DuPage Chairman Dan Cronin and State Senator Michael Connelly Hosting Health Fair TODAY!

DuPage seniors are getting a two-for-one deal here as DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin teams up with Illinois State Senator Michael Connelly to host a "Senior Health Fair" today!  If you're out in Wheaton, make sure you head there.

On Wednesday, July 30th State Senator Michael Connelly and I will be hosting a Senior Health Fair at the DuPage County Administration Building from 9 AM until noon in the auditorium. The health fair aims to help seniors live happier and healthier lives. Brochures will be available that outline state programs that benefit seniors, and dozens of organizations will be on hand to provide information on state, local, and private programs. Topics will include financial security, nutrition, cancer prevention, I-Cash, transportation, scam prevention, healthcare options, veterans assistance and MUCH more.

State Representative Ed Sullivan Is Odd Man Out On White Sox Day

As posted on Ed Sullivan's Twitter feed:

On the very same evening as the rest of the normal folks in State Government were taking in a game on the South Side.  As evidenced by this FB post by State Representative Ron Sandack:

The coincidence isn't lost on us, Ed.

Chris Nybo for State Senate Fundraiser - Thursday July 27th, 2014

One of our readers emailed us this photo of a fundraiser invite that they received on behalf of State Senate Candidate Chris Nybo.

The host committee is an interesting mix:  Lt. Governor's candidate Evelyn Sanguinetti, Congressional Candidate Darlene Senger, State Senator Mike Connelly, DuPage County Board Member Sean Noonan and a few other folks including Joel Baise and Dave Kupiec.

Looks like it is being hosted in a couple's home up in Elmhurst - which we have to believe is in the new Nybo district?

With this mix of folks, does that tell us anything in terms of Nybo's ability at securing the seat early when State Senator Kirk Dillard steps down later this month?

OneMan Chimes in on the Big Ten School Bill from State Senators Connelly and Murphy

As we covered over the weekend, two of our favorite State Senators -  State Senator Matt Murphy and State Senator Mike Connelly - have introduce legistlation that would begin to unearth - for the State of Illinois - how hard it would be to get Illinois State University or Southern Illinois University into the Big Ten.

Our piece can be found here on the Truth Team.

Well...one of our 'brothers-in-arms' OneMan has a response to the news up over on his blog.

From his post:

Only three schools in the state play Div I-BCS football and two of them are already in the Big 10 and the third NIU would have to spend millions just to upgrade the football stadium. For any of the other schools to join the conference they would also have to spend millions to upgrade their football stadiums as well as upgrade their programs to Div I-BCS programs and that would cost millions of dollars. 

If you want to upgrade the academics of a state school, I am all for that. Odds are by the time the process would bear fruit it would be long after either of my kids would be done with college. But using an athletic conference as some sort of smoke screen. 

If you want more in state smart kids to go to state schools, upgrade the state schools, get tuition under control. That is going to help, if a kid is going to a school just because it is in a specific athletic conference, the kid isn't that smart to begin with.

Illinois State Senators Want Say in Big Ten Teams?

Listen...we here at the Illinois Truth Team really like State Senator Matt Murphy and State Senator Mike Connelly.  They might be our two favorite State Senators.  Seriously.

But the news that they're sponsoring a bill that would 'study the feasibility' of adding another Illinois state university to the Big Ten is nuts.

From CCB:

Two state lawmakers propose adding another public Illinois college to the Big Ten. 

The legislation, sponsored by Republican Sens. Matt Murphy and Michael Connelly, would study the feasibility of having another of the state's nine public universities join the conference, which includes Penn State, the University of Michigan and Purdue University. 

The measure passed a Senate Higher Education committee this week and now heads to the chamber floor.

So...let's first set aside the fact that the Big Ten is an athletic organization (the CIC is the academic counterpart but has U of C in it) and there isn't another State School that is up to par in terms of competition, facilities or alumni base.  (Oh, be quiet you NIU Huskie fans.  3 years of success does not make a B1G team.  Please.  Go back to the kids table in the MAC.  We don't want to hear about it.  Your stadium holds like 10K people.  And you don't even field teams in many NCAA sports.)

Then...let's also forget that the B1G Conference is now a non-Midwest-centric conference that cares about their 'footprint' due to their cable network.   The expansion to include Maryland and Rutgers had little to do with those schools, we suspect, and everything to do with adding the Washington DC and NYC media markets.  Charleston, Carbondale and Dekalb gain the B1G Conference exactly NOTHING.  No new expanded footprint.  No more cable boxes.

But beyond that, is this what our legislature should be thinking about?

We've got everything else regarding higher education figured out, we guess.

Murphy is a B1G guy - he went to Iowa, but Connelly is a Loyola guy.  If we're saying that Illinois is too competitive and therefore kids who don't get in there head to Iowa or Indiana because they don't want to go to Eastern or Northern or Southern, is the real reason Big Ten athletics?

We're suspect.