by the numbers

Looking at the results of a recently-published study on the most and least educated cities in the United States reminded me of a couple of quotes. One, from John Belushi in Animal House: "7 years of college down the drain," and the other from my dad: "Did 9 years of high school teach …

Over the years, Rockford has been on the receiving end of all sorts of slings and arrows from different publications, and I don't know that it will ever stop. I'm sure they get their numbers correct, but sometimes it feels like we're being piled on.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says that there's $1.77 billion of unclaimed stimulus cash from that first round of payments at the beginning of the pandemic, and a good chunk went unclaimed here in Illinois.

From the middle of March through the middle of April, there was a slow-down of the labor market's recovery across the country, but especially here in Illinois--and Rockford in particular.

It's pretty clear that Chicago is on a roll this year when it comes to having annoying, biting, or bloodsucking pests in abundance (and in elected office). I'm just not sure that this is the kind of thing Chicago's tourism folks would want to brag about.

Over the last 10 years, Illinois Illinois posted the 2nd largest population decline in numeric terms, behind only West Virginia. As a percentage of the population, Illinois’ population decline was third worst behind West Virginia and Mississippi.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association's (AHLA) report on the state of the hotel industry in 2021 and going forward is, to say the least, not a pretty picture--especially here in Illinois.

According to the BrewersAssociation.org website, Illinois has around 300 craft breweries, which means that we have 3 breweries for every 100,000 Illinoisans over the age of 21. We'd better get busy, because that beer isn't going to drink itself.

Obviously, quite a few things have changed in America since 1963. One of the more notable changes has been the population of bald eagles, which, after 58 years, has risen from 417 nesting pairs to an astounding 71,400, according to a new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

Sure, this whole COVID-19 mess has put somewhat of a damper on one of Rockford's (and America's) great party and celebration days, but nothing short of lockdown enforced by armed men is going to stop it.