Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, June 25,2008

Dilatory government doesn’t get it done

Fights over accounting don’t help the Medicaid mess

Untitled Document Illinois Auditor General William Holland was so angry over the Department of Healthcare and Family Services’ delays in submitting information over the pas

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, June 11,2008

No new restrictions on redevelopers

Springfield needs a neighborhood development policy

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document Frustrated builders call it the last straw — a union-originated Springfield ordinance to require those who get city grants to contribute to an apprentices

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Thursday, May 29,2008

Building the new Springfield High School

The best location is where it is

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document The idea of replacing Springfield High School with a $57 million new building in a cornfield on Springfield’s west side is so lame, so yesterday, so pre-O

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, May 14,2008

Going to church with Mom

My boyhood church keeps the faith, contemporary-style

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document On Mother’s Day I go to church with Mom. She’s still with our old home church, Central Christian, though it’s hardly the same church I grew up

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, April 30,2008

Grammar and the governor

Language to make Illinois better

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document Punctuation and grammar, used well, can not only make us communicate better, and look better for having done so, they can also make us feel better. Commas and c

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, April 16,2008

Saving Rwanda’s orphans, one entrepreneur at a time

“Giving Hope” encourages youngsters to dream, then get to work

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document Rwanda is known as a place of death, but I wish that everyone could see the life in the faces of some of its orphans. It was 14 years ago this month that the sl

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, March 19,2008

What an activist learned in jail

Diane Lopez Hughes came home more dedicated, but different

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document They say that time behind bars makes criminals better at what they went in for. A gangbanger makes more gang connections, and a small-time bank robber learns fr

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, February 27,2008

Music says “hope” better than politics can

A transcendental evening with the Illinois Symphony Chorus

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document The subject of hope has gotten so much press, there was bound to be a pushback. During a recent debate, our guy had to carefully explain that hope doesn’t

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, February 13,2008

From esvb.org, he helps those who help others

Don’t call him “webmaster.” “Webservant” fits better.

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document Eric Scott Volkel-Barno is a person who likes to help people. He especially likes to help people who are helping other people. A quiet person who tries to live

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, January 30,2008

Tearing down walls to build Springfield

Minority participation in Q5 is making a believer out of me

By Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document At a breakfast meeting with about 100 business leaders at the University of Illinois at Springfield last week the Springfield Chamber of Commerce gave its inaug