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The news doesn't take a holiday, so we don't either

Are we distracted at this time of year — or just finally putting a priority on what's really important in life? Perhaps a little of both. Perhaps a lot of both.

If your office is like ours, it is eerily quiet around you at work (assuming you're one of the few who actually is at work) during these last two weeks of the year. Your usual lunchmates are away. You stare out at a roomful of empty cubicles. The phones aren't ringing. Yes, many of those around you are doing the work of two or three people to keep the business afloat, but even they are finding time to check out gifts online, make holiday travel arrangements or prepare for the hottest holiday parties to come, if not talk about the scandals of the hottest holiday parties just past. Indeed, in some offices — surely not ours — there may be employees doing nothing else than make a cursory pretense of productive labor through an entire day filled with gifts, goodies and gab.

When such an atmosphere pervades people's home and work activities, it's tempting to think they're not paying serious attention to what's going on around them. To be sure, that line of reasoning annoyed critics of the lame-duck Congress who complained, among other things, that the president and outgoing federal lawmakers were taking advantage of the holiday season to sneak through controversial legislation they wouldn't be able to get away with otherwise. Whatever the validity of that specific complaint, it's worth noting that the newspaper has remained serious in its pursuit and reporting of news suburbanites care about.

It's not just that accidents, fires and congressional activities aren't on holiday and thus remain to be reported. We've also continued to research and report stories that will have a meaningful impact on your daily life.

Consider just a few from the past week:

• Staff writer Jamie Sotonoff introduced you to Lisa Ballantine of Elk Grove Village, showing how a self-described “regular old mom” developed a product that is bringing clean water to Haiti and other Third World countries.

• State government writer Mike Riopell detailed the millions of dollars — in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars — being produced by increased licensing fees and sales taxes on certain products.

• Staff writer Jake Griffin produced a series of stories about structural problems with local bridges, including today's front-page installment along with interactive maps by Tim Broderick on our Web page.

• Various staff writers described a range of local community issues, including a proposal to ban the use of compound bows within the village limits of Mount Prospect, an effort in Libertyville to preserve the downtown's historic charm, the first sit-down interview with the newly appointed state's attorney in DuPage County, an anti-tax group's crusade against high public pensions in Kane and DuPage counties. and, throughout the suburbs, reviews of candidates lining up to seek local school and government positions in the spring elections.

Of course, we've had plenty of seasonal stories about efforts to help the less fortunate, Santa Claus sightings and other signs of the season. And we've had in-depth coverage of the Bulls, Bears and Blackhawks, reviews of local plays and Dann Gire's ever comprehensive look at holiday movies. We haven't by any means overlooked the distractions of the holidays.

But, while helping you see and enjoy them, we've also kept watch on stories you'll care about long after you've swept the last pine needle out of the living room carpet.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald.

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