The state of Illinois has the most government agencies of any state in the country. A new report from the Lt. Governor has outlined a series of reforms to reign in the size of the state government. Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner joined John Howell to talk about the efforts to shrink the size of the state government, and also the flooding in the southern part of the state. (Listen here)

Governor Bruce Rauner says that he would sign a bill to recall Rahm Emanuel if it passed. Illinois State Rep. LaShawn Ford is the author of the bill that would allow for a recall election in Chicago, and joined John Howell to talk about why he believes the city needs it. (Listen here)

A teacher in Waukegan is turning to Internet crowd funding to get things for her classroom that taxpayers would never ever even think to pay for. So far they have enough laptops and tablets for each student to have a device, along with a 3-D printer, robotics kits and subscriptions to a kid-level news magazine and even a webcam so they can Skype with experts in the fields they are discussing in class. Julie Ahern, a second grade teacher at Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School in Waukegan joined John Howell to talk about what the crowd funding effort has meant for her class. (Listen here)

The armed protesters who took over a federal building in Oregon are calling themselves the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom. The protesters are complaining about the amount of land controlled by the federal government as well as the sentencing of two local ranchers. So far authorities don’t appear to be in a hurry to confront the protesters. Reporter Jennifer Dowling with KOIN 6 in Portland, Oregon joined John with the latest on the standoff. (Listen here)

A Mississippi lawmaker has stirred up controversy by telling citizens to throw rocks, bricks, and bottles at police officers who go after misdemeanor suspects. Councilman Kenneth Stokes, from Jackson, said in a news conference on December 31 that police were putting children’s lives at risk by chasing petty criminals into Jackson from neighboring jurisdictions.

An Indianapolis restaurant manager is earning praise on social media for telling off an irate customer who wrote a scathing review about her New Year’s Eve dinner. The customer was angry because someone at the restaurant suffered a heart attack, which she said “ruined” her celebratory meal, the owner pointed out it was actually a woman who had a heart attack.

Hillary Clinton is making some out of this world campaign promises. She says if she is elected, she will investigate Area 51 and whether or not we have been visited by aliens.

The founder of White People Meet is responding to the criticism leveled against his startup since their billboard went up. It turns out he’s a used car salesman who started the site because he and his wife believed they could make some money for retirement. He says there is nothing racist about it, as a matter of fact, he can’t be racist because he “dated a black woman once.”