It’s impossible to enter any cemetery in Kendall County and not find the graves of veterans of virtually every war in the nation’s history, from the American Revolutionary Warright up through modern Mideast wars.

The heart of the transit funding package is a decision to use all state motor fuel sales taxes to fund mass transit instead of sending that cash to the Road Fund.

SB 2111 doesn’t represent a comprehensive, statewide solution and its passage puts the onus back on those dissatisfied with the status quo to push lawmakers to keep working on the challenges even without an imminent financial disaster.

The Budget Reserve for Immediate Disbursements and Governmental Emergencies is only $100 million. Democrats created the pool by sweeping money from 57 other funds in anticipation of federal decisions with negative fiscal implications for Illinois.

Clearly $20 is significant to someone counting every penny, but as a yearly figure it won’t sway anyone’s vote. The loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits is a different story, with an average of about $184 per beneficiary each month.

It is simply too late. Candidates have expended considerable time and resources gathering petition signatures, the filing deadline is Nov. 3 and any alteration now costs money the state doesn’t have while inviting legal exposure that could exponentially increase fiscal liability.

When it was established in 1963, the Lincoln Heritage Trail was intended to link historic sites across three states. Today, only remnants remain, a relic of a not-so-distant era of travel.

The Chicago Teachers Union president was recently elected president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. State legislators haven’t appreciated aggressive advocacy by CTU allies in the past.

From pure cynicism, there may be wisdom in getting Republicans on board with anything Democrats could present as endorsement of gun registration. But more practically, there’s no faster way to clear an administrative backlog than to erase it altogether.