a building will not heal anything. "Forward, Together Forward," this new plan seems to be quite the opposite. You do not heal from something by simply tearing it down and replacing it. There was an NIU student on the news last night that shared with the interviewer his concern for the financial reprocussions to this state and that is what I think that we all need to do. Contact your local legislators, unfortunately the Governor has put them in a horrible position, don't they look heartless if they don't make this work. Oh Well! How many more years do we have with Blago. Damn too many!!

Columbine did in fact demolish it's facilities, the two year old library and cafeteria where the shootings took place were replaced with a new building on the hill where the two shooters started their rampage.

King Rod is nothing but a shameless political opportunist, who never stops thinking of new and innovative ways of wasting taxpayer money during hard economic times.

However, I also find it a bit suspicious that the president of NIU already had these lofty plans in place for this building before King Rod's proposal. The president of NIU is equally despicable for using this tragedy to pander to the state for a handout that would nearly equal the ENTIRE state allocation for operating the entire campus of Eastern Illinois. The state allocation for WIU is around $54 million - TOTAL - for next year. The president of NIU may as well dance on the graves of those who perished so he could plead to the state for an undue handout of taxpayer money to build a state-of-the-art academic building like no other on the campus of any other state university in the state of Illinois.

Frankly, I think this is beyond the pale of any concept of decency, and it's a shameless solicitation to a known political panderer to waste taxpayer money that the state does not have to be throwing around.

Tearing the building down is a ridiculous idea. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea is either reacting emotionally and needs time for emotions to cool, or like our governor, is just plain ignorant.

I understand that the NIU shootings was a tragic event, but at the same time, there is absolutely NO WAY our "lovely" Govenor should pump 40 millions dollars into building Memorial Hall and demolishing existing Cole Hall. Here is a novel idea Blago, why don't you use the 40 million dollars proposed for NIU to fix the streets and highways in this state! There is not a stretch of road anywhere that isn't riddled with potholes. So instead of dumping millions of dollars into one building, why don't you do us all a favor and fix the damn streets!

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was roused from bed and arrested Tuesday after prosecutors said he was caught on wiretaps audaciously scheming to sell Barack Obama's vacant senate seat for cash or a plum job for himself in the new administration. This only shows how greed are overpowering in some politicians in Illinois. Illinois' 39th governor, George Ryan, was also charged for political corruption and has served little more than a year of his 6 1/2-year sentence. Much like Ryan, Blagojevich saw an opportunity to use his power to leverage benefits for himself by attempting to sell the senate seat. According to the news, Blagojevich was hoping to get a significantly higher salary, a position on the board for his wife, a cabinet post and more in his senate replacement bargain. His greed caught up with him. The FBI has filed a seventy-six page indictment against both Blagojevich and Harris. Apparently his devious deed was caught on tape through a court ordered wire tap last month. The governor is declaring his innocence, professing that everything he said, both in public and in private, has always been lawful. Click to learn more about Blagojevich, courtesy of Personal Money Store's Payday Loan News.