The Daybook The main story we’re pursuing right now is on the expected Illinois income tax-hike proposal. Governor Pat Quinn wants to push some rates up to close an estimated $11.5 billion budget deficit. What do YOU think about this?

• Sam Hudzik chatted with several former governors for their takes.
• Mike Rhee hit the streets to ask regular Chicagoans if they think it’s a good idea.
• Mekea Williamson asked Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk about the plan.
• And we’re chatting with several members of the Illinois General Assembly to gauge support in the Statehouse.

All of these should be up on the web shortly. I believe Hudzik’s item will get a dedicated blog post as well. Writer’s Block In my quest to become a regular blogger here on Chicagopublicradio.org, I’ve run into a fair share of problems. The main one is this: blogging every day is kind of hard. To that end, I punched in the phrase “bloggin tips” into Google to cure my writer’s block. What I got back were “10 Quick Blogging Tips“. Promising. “Quick” is good. I’m a busy man. Here’s my scorecard so far, in “win”, “fail” or “push” form. 1: Update your blog daily. I would call this one a push. I personally am hitting at about 80% right now, but the other guys are updating the blog pretty much every day. So WE update OUR blog daily, which is what counts, right? 2: Make your feed easy to subscribe to. N/A. Not my job. It’s a union thing. 3: Make an about section. See 2. 4: Comment on other blogs. Fail. I never do this. Then again, I technically get paid for writing things. Should I just give away my words for free on someone else’s blog? I’ll check with my agent on this. And by “agent” I mean magic 8 ball. Provisional score: fail. 5: Comment on blogs with “Do Follow” or “Top Comments” lists, but DO NOT SPAM. Push. I do none of the above. Also, what does this have to do with MY blog and coming up with ideas for The Daybook?? 6: Use Social Bookmarking sites. Hopefully the web team is on this. I see Gill twittering a lot, so I’m guessing I receive a “win” for this bad boy. I think we’re officially on the board. 7: Join blogging networks. I don’t know what these are. Fail. 8: Take part in blogging promotions. I offered a cash prize for the best wall-street nursery rhyme and won it myself. Resounding pass. 9: Have your own domain. Pass. Three of the last four in the plus side. We’re on a roll. 10: Be Friendly! Push. The web guys here ruin my mood, taking me away from radio for the “interblog” but I try. Final record: 2-5-3. Not too shabby, methinks. It looks like I’ve identified some easy ways to improve the comments section on other peoples’ blogs, and catch hell from the web-union boss. Thanks Google. More importantly, where is the category for “This whole ‘web’ thing is a passing fad, and FM radio is the past present and future?” March Madness The NCAA basketball brackets are out and Illinois is pretty much everyone’s pick to get upset in the first round. They’re taking on the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, who have a pretty sweet nickname, and a track record of pulling March shockers. It’s also a 12-5 matchup, which is a traditional breeding ground for Cinderella moments. More importantly, my school, Michigan, is finally back into the tournament, after an eleven year-long drought. Apparently people close to the team got caught “paying players” which is “illegal” and our “program got royally screwed.” I don’t care what anyone says though, the Fab 5 was totally worth it. And now we’re back, baby! BEZ is represented pretty well in the tournament, Gabe Spitzer’s Cornell is in after winning the Ivy League, and 848 director Jason Marck is an alumnus of the defending champion Kansas Jayhawks. I’m sure other people went to “college” as well, but who’s got time to ask people about these things, or look at their bios? I saw no mention of doing anything of the sort on the blog tips website. As far as pools go, Lisa Labuz won our bracket last year, and has a sweet trophy to show for it. Here’s a shot. Her desk has only three things on it, which I’m guessing are her most prized possesions: A framed, autographed picture of Sweetness himself, Walter Payton; a picture of a baby, which I’m guessing is her daughter; and the WBEZ Basketball pool trophy, which was purchased by Adriene Hill at a thrift shop. The $2 Million cash prize we gave her was wired straight to her Swiss bank account. That’s it for now. Time to go comment on other people’s blogs.