Last night's School District U46 Board of Education meeting was standing room only -- a little unusual for a meeting at which the school board is not expected to make any controversial decisions.

(Although, one public commenter did question whether Superintendent Jose Torres' recent trip to China had been taxpayer-funded. Answer: Here, in today's cover story, "U46 schools chief gathers food for thought during trip to China.")

It appears a good chunk of that crowd had turned out to hear two middle school students speak about the successes they've had in the Elgin school district's AVID program.

Lest you think your comments fell on deaf ears, girls... Or were you left wanting to learn more about AVID, grown-ups... I wrote at length about the program last school year. That article no longer is available online, so I've posted it, in full, after the jump.

Click here to read "Program creating ' AVID' learners," more information about school board meeting coverage on Twitter, after the jump.

Instead of "marriage," it's called a "civil union." And instead of rings, one Fox Valley couple exchanged dog tags.

"The fact is it is different," said Tracey Supan of Kendall County.

Supan shares her thoughts about her union ceremony with her partner of nine years in today's article, "Fox Valley Couples Enjoy Their Civil Union Rights."

Meantime, you've shared your thoughts on civil unions coming to Illinois on our Facebook and Twitter pages today. Here's what you've had to say:

Peggie Thomas Stromberg: I think civil unions are progress but still fall short.. As long as it is not recognized by the Federal government as a marriage, then it isn't. via Facebook

MrDaltonJacobs (Rich Jacobs of Elgin): @couriernews United for 20 yrs, John & I had religious ceremony in Elgin of '03; LEGALLY MARRIED in CA of '08 & now legally recognized in IL via Twitter

GibbyPhD (Laurie Faith Gibson-Aiello of Elgin): @couriernews Your photo gallery has me tearing up - the emotion of love and happiness from the couples in line is overwhelming to see. A+ via Twitter

emesavage: @couriernews Long overdue. Rights that so many took for granted are now a reality for so many more. It's a beautiful thing. #Civilunions via Twitter

-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter

We've written a lot about tomorrow's elections. (You can access all those articles here.)

But if we haven't answered all the questions you have to help you decide who to vote for, well, maybe the candidates can answer those questions themselves. Here's a roundup of some of the candidates' websites and social media profiles:

Elgin mayoral race

• "Ed Schock for Mayor" on Facebook: facebook.com/#!/pages/Ed-Schock-for-Mayor/167250923293922
• Dave Kaptain: kaptainformayor.com
• "Dave Kaptain for Mayor" on Facebook: facebook.com/KaptainForMayor?ref=ts

Elgin City Council

• "Councilman John Steffen" on Facebook: facebook.com/#!/pages/Councilman-John-Steffen/175938529089886
• Mike Warren: mikeforelgin.org
• Michael Curtin: curtinforcouncil.com/
• "Michael Curtin for Elgin City Council" on Facebook: facebook.com/#!/pages/Michael-Curtin-for-Elgin-City-Council/119426528117155
• Tom McCarthy: drivertom4elgin.com/
• "Anna Moeller for Elgin City Council" on Facebook: facebook.com/#!/pages/Anna-Moeller-for-Elgin-City-Council/107164216021196
• Shane Nowak's blog: shanenowak.blogspot.com
• Tish Powell: powellforelgin.com
• "Tish Powell for Elgin" on Facebook: facebook.com/PowellforElgin
• Mike Robins: mikerobinsforelgin.com
• Toby Shaw: votetobyshaw.com

A complete list of candidates and what's at stake in each election, as well as links to school board candidates' websites, after the jump.

Attending a school board meeting is kind of like taking a class at the gym.

Hear me out: Before you go, you wonder what kind of people will be there. What if you're over-dressed? What if nobody else shows up? Or you wonder if you'll be able to keep up. What if you have NO CLUE what's going on, and everybody else is going at it like they do this all the time? Or maybe they all are just scheduled at really inconvenient times.

I totally understand.

I also totally understand what's happening at school board meetings -- after all, I'm at an Elgin School District U46, Carpentersville-area Community Unit School District 300 or Elgin Community College District 509 meeting just about every week. It's my job as the Courier's education reporter to make sense of what happens at those meetings for you in the next day's paper. It's my job to show how that will impact you, your children and your community.

One thing that undoubtedly will impact the District 300 community is continued cuts to the district's budget. The Carpentersville-area district is targeting $8.3 million in cuts to next school year's budget, which its school board plans to discuss tonight in detail at a special board meeting at 6 p.m. at Westfield Community School, 2100 Sleepy Hollow Road, Algonquin.

So here's a little experiment: I'm planning to live-tweet tonight's meeting from my personal Twitter account, at the suggestion of a few readers. You can follow my updates on my Twitter profile, twitter.com/mcemilywrites. I also will be using the hashtag #CUSD300mtg, so you can do a search for "#CUSD300mtg" on Twitter.com (you can do that by clicking here) or use your favorite Twitter client to follow just those tweets that apply to tonight's meeting. If you are on Twitter, you can ask me questions at @mcemilywrites, or you can join the conversation by using the hashtag #CUSD300mtg in your own tweets. (For more of a tutorial on Twitter and how @ replies, searches and hashtags work, visit Twitter Support.)

And you can do it all from your couch, with a laptop in one hand and a bag of potato chips in the other. You can't say that for the gym.

Not every photo our photographers take ends up in the paper. Sometimes you get a great photo, but it doesn't exactly fit with the story. Sometimes there just isn't enough room in our print edition.

And, sometimes, yeah, you are kind of missing out. Our photographers are a talented bunch.

Case in point: This photo of a Fox Valley boy by Beacon-News photographer Brian Powers.

But don't worry. You won't miss out any more: Our photo staff has started a new blog, Visualogue, to share all their favorite photos with you. Kind of like the photos behind the photos you see in the paper, just like Between the Bylines is the stories behind the stories you read in The Courier-News.

Check it out, and let us know: Anything else you feel like you're missing out on that we could include on Between the Bylines?

-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!!

Not sure where your polling place is? Find your polling place on these sites we've listed before on Between the Bylines.

Not sure who to vote for? It's not too late! We've gathered resources here to help you make an informed decision, too.

Then join our conversation!

Share your voting experiences with us here in the comments, by e-mail, on Facebook or by using the hashtag #CNVote2010 on Twitter (see results above). Then follow @couriernews on Twitter as we stay up late, eat a lot of pizza and live-tweet election results all night, starting at about 5 p.m.

This is like the night before Christmas for us. We're excited. And we hope you are, too!

Happy Election Day!

-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter

It's being called the "Great Lakes Cyclone," but if you were following updates about yesterday's storm on social media yesterday, you probably know it better as the Chiclone. Or maybe #Chiclone.

While were posting those updates throughout Tuesday morning (Tornado warning on. Tornado warning off. Schools open. Schools closed.), we also were asking you for your storm stories and photos via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and this blog. And you answered.

Kathy Wiercinski of Elgin sent us this incredible photo of a downed tree that "landed so perfectly it was not to be believed" between her house and a neighbor's...

"I'm so grateful to God He landed it so perfectly between our houses," Wiercinski said.

Your storm stories from Twitter, after the jump.

Whether we like it or not, hyperlocal news websites are here, invading our coverage areas and hiring away our experienced co-workers. (By "our," I'm referring to traditional print media outlets, including The Courier-News and the Chicago Sun Times.)

And, further cementing their place in the news-purveying industry is recent movement by the Illinois Press Association to create a membership category for the hyperlocal dot-coms.

For those of you who are not media insiders, currently news websites like Patch (recently sprouted in Geneva, St. Charles and, yesterday, in Naperville) and Elgin's BocaJump float in a sort of limbo. They function as sort of mini newspapers with an online presence only. They report local happenings, publish police reports and cover some local government. They hire people with journalism degrees and sell ads, too.

The creators of these types of news websites say their pages will serve up community journalism with a heavy focus on feature stories and submitted content. Some claim to be "complementary rather than competition," when it comes to traditional print media. Others flat out seek to oust the journalists already in town.

What's the debate? What does this mean? After the jump.

You know the summer road construction is getting ridiculous when the DETOUR GETS DETOURED.

That's what's happened in Bartlett: Traffic has been detoured to Illinois Route 59 during construction on Dunham Road. But Route 59 will close Monday, Aug. 9, as staff writer Dave Gathman reported in today's story "Bad Timing: Route 59 to close before Dunham reopens."

But don't worry: Our Web team is here to help. They've put together a Google map of the construction zone you can use to plot your own detours:

View Bad timing for Elgin-Bartlett commuters in a larger map

Share your traffic horror stories here. And get more news on construction, closures, commuting and more on Sun-Times Media West's "On the Move" blog!

-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter

NOTE: Got questions about journalism? We promised you we'd answer them. Now we're back from the Memorial Day holiday, and we're ready for more! Here's the next Q and A...

"What's the Courier doing to embrace this change?" -- frankwolfton, via blog comment

Ask and ye shall receive.

You asked if we still thought it was a good idea for young people to get into newspapers. We answered: YES! The fact that people need newspapers hasn't changed. What has and likely will is the way people read those newspapers, thanks to something you may have heard of called "the Interwebs."

To which, you asked, well, what is The Courier-News doing about that?

Oh, I'm so glad you asked. As your Readers' Reporter, I'm the fingers behind the keyboard, if you will. The Courier's resident geek. The one coming up with hackneyed ideas for Facebook and Twitter pages and blogs and hacking out most of the posts for all of the above. And I could talk about this all day.

Let's start with the big one...

Social media. One of the things the Internet has changed about the way you read the news is it's become a social experience. According to Pew Internet, 59 percent of Americans get their news from a combination of online and offline sources. Of those, 75 percent get that news via e-mail or social networks, and 52 percent will pass it on through those means.

Since social media is where you're getting your news, social media is where we're putting it. We have three Twitter accounts: @courierrss (headlines from our RSS feeds), @courierfbscores (sports) and @couriernews (breaking news and interaction with yours truly). I've also made Twitter Lists for each of the communities we cover and each of the regular sections in The Courier-News. We have a Facebook fan page. We even did the MySpace thing for a while... but seriously. Does anybody even use MySpace anymore?! (If I'm wrong, and that's important to you -- let me know. I'll start updating our profile again.)

And we've made it easy for you to pass it on through e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc., with a "Share/Bookmark" link at the top of each article on The Courier-News website (and the bottom of every blog post).

E-mail, smartphones and this here blog, after the jump.