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Balz to speak in Freeport
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FREEPORT - Dan Balz, a prominent political commentator and national correspondent at The Washington Post, will be the guest speaker for the 2009 Reuben Baumgartner Issues Forum on Friday, Sept. 18 at Highland Community College.

"The Battle for America 2008: What the last election tells us about President Obama," will begin at 7 p.m. in the Student/Conference Center, room H-201, on the Highland Community College campus. A question-and-answer session, moderated by HCC instructor Andrew Dvorak, will follow the presentation.

Balz is a national political correspondent at The Washington Post and a regular panelist on PBS's "Washington Week." He has been a frequent guest on PBS' "News Hour with Jim Lehrer," NBC's "MEET the Press," CBS' "Face the Nation," CNN's "State of the Nation" and many other programs.

Balz is co-author, with Haynes Johnson, of the book, "The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election," about the 2008 campaign. The book is based on two years of reporting and includes exclusive interviews with President Obama, Senator John McCain and many of the top advisors to the major candidates in the 2008 election.

A native of Freeport and a 1964 graduate of Freeport High School, Balz earned bachelor's and master's degrees in communications from the University of Illinois. He served in the U.S Army from 1968 to 1971. Before joining The Washington Post, he was a reporter and editor at National Journal magazine. He also spent a summer working for the Freeport Journal Standard. He is married to Nancy Johnson Balz, a public librarian. They live in Bethesda, Md., and are parents of an adult son.

The Reuben Baumgartner Issues Forum, which is sponsored by Highland Community College and the League of Women Voters, brings programs of national and international issues to the community. There is no charge and reservations are not required. For more information, call (815) 599-3541, or e-mail: joe.kanosky@highland.edu.