Missouri, Illinois make push for their share of billions in broadband grant money

Missouri is hoping the federal broadband stimulus program will support its MoBroadbandNow initiative — a public-private partnership that seeks to get high-speed Internet to 95 percent of all residents within five years. The state is offering $28 million in matching funds, targeting middle mile and last mile projects key to the initiative. Illinois has set aside $50 million to support dozens of proposals in that state. Some of them, at least at first glance, are puzzling — particularly in the case of more than $30 million that has been requested by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It's odd when you consider that just last year, the campus was named the nation's most wired campus in a survey by PC Magazine and The Princeton Review.