“Gerard files petitions to oppose Schweighart in Champaign election,” News-Gazette, November 18
When the signatures are verified, Mayor Jerry Schweighart likely will have his first challenger for the office since he was first elected in 1999.
Schweighart earlier this week turned in his papers to the city clerk to get his name on the ballot for the April 5 election, and challenger Don Gerard put his name in the hat Thursday afternoon. Both have spent the past couple months collecting petition signatures to become eligible.
“University to shut down Police Training Institute,” Daily Illini, November 17
The Stewarding Excellence Police Training Institute Project Team concluded their review of the Police Training Institute, or PTI, and has announced that steps will be taken to close the institute no later than Dec. 31, 2011.
According to the report, the team concluded the distribution of $900,000 from the University’s General Revenue Funds to the institute cannot be justified.
“Final votes tallied in Champaign County; no outcomes altered,” News-Gazette, November 17
The additional votes, all either from provisional or absentee mailed-in ballots, mean the county’s turnout was 54,818, or 44.77 of the 122,441 registered voters.
“We wanted to wait as long as possible for the absentees to arrive from Afghanistan and Iraq and other places,” said County Clerk Mark Shelden.
“Attorney general: UI must release records in presidential search,” News-Gazette, November 18
The University of Illinois must release detailed travel records from its recent presidential search, information The News-Gazette and other media outlets first requested last spring, the Illinois attorney general has ruled.
But the university first will consider its options, including a court case, its spokesman said.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the university cannot withhold the names of regional airports, airlines and on-campus travel agencies used for candidates in the search, according to the letter from Lisa Madigan’s public access counselor, Cara Smith. That information relates to the expenditure of public funds and is subject to disclosure, the letter said.
“UI Education programs deemed inadequate by national report,” Daily Illini, November 16
At the University’s Urbana campus, the council looked at three programs within the College of Education: the undergraduate elementary, the graduate secondary and the graduate special education programs.
Greenberg said they found that the graduate programs, in particular, do not prepare teachers on the core content they should be prepared to teach.