Page 2 - John Wasik News Today

After the school massacre in Newtown, everyone has been putting out proposals for how to reduce gun violence. President Obama created an inter-agency task force. The NRA asked for armed guards in every school. And now economists are weighing in with their own, number-heavy approaches. First, here’s a recent paper (pdf) by Duke’s Philip Cook…

Award-winning musician, artist and climate change activist Beatie Wolfe, described as a "musical weirdo and visionary," headlines this years Earth Month celebration at College of Lake County with a pair of artistic showcases.

The report — prepared by a consultant at the request of the Federal Aviation Administration — says the project was requested through “direct input from corporate users” of the airport expressing a desire for a longer runway that would enable a popular jet model to make more nonstop flights to some international destinations.

The Lake County Board on Tuesday overwhelmingly endorsed a recommendation to preserve a corridor of state-owned property from Long Grove to Grayslake as open space in what some described as the opportunity of a lifetime.

The Lake County Board will consider a resolution endorsing the concept of using property acquired for the defunct Route 53 extension as a green corridor.

A proposal from the Waukegan Port District to buy 52 acres of forest preserve land to accommodate construction of a new airport runway is stirring up controversy in Lake County.

Former state senator Melinda Bush has won an appointment to the Metra Board of Directors, and a $15,000 stipend to supplement her semi-retirement from political life, over the objections of Lake County Republicans who cried political patronage. Bush founded the Lake County Democratic Women, and at least eight Democrats on the Lake County Board took thousands in donations from the PAC.

The Lake County Forest Preserves District Board passed a resolution approving a memorandum of understanding with the Waukegan Port District to support its effort to get the Federal Aviation Administration's blessing and funding for a runway extension, which would require selling off some forest preserves land and has enraged environmentalists.

A Lake County Forest Preserve committee on Monday recommended approval of a non-binding agreement needed to advance a proposed $186 million project that includes replacing a runway at Waukegan National Airport.

About 1,200 feet of the Long Lake shoreline in Ingleside will be stabilized and an erosion-damaged canoe launch at the Grant Woods Forest Preserve replaced, completing a project started about 15 years ago.