After deliberating for two weeks, a federal jury today convicted Rod Blagojevich of only one of the 24 counts against him -- lying to the FBI -- and announced it was deadlocked on the other 23 counts.

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From the things they brought with them to the soldiers from Illinois, Tom Negovan's specials from Afghanistan bring new perspective to the daily occurances happening abroad.

If you missed any of Tom's specials, you can still watch them on the wgntv.com website:
http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-negovan-afghanistan-reports-storygallery,0,2642785.storygallery

Also, be sure to catch the full 30 minute special on Afghanistan, airring in early July. We'll post specific airdates and information on the blog as soon as we have them.

WGN TV's Tom Negovan stops by to talk with Dean about his recent embed with the IL National Guard in Afghanistan.

Tonight WGN News continues its reports from Afghanistan. If you've missed any of the reports from Sunday or Monday night, you can watch them all here (as well as view photos and watch additional video).


Assignment Afghanistan

Tonight we take a closer look at who these men and women truly are. Tune in to the WGN News at Nine on Ch. 9 on WGN-TV.

wgntv.com/newsatnine

We did a great half-hour of radio with my good pal Dean Richards on WGN-AM yesterday. Dean tells me the response was terrific, and we're hoping to get on the air together again soon.



My phone has already started ringing after last night's report. Some people are wondering who these soldiers are when they're not deployed with the Guard in Afghanistan.. Others are calling to tell me.

We're on that angle, too.

Part 2 of this series airs tonight- on the guys I refer to as sort of an Illinois "Band of Brothers," bringing law and order to some of the most lawless and dangerous regions of southern Afghanistan.

I talked to their boss, Col. Bill Hix, this morning. It's not an overstatement. He's very proud of these guys. As I write this, our story on them is in editing. I hope you like it- but watch out for that mortar round!! That's tonight at 9.

Tomorrow: Who they are.

I encountered some amazing people over there.. and yes- I'm aware that I have said that before. What I want folks to know (the ones who don't already) is who these people are back here at home. You'll be stunned, I think. And very, very proud.

So that takes us through the next couple of days. I'll be doing stories until Friday. Believe me, I have plenty of material.

If you missed last night's report, it's here on the website and has also been picked up for broadcast by CNN, so you may catch it there.

 

In the meantime- do you have questions? Something you want to say to the men and women serving over there?

I know a lot of them have been checking-in.. And they have enjoyed reading your thoughts here.. So feel free to weigh-in.

Filling-in on the Morning News today, and we'll be talking about the trip to Afghanistan.


Almost have the first story written; we're going to start editing when I get off the air. The piece on my trip with Illinois soldiers to the village of Khaki Jabbar will run on the 9:00 news Sunday night and will be posted online immediately thereafter.

It's coming together pretty well, and kind of shows in a nutshell what some of these soldiers are up against. They hand-packed over a-thousand packages of school supplies for kids in this remote village, brought them out there, let locals hand them out to children who lined-up to receive them, only to find many of their gifts burning in a pile on the ground not five minutes later. It's pretty dramatic imagery, and the frustration these soldiers feel is very apparent.

"Taliban" is an expression I feel may be overused. I'm not sure it's an accurate way of describing the insurgent forces at work in Afghanistan-- and has become more of a convenient catch-all name for the insurgency.

If I was ever going to use that word, this is a good place. The Taliban still has a strong hold on outlying areas like Khaki Jabbar.. and while for the most part we were welcomed by villagers there- you could see the hatred on the faces of some of the older kids. Make no mistake- we were not welcome, and they sent that message very clearly.

I fed some of the tape back from Afghanistan right away, so some of it has run on WGN already -- but there's much more to the story, and you can see it Sunday at 9.

After that- I'm planning a piece a night for the rest of next week, and working on a half-hour special to broadcast in early July. Watch for details here on our blog.