Below The Fold: Election Days, Police Blotters and "Scantily Clad Women Toting Firearms"

Plenty of major stories are grabbing headlines today, but here's a look at some of the less prominent news from around the country that caught our Eye.

Mid-term elections are coming up -- and you know what that means. More ways to parse the inconveniences of the American electoral process! In Illinois it's been decided that voters will be able to cast ballots starting Feb. 27 "well in advance of the March 21 primary and without providing the kind of travel or illness excuses needed for absentee ballots," writes the Chicago Tribune. Illinois will join 30 other states with some form of early voting and is intended to be a response to lackluster voter turnout in the past. "'You take any Election Day, and there are problems,' said Andrew Raucci, a Chicago attorney who specializes in election law. 'This is 18 more days for problems.'" And 18 more days of billable hours for election lawyers.

In a related attempt to expand Election Day, a move to extend voting hours to 9 pm in Indiana did not pass the state Senate. "Currently, Indiana has one of the earliest closing times in the nation, with poll stations locking the doors at 6 p.m.," writes the Indianapolis Star.

The advent of blogs has apparently offered new and more interesting ways to present the local police blotter over at the Kansas City Star. Staffer Greg Reeves' blog, Crime Scene KC, monitors the latest from the local cops and last week Reeves rode along with Kansas City police officer Ben Dougherty, blogging all the while:

4:50 p.m. - Injury accident call. Driver has flipped his Ford Ranger FX4 pickup on a 169 entrance ramp. We run code, but before we get there we hear, "This is going to be a minor elbow injury." Bless seatbelts and airbags. Officer Dougherty blocks the ramp with his car while I hoof it under the overpass to gawk.

5:01 p.m. - Drivers pull up and ask Officer Dougherty how to get on southbound 169. He tells them to go to the next light, turn left and do a U-turn. No one does. Some turn right. "I guess I have to work on my communication," he says.

Trooper Charles Kemp checked the radar unit as a black SUV and silver Hummer blasted past the patrol car tucked onto the shoulder of westbound Interstate 696. The vehicles passed so close and so fast that Kemp's car rocked from side to side.

"They're both doing 79 mph in a 65 mph zone," Kemp said. "Which one to choose?"

Forgotten treasures fill the windows of Spring Street on Main Antiques. Puffy polar bears decorate the front of the Artful Dragon. Stacks of canvas bags create a cozy bunker at Coffee Corner Antiques. The whole block blends into a Norman Rockwell scene.

With one exception.

The windows of the Gunrunner, decorated with two large posters of scantily clad women toting firearms, stand out in this buttoned-down town. Village officials call the gun shop's display inappropriate - "It's pretty risqué," Mayor Nick Fischbach said - and want it taken down.