News Progress

by Dan Hagen
NP Columnist

And then there’s that moment when you’re reading along in a good book, and you’re surprised by one of your own quotes.

“I guess I treated the whole thing like a big advertising campaign,” Stan Lee said. “I wanted to give the product — which was Marvel Comics, and myself in a way — a certain personality.”

That’s from a 1983 interview I did with Lee published in David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview magazine, and cited in Sean Howe’s book “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.” Read More

by Jim Zachary

As newspaper executives struggle over whether the news should be digital first, tablet first, SMS first or print first, readers know exactly what they want their local newspaper to be — community first.

Reading a newspaper is not like reading a novel, a magazine, a history book, poetry, prose or any other type of literature.

Newspapers are not about what has happened in the past, what is happening some place else, or what happens in an author’s imagination.  Read More

By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

Illinois Republican leaders see the 2014, non-presidential year elections as their opportunity to recapture the governor’s mansion (not that anyone lives there anymore) and claw back a few seats in Congress. Their chances are good.

By all visible indications, Democrats are the 220-pound bullies to the GOP weaklings. The state legislature is dominated by the Dems, who hold big majorities in both chambers, and the party holds a 12-6 majority in the state’s congressional delegation, including three seats in the once impregnable GOP suburbs. Read More

By John Golden
NP Columnist

Hello, reader, do you have time for a quick story? It will probably take just five minutes of your day, and I feel that you may find that it is worthy of your attention. Just try and take a brief break from the barrage of your bill burdens, your constant children concerns, and all of your fears for the future. I think that this story is a genuinely cool story so I have decided to share it with you today. For the sake of confidentiality and anonymity, I have changed the names of the people involved. Read More

by Glenn Mollette
Outside Columnist

I suspect you are already tired of hearing about Syria.

The future path is blurry - even to our President. Assad will still be in power.

How many has he killed without chemical weapons? Who is using the chemical weapons? It sounds to me like the real problem is the one issuing the orders in Syria.

Americans are now on the verge of committing billions of dollars of money we do not have to impact an area of the world that already hates us. Here at home we have millions who cannot find a job. We have millions more who cannot feed their families with the paycheck they bring home. All the while our roads and bridges need desperate repair. We need new school buildings for our children. We have made our military do more with less but we continue to ask them to do more. We continue to put our aging seniors at risk as we make it harder for us to pay social security and cover our huge medical tab. Needless to say the tax debt for our children and grandchildren grows all the more. Syria means additional taxes, not less taxes. Read More