Perhaps if the Virginia Burgesses knew they could profit from gambling, sports books wouldn’t have operated under the table for hundreds of years.

In the early days of Facebook, we were tagged, poked, prodded and issued friend requests. We had no idea why we’re getting poked, tagged and prodded but we knew we liked it, we just weren’t sure why.

Under the Senate’s plan, the Regional Transportation Authority would become the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, a better name than before provided you can get past all the territory in the northern part of the state that would still be on the outside looking in.

Happy 54th birthday, Mom. I wanted to thank you for all you have taught me.

"Her email got me thinking about how we honor the day we were born, throughout the different phases of our lives," Jerrilyn Zavada Novak writes in her weekly Spirit Matters column.

There’s no way to fully satisfy either camp, underscoring the importance of making sure government functions adequately for enough voters to strike a balance.

"We get caught up in the story and the characters but I also remind myself that a human being, a real character, created the story with people we become attached to and relate to and remember," writes Lonny Cain, the retired managing editor of The Times, in his weekly column.

Public voting from mid-January to Valentine’s Day revealed an overwhelming preference for the status quo, with about 43% of almost 385,000 votes opting against any change whatsoever. The current flag fared better than the combined total of the next five choices.

Bringing lawmakers back to Springfield at what might otherwise be a dormant stretch isn’t – or at least shouldn’t be – much cause for concern.