Illinois
Focus on Export Bright Spot to Boost Jobs
Note: This post has been updated to correct an editing error. As President Obama wraps up his bus motorcade today in Western Illinois, he’ll find himself in proximity to one of the few bright spots of a recovery so halting it still feels like a recession: exporters Exports have been a quiet hero during the last few years. While only 13 percent of the economy, the export sector contributed 44 percent to the growth of the economy last year. Manufacturing industries, such as car, aircraft, and pharmaceuticals manufacturing, are particularly export oriented. READ MORE >>
When Barack Obama announced his presidential candidacy on February 10, 2007, he did it in Springfield, Illinois, in the same place where Abraham Lincoln had made his historic challenge to slavery in June 1858. “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Lincoln had declared, conveying his conviction that the union could no longer countenance the existence of a slave-owning South. READ MORE >>
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Pale King By David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown, 548 pp., $27.99) Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will By David Foster Wallace (Columbia University Press, 252 pp., $19.95) Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace By David Lipsky (Broadway Books, 320 pp., $16.99) READ MORE >>
I Don't Get No Respect, I Tell Ya
with Courtney Pitman The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division just can’t catch a break lately. Amid an extremely partisan national debate, this unit has deported more unauthorized immigrants than any other administration, a fact that immigrant advocates decry as too harsh, and anti-immigration groups seem to overlook during their criticism of Obama’s inaction on immigration enforcement. READ MORE >>
Blagojevich—Good Riddance to Him
It’s never a happy thing to see someone convicted of serious crimes. With rare exceptions, I don’t believe people should serve really long prison sentences. So I don’t want Rod Blagojevich to serve decades in prison. Still, these were just and necessary verdicts. The Chicago Tribune’s Annie Sweeney reports that our corrupt former governor is expected to serve ten years. This seems about right. READ MORE >>
The Rust Belt, Still a Bit Rusty
The economy may be recovering but many, if not most, Americans don’t seem to have noticed. A story by Michael Fletcher, from Wednesday’s Washington Post, helps explain why. READ MORE >>
More Car Talk for the Campaign
Unemployment in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois is falling more quickly than in the rest of the country. The Big Three are hiring again. Does one development have anything to do with the other? Does it mean President Obama can brag about the auto industry rescue package? READ MORE >>
Car Talk and the Campaign
Writing Osama bin Laden
The Budget Impasse And the Policy Riders
The budget impasse seems to hinge as much as anything else on the fate of a series of "riders" -- measures attached the the budget by the House GOP that don't have anything to do with the budget: Top budget staff, after working through the night, returned Thursday morning with a proposed $34.5 billion in cuts, with $3 billion of that to come from the Pentagon. READ MORE >>
