New initiative with NCSA formed

Vernon Burton prefers books, reading them and writing them.

He has two under way, one in conjunction with the 2007 renewal of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the other about the meanings of the words "freedom" and "liberty" in the country and the world after the Civil War. The latter is the kind of thing that could get the attention of, say, "Lincoln at Gettysburg," Gary Wills' prize-winning book on the expansive philosophical meaning in the 272 well-chosen words Lincoln employed in dedicating the battlefield cemetery.

Also on this date

• Menards top land bidder for Urbana property
• Group pushes for end to institutionalization of disabled, seniors
• A voice for those unable to speak
• Defendant denied hurting child
• Obituaries

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