Below are our daily picks from the Illinois blogosphere and media at large:

Legal Aid For City Hall Crusaders
The SouthtownStar's Phil Kadner profiles the Center for Open Government, a new legal aid clinic at the Chicago-Kent College of Law that focuses on cases "where average citizens who cannot afford an attorney are denied access to government meetings or public documents."

Escalating Homelessness
A joint report from the News-Gazette and the University of Illinois Department of Journalism examines Champaign's shrinking ability to provide shelter to the area's homeless.

The Value Of Water
Henry Henderson of the Natural Resources Defense Council thinks the water-rich communities of the Great Lakes region do not understand the "nature, function, and value of their most precious resource."

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