Top Story: So President Obama was going to move the State of the Union speech to February 2, which would conflict with the season premiere of Lost, but he wised up.‚  Can’t say as much for the Illinois primary folks. Yep, that’s right - the final season of Lost kicks off when we will deciding our primary. I know that they are on at different times, but you realize that Lost will be 3 hours on that night and most of the races will be decided during the newest of the 3 hours (9pm). And just think of all the people who will be at political parties or work for the campaigns, or have to be working on the great Chicago Public Radio coverage team. That’s a problem. And mark my words, a very well-covered story by primary night. So remember you heard it here first. Consider this my open letter to Mike Madigan: change it. Just move it back a week. Or even better, move it up a week. Just move it.‚  Why is it still in Feb anyway? More to come on that. B Story: UIC just put out a study this weekend looking at the effect the well-publicized West Side Wal-Mart has had on the Austin community. According to the study, not good. Over 80 small businesses have closed in that area since Wal-Mart opened which means Wal-Mart’s jobs equal the jobs lost. Somebody said this might happen, right? C Story: This story is akin to when a television news personality hosts a charity function and the newscast sneaks it in. “There was a big event for dogs with OCD and it’s a serious problem…and our anchor Alison Rosati was the emcee.” Well, this is our version. We have new bloggers on the site today. Lee Bey, Steve Dolinsky and Amy Krouse Rosenthal all have new posts. And I learned something from all of them:

• I didn’t know that you could get anything for $5 at Custom House.
• I didn’t know that Amy had such great film skills.
• I didn’t know they were tearing down that spaceship looking bank at 95th and Western.
• I didn’t know Steve Dolinsky had a different picture than his 8x10 headshot I see everywhere.

Weather: Our Web Producer Andrew Gill is back from Florida today. He’s actually wearing a t-shirt today because he had to wear sweaters when he was there. That sucks. Sports: I called it! Someone in DePaul must have me bookmarked.‚  Or maybe Joey Meyer forwarded it. Wainwright is out as head coach. I would like to apply for that position, because the ceiling is pretty, pretty low. Win one Big East game and you are automatically better. Might even get a gym named after you. So is that it? Perry Fewell for D-Coordinator and Mike Martz or Jeremy Bates for O-Coordinator? Couldn’t we maybe widen the pool a bit? C’mon - don’t hire the only person you interview. And maybe it’s me, but could we maybe interview and hire someone to run the Chicago Bears defense that didn’t use to work for Lovie? Maybe that’s why former coach (and playoff coach) Ron Rivera had success. Kicker: I always have a hard time picking a new beer. This chart helps.