Guest Opinion | Wednesday, January 28,2009

Muslims, the Americans are not your enemy

As he dispatched former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, his new special envoy for Middle East peace, to the region, President Obama gave his first television interview on Monday t

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, January 21,2009

Council can solve fiscal woes now

By Tim Bramlet

Tough times call for tough decisions. That axiom has never been truer than it is now for the Springfield City Council as it deliberates approval of a new city budget. As chair of Mayor Tim Davlin&rs

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, January 14,2009

Too many payday loan shops drive businesses away

City council to vote again Jan. 21

By Michelle Higginbotham

Alderman Debbie Cimarossa, working in conjunction with the MacArthur Boulevard Business Association (MBBA), last fall introduced an ordinance to the city council that would have required payday lend

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, January 7,2009

Back to the future in Enos Park

We need city cooperation to go from blight to bright

By Steve Combs

In the late 1800s it was known as the “Jewel of Springfield”! A hundred years later in 1997 it was officially classified as a “blighted community” qualified to establish its ow

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, December 31,2008

Say yes to Hunter Lake

A lake would solve more problems than gravel pits and wells

By Reg Davis

There are at least two sides to every story. The Hunter Lake story has been going on for over 40 years and the following is another side of it [See “Say no to Hunter Lake,” by Fletcher Fa

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, December 24,2008

Make fuel-efficient cars legal in Illinois

Urban electric cars are available, but you can’t drive them here

By David Brunson

Suppose you’re feeling patriotic. Maybe you’d like to finally do something to help America reduce its addiction to foreign oil. Perhaps you’ve thought about buying an extremely fuel

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, December 17,2008

Don’t close library branches

These precious community resources are needed now more than ever

By Patricia Erford

Today we hear that 1.55 million jobs in the U.S. were lost during the last six months, and 3,000 jobs were lost within Sangamon County during the last five years. People have been hit hard and incom

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, December 10,2008

Bold education strategy at St. Pat’s

Helping children from poverty succeed in school

By Tom Bayer

Faith Sanderson at the Regional Office of Education works with many families in school districts throughout Sangamon County who are in crisis. We should listen to Faith because she has many years of

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, December 3,2008

India must not follow the U.S. example

By Claude Salhani

Reeling from the terrible shock of the attacks on India’s commercial capital last week, the authorities of the world’s largest democracy may find it logical to follow in the footsteps of a

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, November 19,2008

Barack Obama’s confident humility

By Thomas March and Darcy R. Fryer

Senator Barack Obama ran a successful campaign about change, and in many ways his election to the presidency marks a revolution in American politics — but it also marks a return. The Fou