Bean reports encouraging drop in Iraq violence

Read the full story in today's News-Sun, but there is more and more encouraging news from Iraq:

After returning last weekend from her second trip to Iraq, U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Barrington, said she noticed a palpable change there from her first trip to the embattled country two years ago. "In addition to just hearing from the leadership that there was a decrease in violence, you could feel it and see it," she said during a conference call Wednesday.

Bean said security seemed more relaxed than during her first visit, a condition she found "personally disconcerting" at first, and she said she also noticed that hospital facilities were less strained with casualties than they had been two years ago. "It was encouraging overall," she said. "The anxiety level was not what it had been."