UIS campus housing to disconnect phone service

Almost everyone has a cell phone nowadays, especially college students. That's why the University of Illinois at Springfield is choosing to eliminate land line service in its student housing.

Housing Director John Ringle says starting over the Christmas break land line service will be disconnected.

"By cutting off that particular monthly expense for the 1,100 residents that are living on campus, that comes out to a pretty significant savings on the course of a fiscal year," Ringle said.

Ringle says the jack will remain, but if you plug a phone into it, you won't have service unless you request it.

"Students can plug a phone in, let us know they want to activate it as a line and then we will charge them accordingly next fiscal year. For those that still want it this fiscal year, we think because it's mid-year, we should work with them and give them the opportunity to keep it if they want to," Ringle said.

Ringle says it will be a savings of about $125,000 a year. Ringle says that savings will help pay for carpet replacement and new furniture.

The story was featured by WICS-TV 20 on October 28, 2010.

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Out-of-state money fueling race for governor

State officials may need to review ways to “protect disclosure” in Illinois in the wake of largely untraceable campaign contributions flowing into state campaigns, a leading campaign finance reform group says.

An unprecedented amount of out-of-state money is financing the race for governor, one expert added.

“That’s pretty unprecedented for Illinois to have that huge amount of money coming in from out of state,’ said Kent Redfield, political science professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Redfield raised another point.

“The Democratic group discloses (contributors), the Republicans don’t,” he said.

Redfield's comments were featured in an October 27, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Illinois voters asked to choose twice for Senate seat

No, Illinois, you're not seeing double.

The Nov. 2 ballot asks for two votes for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama, another twist of the state's wacky politics.

A judge has determined the same candidates must run for two terms: one being the normal six years beginning in January, the other an interim stint beforehand that probably will last little more than a month.

In both cases, voters will choose from among Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, Republican Mark Kirk, Green LeAlan Jones and Libertarian Mike Labno. Polls show the race extremely close between Giannoulias and Kirk.

Chris Mooney, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said the chances the vote could be split between two candidates - so that one serves the short term and another the full six years - is slim.

But he wouldn't totally rule it out.

"The way it's polling, it's so close, I guess that's possible," Mooney said.

Mooney's comments were featured in an October 26, 2010, article by the Associated Press.

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