February 11, 2015

By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

Calling for a new partnership in Illinois, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner set a constructive, cooperative, problem-solving tone in his maiden speech Wednesday to a legislature in which more than three-fifths of the members are Democrats.
This positive approach will be critical in a pas de deux between chief executive and legislature that will have to continue unabated for the full four years of Rauner’s term, as the “Illinois Turnaround” the governor calls for will require years to set in motion.
The new governor’s proposals were, as expected, business friendly and union critical, yet he avoided demonizing the latter.
Rauner proposes cuts in workers’ compensation, unemployment and business liability costs as well as relief on property taxes, which are a heavy burden in Illinois on both businesses and homeowners.
The governor calls for local right-to-work zones (where workers would not have to join unions), which will not fly in the legislature, and for prohibitions on union contributions to political campaigns, another dead-on-arrival proposal, I am afraid. Read More

February 4, 2015

by Professor  William C. Bailey
School of Agriculture, Western Illinois University

Agriculture has always embraced technology, and there is a new technology, or at least a new approach to the use of a technology, that may provide significant changes to American farming. And it comes from the sky.
As a former military pilot, I have long monitored the use of airplanes in agriculture – exporting livestock by air, crop dusting, herding livestock by helicopter in Australia or simply flying over a farm to see crops and livestock from a different perspective than a truck. Following the airborne thought, I know creative people see new opportunities for technology in agriculture, in this case the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). I used the term ‘drone” once when first discussing this technology with an expert and was quickly corrected that the proper name is UAV. So, we will use UAV rather than drones for this column.
UAVs have been used in agriculture for a while, but as the military has increased their use of UVAs, they have become more powerful and more sophisticated. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently issued the first permit for the agricultural use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Among the FAA requirements are that UAV operations include a ground pilot that has a private pilot certificate, has a medical certificate and that the UAV remain in sight at all times. The significant factor is the FAA has recognized the growing interest in using UAVs in agriculture. Read More

January 28, 2015

by Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

Politics is largely about who gets what and is a game of debits and credits amassed over the years by political power players.
In the 1950s, U.S. Senate minority leader Everett Dirksen of Pekin would on many a late afternoon saunter over to the hideaway Capitol office of legendary Senate majority leader Lyndon Baines Johnson. Over a bourbon-and-branch water, or two, these political powerhouses would shape the national policy agenda for the coming week and beyond – while taking care of home state priorities.
In the 1990s, Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert (R-Yorkville in northeast Illinois) watched closely over the interests of the Prairie State.
Those days are gone. Today, according to Roll Call magazine, a tip sheet for Washington DC insiders, Illinois has slipped from 4th to 17th in recent years in its “clout ranking” among the states, even though we are 5thin population..
This is important because, as I have said in this space, Illinois receives only about 56 cents back for every tax dollar we send to Washington, while all of our neighboring states harvest much more than a dollar for every dollar sent to the federal coffers. Read More

January 21, 2015

By Tyler Harvey
Mo-Do Farm Bureau Manager

The New Year is off and running, and the Farm Bureau on a county, state, and national level is staying very active. On a national level, The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is in the middle of their Annual Meeting which is held from January 11-14. Just like the Illinois Farm Bureau, the AFBF meets once a year to look and decide on policies and resolutions that make up the organization. The AFBF is made up of all the state Farm Bureaus in the United States. The Board of Directors for AFBF are comprised of 27 directors from across the nation. The United States itself in broken into four different regions with a certain amount of directors coming from each region. Bob Stallman from Texas is the current AFBF President. This is the same position our very own Charles Shuman held from 1954-1970. President Shuman was the President of the Illinois Farm Bureau before his tenure as AFBF President. Read More

January 14, 2015

by Sarah Hudson Pierce
Guest Columnist

As we stand at the gate of a new year we need to ask ourselves if we have lost our sense of priorities. Have we switched the price tags in our lives? Is it possible to go back once we’ve crossed the picket line?

There was a book written by Tony Campolo titled “Who Switched the Price Tags?” The story was told of some pranksters slipping into a department store right at closing time and playing a joke that caused great alarm the next day. Read More