The past few weeks have left me antsy and disappointed. While the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and other major media outlets have descended upon the pregnant Mississippi River in a hurry, we’ve only had a correspondent on the scene. I can pretend to understand the rationale; the flooded areas are out of our circulation area, our staffing levels in the newsroom make it very difficult to send someone away for days at a time. But some areas have been as little as 100 miles away, and with our very own version of the mighty Miss (the Illinois River), I’d hazard to guess that local interest in how these communities deal with the devastation would be extremely high. Not to mention the fact that we barely sneeze when we drive hours to a dimly lit basketball game that maybe a few hundred people truly care about.

Am I being too bitter? Or should I be even more concerned?