Certain-kind-of-family guy

When I want to learn what a politician thinks, I read what she writes. When I need only to learn what a politician says he thinks, I listen to him speak. Here’s why. Republican governor wanna-be

In defense of the politician

Illinois doesn’t need fewer deal-makers, it needs better ones

For years now, Illinoisans dismayed by their elected officials’ failure to clean up the messes they made on the voters’ behalf could console themselves with the thought, “Well, it co

Watching out for fools

Who ought to pay for preventable storm damage?

Oklahoma’s governor said what they always say. “We will rebuild.” Sigh. Again? There? That way? Really? Tornadoes, we have all been reminded yet again, are nature’s most violen

Happier endings

The last conversation most cancer patients have should be the first

You’re in your doctor’s office. You’ve just been told that you have cancer – one of the bad ones, like those that attack the pancreas or the liver or the lungs or the ovaries &

The neighborhood school, redefined

The community room in the new Matheny-Withrow is a beginning

Schools, conventionally, seek to train the minds of their young charges. The problem is that it is not only their minds that show up every day in the classroom. Their bodies, their attitudes, their ex

Looking for Mr. Right

District 186 needs more than a new superintendent

Springfield voters on April 9 taught School District 186 a lesson. The district needed a better board, they believed, and they made their point by electing a slew of new members. But what, exactly, ar

Cakes on a plate

Building walls and street spaces in Springfield

In a recent column (“Keeping Springfield weird,” April 25, 2013) I tried to explain why Springfield’s built environment strikes so many visitors as off-putting. I mentioned as likely

Keeping Springfield weird

No parent ever has an ugly baby. Even if the little darling has a head that looks like a cantaloupe from the bottom of the pile, parents don’t like strangers stating the obvious. People are the

Ten years after

Iraq and America’s never-ending battle against truth

We fought, we were told, to avenge an act of terrorism against our nation that was made up, after a campaign whipped up by the U.S. media. In fact, the real powers in America wanted the war to protect

The right combination of sensibilities

Rich Shereikis taught in the classroom and on the printed page

Richard Shereikis died in Evanston on March 29. He was 75.A spot on the staff of Illinois Times in its very early years was an entry-level position – anyone who walked up the steps and through t