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YOUR VIEW
In addition to more-frequent local editorials, our expanded opinions coverage features a forum seeking your take on a key issue being talked about around town. Here's the current topic:

Home sales have been on the rise in western suburbs. Is this a sign the economy is recovering?

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Carol Stream residents could benefit from a new recreational center with an indoor pool as well as additional bike paths throughout the village, if the park district receives voter approval on a $37 million referendum.
 

In debating whether we should abolish capital punishment, it’s important to decide which aspect of this story dominates — the psychopath who deserves the ultimate punishment or the wrongful conviction of two men. Is it better for us to enhance public safety by eliminating society’s most serious threats or to protect civil liberties by making sure innocent people are never put to death?

A lapse in financial bookkeeping has left the DuPage Water Commission millions of dollars short, and leaders are considering increasing water utility rates, among other fundraising options, to cover the hole.

The DuPage Health Dept. is hoping to get its H1N1 flu vaccines to more of those who need it most with a pair of appointment-only clinics next month in Glen Ellyn and Downers Grove. The first session will be Saturday, Dec. 12 at Building K of the College of DuPage, and the second will be Sunday, Dec. 13 at Downers Grove South High School.

Three Elmhurst men arrested and charged Nov. 13 with taking part in a spree of 40 burglaries to vehicles in DuPage County communities will be arraigned in December.

Big-time college recruits and state title contenders take the court next week when the high school girls basketball season tips off. Check out your team's prospects here.

If there were a more effective way of weeding out ne’er-do-wells on the Internet, I’d strongly recommend using it. Such a mechanism would be helpful in identifying those who have good intentions and those who want to rip you off.

After six weeks and more than 10 hours of deliberation, a DuPage County jury has sentenced Brian Dugan of Aurora to death for the 1983 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville.

This summer, Illinois lawmakers legalized video gambling in bars and restaurants to raise funds for capital projects. Since then, more than a dozen communities in the western suburbs have banned the machines, and several more are poised to outlaw them before the end of this year. As many more towns weigh a gambling ban, however, the overall amount of revenue video gambling is projected to raise for the state — estimated at more than 25 percent of the $31 billion capital projects bill — has been put into doubt.

The DuPage County Health Department will offer free HIV screenings from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 14 at Wheaton's St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 515 S. Wheaton Ave.

Seeing how polarizing the debate on health care reform has been this past year among Americans, it’s odd to find common ground with four House members whose political ideologies run the gamut. It’s not that all statements say the same thing, but somehow each contains sentiments with which I agree.

Jerry Moore, opinions editor for Suburban Life Publications, will appear at 8 a.m. Wednesday on Ray Hanania's radio program on WJJG AM 1530 in Elmhurst. Tune in or listen live on Hanania's Web site, www.RadioChicagoland.com.

Aaron Nagel was a linebacker at Notre Dame, one of college football’s Holy Grails, but he wasn’t happy. The Lemont graduate did not like the Fighting Irish’s coaches. They weren’t the kind of people he thought they would be back when he committed to play football there. He wanted something different. That’s when he rediscovered his youth.