Financial Planning For Families; Government Transparency; Best IL Artists; Competitive Shooting

On the 21st: We discuss the best methods for saving money and future planning for your family. Plus, Governor Rauner signed a bipartisan bill that requires full public disclosure of staff salaries working in the governor's office. And, we talk about the best Illinois artists as part of the ALPLM top 200 project. Then, we speak with two Illinois teenagers who recently won a national championship for competitive shooting.

If you’re a parent then this is the time of year when you are getting ready to send your kids back to school, or in some cases, off to college. And whether that’s a private or public option, there are costs involved. We thought it was a good time to help you with any questions you might have when it comes to financial planning for families.

Ben Franklin is a certified financial planner and CPA with Franklin Wealth Advisors in Urbana. Tammy Wener also joined us from RW Financial Planning in Lincolnshire, Northwest of Chicago.

Plus—

If you’re a public official, your salary is public knowledge. At least, that’s what we expect - it’s easy, for example, to look up the salaries of everyone at the University of Illinois, because it’s a public university.

But it turns out that this hasn’t been the case for those working in the governor’s office. This has been true throughout the years for governors of both parties. That is until last week, when Governor Rauner signed a bipartisan bill that requires full public disclosure of staff salaries.

Here to explain more was Madeleine Doubek, Vice President of Policy for the Better Government Association.

And—

We’re continuing to celebrate our state’s 200th anniversary this year along with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The Museum is releasing a series of Top 10 lists of everything Illinois. This time around it’s Best Illinois Artists, but there are lots of architects and sculptors on this list.

Chris Wills is their communications director. Doug Stapleton is an associate curator of art with the Illinois State Museum.

Then—

What sports were you playing at age 17? Maybe football, baseball or volleyball were a big part of your life - but perhaps not competitive rifle or pistol shooting.

Students from Central Illinois Precision Shooting have been training for years to hit a bullseye almost too small to see on a target more than 30 feet away.

Teenage athletes like Jaden Thompson and Martina Gratz from the Bloomington gun range participated in the USA Shooting Rifle/Pistol National Championships in Fort Benning, Georgia back in June. Both Jaden and Martina were part of a team that won the 3-position team Championship and they joined us from WGLT, along with their coach and director of Central Illinois Precision Shooting, Joe Miller.