State Rep. Michael Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, will speak at the Sterling Public Library from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. The event is open to the public at no charge. It is sponsored by the Rock River Open Forum. This event supersedes our previous plan to watch and discuss the final part of the DVD, "The Corporation." It will be shown in the near future.

Smiddy has been in office about one month. We would like him to talk about his impressions so far. 

Also, forum participants have many concerns and want to discuss them with Mike. Some of them are legislation to study the perils of fracking in the central and southern areas of our state, health co-ops, pensions, the budget, the use of guns, genetically modified seeds, fair taxation, the disparity between the rich and poor, and chem trails.