I know it's not my beat, so I'll leave the super analysis of The Fighting Illini basketball team to News-Gazette beat writer Brett Dawson.

I'm not much for movies anymore. I rarely go, and when I do I rarely enjoy what I see. I thought March of the Penguins, a documentary, was good and got a kick out of Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. (I've never seen such a smart dog).

Come with me now deep into the heart of darkness [] October 1967 [] when American soldiers were fighting and dieing in Vietnam, college campuses were starting to churn with protest and a president was caught in a vise from which he would not escape.

Joe Birkett, the DuPage County state's attorney who ran unsuccessfully for Illinois attorney general in 2002, has been in the news a lot lately, most recently getting front-page coverage in The Chicago Tribune when he announced an indictment in a notoriou