I'm thrilled the Illini still are in the hunt for a national championship. I just couldn't be more pleased.

Pity the poor members of the news media, particularly those in St. Louis, who are scrambling to come up with some new, interesting angle on the University of Illinois basketball team making the Final Four.

The City of Urbana was closed for business Friday, not to mention numerous other governmental entities. The stated reason for taking the day off was that the city had declared its spring holiday.

In mid-February, I stumbled across an article about the 75th anniversary of the publication of Dashiell Hammett's book, "The Maltese Falcon." Having seen the movie many times, I announced that I intended to read the book.

Most people have heard the phrase "the horrors of war." But they really have no idea how horrid.

Because of inquiries from readers and the response of other news organizations (most notably The Chicago Tribune March 7 front-page followup), I am posting my March 5 column about the Rhoads-Steidl case.