Even before the meeting it looks like the comment threads at the Herald and the Courier are filling up. City officials wisely changed the location of the city council meeting to the Centre ballroom to accomodate what is expected to be a large turnout for the public comment portion.

Photographs by Shaylan Misael Novoa for The Elginite.
Chase Bank in downtown Elgin was robbed Friday afternoon just before 3:00 p.m. The Daily Herald has an early story out saying that a suspect is in custody.

The town hall event held by U-46 last week apparently drew a large crowd (700 according to one commenter on the Daily Herald) and inspired passionate comments on the Daily Herald site. The event was attended by area legislators Michael Noland and Keith Farnham.
If you attended perhaps you can give us your impression of the event, and even if you didn’t, what impact do you think U-46’s budget woes will have on the reelection bids of the incumbent legislators? It seems that many of the 91 comments on the Herald …

Each week that the legislature is in session I will be updating you on progress being made in Springfield on behalf of the 22nd District and the State of Illinois.

The General Assembly has now convened, and lawmakers are busy working on solutions to our current budget crisis and rebuilding Illinois’ economy.

From Chicago Public Radio:

Bilingual students are entitled to smaller class sizes under Illinois state law.
But Elgin says it could save a half million dollars by assigning its bilingual students to classes that are the same size as its general education classes. The district faces a $40 million budget hole.
Elgin argues it’s cut class sizes for everyone this year and says classes of 25 to 28 are small enough for bilingual kids too. The State Board of Education disagrees. It denied Elgin’s request in January, saying the change could have “a …