The signs say "no rezoning of walnut and oakland" and it looks like they'll win but could the Arbor District be mistaken about this one?

Could it actually be beneficial for C'dale to allow a 24hour CVS pharmacy at Walnut and Oakland. If the city actually had a developer build a complex with apartments above the pharmacy, it might improve the area. It is not as if that is a really great spot to live. It is right on Route 13. The traffic is heavy and noisy. A good deal of the proposed developement is rental property. Better parking could be arranged for appartment dwellers under a new plan.

Inner-cities were made up of apartments above storefronts. What is wrong with recreating that type of neighborhood appeal. Pratical use of property is frequently dual use. I just wonder if the city would consider going to such effort?

Tonight at 6:30 pm, Carbondale will be celebrating the holiday season with its 16th Annual Lights Fantastic Parade. The Big Muddy IMC will be joining in the celebration with an Open House event during and after the parade.

Rosetta Stone Bookstore announces the opening reception for "Book Art" by the School of Art and Design's Bookmaking class. The show opens December 8 and will run for the week through December 16. The reception will take place on Friday, December 8 from 6-8 p.m. Rosetta Stone Bookstore is located at 214 West Freeman Street in the Campus Shopping Center in Carbondale.

The reception is free and open to the public.

This show contains examples of work by students in the School of Art and Design's Bookmaking class in the fall of 2006. The class worked with several binding and construction techniques, including the accordion fold, pamphlet stitch, Japanese binding, Coptic stitch, interactive books, altered books, and book boxes. Each of the books in this exhibition was made by hand and shows the unique vision of the artist. Some play with the layout of traditional books, searching for the ideal synchronicity among their chosen text, images, and materials, while others utilize the book form as a playground for experiments in appropriation, process, and objecthood, in order to question and expand our understanding of what a book can be.

Rosetta Stone Bookstore announces the closing reception for an exhibit of new works by local Carbondale artist Joe Garrison. The show opened November 3 and will run through December 2. A closing reception will take place on Friday, December 1 from 6-8 p.m. Rosetta Stone Bookstore is located at 214 West Freeman Street in the Campus Shopping Center in Carbondale.

The closing reception will offer refreshments, and is free and open to the public.

The closing reception coincides with the “Lights Fantastic Winter Weekend,” which features open houses and events throughout the Main Street area on December 1 and 2, and culminates in the “Lights Fantastic Winter Parade” at 6 p.m. on Saturday, December 2. Rosetta Stone Bookstore will also host a holiday open house and sale on Saturday, from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m., featuring extended store hours.

Joe Garrison’s works are bright and dynamic paintings that comment on the relationship between consumer culture and politics.

After over two hours of protracted discussion at its November 21 meeting, the Carbondale City Council did not pass a proposed ordinance to ban smoking in enclosed public places such as bars and restaurants. The ordinance required a four vote majority to pass the measure, and the Council was divided 3-3, with Councilperson Steven Haynes abstaining abstaining.

[Original Story by Andrea Zimmerman of Daily Egyptian]

Walter Wendler, whose tenure as SIUC chancellor has been marked by sweeping plans for change as well as accusations of insensitivity and intellectual dishonesty, is being replaced, President Glenn Poshard said Wednesday.

The move takes effect in a week, with Provost John Dunn taking over as interim chancellor and Wendler becoming a professor of architecture, Poshard said.

He said a national search would take place, and he hopes to have a new chancellor take over in July 1. Poshard said Dunn would not be a candidate for the job.

Citing problems such as declining enrollment and his desire to build his own team of administrators, Poshard said he believed SIUC needed a "different skill set and a different kind of strength" to achieve his goals for SIU's main campus.

"Cash rules everything around me," a great poet once remarked. One need look no further than Robert Greenwald's harrowing new documentary on the Iraq war for proof of this aphorism. Both a trenchant indictment of war profiteering in Iraq and a memorial for those not included in the military's death toll, Iraq for Sale is a work of intense disillusionment; the wounds are fresh and the testimony of civilian contractors and their bereaved family members is appropriately raw. Truck drivers who went to Iraq believing their safety to be a priority of Halliburton/KBR, only to be sent down a road to certain death, don't mince words when talking about the kind of men they believe their former bosses to be. And as Greenwald's chronicle of corporate greed and impropriety unfolds, a larger question emerges: At what point do these companies and the Pentagon become indistinguishable? Greenwald resists the temptation to paint with broad, incriminating brushstrokes and we only glimpse former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney toward the end of the film, even as he hovers over the proceedings like an invisible puppet master. For those who have let the war drift into the background noise of talking heads, Iraq for Sale is a much needed reminder of the criminal negligence of those who led the troops into this mess and those who have gotten rich off of it.

The documentary "i" will screen three times in Southern Illinois this week, in Urbana-Champaign on Wednesday, Normal on Thursday, and Carbondale on Saturday. The film is the first full-length picture produced on the global indymedia network. A reception and discussion with co-director Raphael Lyon will follow each event. See below for screening details.

“i” is a feature-length documentary about grassroots media coverage of the December 2001 economic collapse and political uprising in Argentina. It follows the first year of a news collective in Buenos Aires as it struggles to make sense of assassinations, a collapsing economy, and a whirlwind social movement. Along the way it tells the story of the global Indymedia network, the world's largest collaboration of of volunteer, freelance and unaffiliated media makers.

According to author Naomi Klein, “i" “positively vibrates with the energy and creativity of the movement it documents. Beautiful, intellectual, riotous, it fits in no box (and no blurb) — just see it!”

* On Wednesday October 11, "i" will screen at 7pm at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, located at 202 S. Broadway, next to Lincoln Square Mall.

* On Thursday, the Bloomington-Normal IMC, the Indy newspaper, & the Illinois State University's Global Review will host a 7pm screening in the Eleanor Kong Room is located in Walker Hall on Main Street (also Business 51) in Normal, IL. For a map, click here. Parking available on the NW corner of Main and Dry Grove.

* On Saturday the 14th, the Big Muddy IMC will screen "i" at 7pm at 214 N. Washington St. in Carbondale, IL.

* For more information or to view the trailer, visit www.ithefilm.com * Press inquiries, contact Amy Dalton press@thefilm.com * To book a screening on the tour, contact booking@ithefilm.com

Download here: 2006 US Debates I : five debates in Midwest and East Congressional and gubernatorial races

Kenneth Blackwell, Republican; Ted Strickland, Democrat (Ohio U.S. Cong. Dist. 6) debate in the Ohio gubernatorial race.

Representative John Hostettler, Republican incumbent, Indiana U.S. Congressional District 8, debates Democrat Brad Ellsworth, Vanderburgh County, Indiana Sheriff, in the Iowa District 8 race.

Representative Christopher Shays, Republican incumbent, Connecticut U.S. Congressional District 4, debates Libertarian candidate Phil Maymin and Democrat Diane Farrell in the Connecticut District 4 race.

Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Ed Rendell debates Republican Lynn Swann in the gubernatorial race.

Mike Beebe, Democrat, and Asa Hutchinson, Republican, debate in the Arkansas gubernatorial race.