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Levee Crisis
                                                  Photo courtesy of US Army Corps of Engineers
Local officials say FEMA has thrown them a curve ball by side-stepping its agreement to extend SW Illinois' deadline to repair the levee.


Local officials battling bureaucrats and budget
on levee repairs

By Alan J. Ortbals


    Local officials are fighting an uphill battle against rising costs and federal bureaucrats in their effort to repair the levees protecting the American Bottom. The deadline is being cut; red tape is delaying action, and the price tag could jump to as much as $400 million.
   According to Alan Dunstan, Madison County board chairman, one problem has been with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. [continue]

Homebuyers taking advantage of current bear market by 'low-balling' sellers

By Kerry L. Smith  

   While the news media has etched into everyone's minds the message that "it's a buyer's market" in residential real estate, sellers wonder where that leaves them; low-ball offers and closing-table demands are evidence, experts say, that the market remains unpredictable. [continue]

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Home buyers bear market
                             Photo Courtesy of The Associated Press
Experts say home sellers need to expect 'low-ball' offers in this buyers' market.

Bill would reward companies for investing in Illinois-based energy operations

 By Kerry L. Smith

       The state of Illinois' version of a broad energy strategy to offer incentives for both traditional and alternative energy sources is still alive in Springfield, with co-sponsors hoping it will be enacted before the regular session's end.
    The Illinois Energy to Jobs Act - Senate Bill 1823 - is comprehensive legislation piggybacking the Obama Administration's own energy policies. The act, according to co-sponsor Sen. James Clayborne Jr. (D-East St. Louis), encourages public-sector  investment to create a more expedient, attractive climate for companies willing to make energy-specific capital investments of their own in Illinois.
    At press time, the bill's deadline was extended; it remained in the Senate Assignments (formerly Rules) Committee.
   Clayborne said Illinois' existing permitting requirements, coupled with its inadequate incentives for companies considering such investments - from wind farms to more traditional [continue]