Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Friday, April 15,2011

Undercount

Does low turnout threaten representative government?

Forget one-person-one vote; we are moving toward a one election-one vote future. The turnout of registered voters in Peoria for April’s municipal elections — and remember that not all qual

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, April 7,2011

Relying on Senator Santa

Wishing won’t get a new rail corridor built

By James Krohe Jr.

The prospect of free money leaves even a Republican Chamber of Commerce stalwart like Mike Houston sounding like a spoils-oriented ward alderman. “Sen. [Dick] Durbin is a very powerful senator,&

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, March 31,2011

Big deals about little games

Looking back on high school sports rivalries

By James Krohe Jr.

Finally. The Springfield High girls beat Glenwood at soccer the other night, after nearly a decade during which Chatham girls played Mike Madigan to the conference’s legislative rank and file. T

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, March 24,2011

‘I’m all right, Jack.’

Reflecting on the Forbes billionaires

By James Krohe Jr.

Years ago, when I kept an office downtown, prurient curiosity caused me to drop by the PO every once in a while to check out the creeps on the FBI’s latest Ten Most Wanted list posted in the lob

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, March 17,2011

Chicagoland, Chicagoland

The rise of the Chicago city-state

By James Krohe Jr.

While the pundits debate whether Illinois is leaning to the left or the right, the U.S. Census Bureau, deciding on better evidence supplied by the 2010 population count, has concluded that Illinois is

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, March 10,2011

A school by any other name

The perils of naming public buildings in a fastidious age

By James Krohe Jr.

The good people of Chatham have built themselves a second public elementary school, to give their young the skills they will need to someday leave Chatham. The usual sorts of names for the new school

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, March 3,2011

Living too high off the hog

Springfield’s booming health care economy can’t keep living like this

By James Krohe Jr.

Springfield has become to sick people what Decatur is to soybeans, a major regional processing center in which raw materials are processed by the latest in high-tech machinery into novel products such

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, February 24,2011

‘A neat and appropriate address’

Lincoln’s farewell to Springfield as a Guinness gag

By James Krohe Jr.

When I lived on the east side in the 1980s, I often walked past the building now called the Lincoln Depot on my way to and from downtown. Many’s the time I found myself having to wait while a fr

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, February 17,2011

Sacred documents

Why the Constitution is not our political holy book

By James Krohe Jr.

At my age, “constitutional issues” usually involve medicine, not the law, if only because the other kind are so complex that thinking about them makes my head hurt. A boyhood reading of Th

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, February 10,2011

Honorable ancestors

Some pitfalls in doing family history research

By James Krohe Jr.

Thomas Schwartz has been the Illinois State Historian since 1993. Asked how he got into the racket in a 2008 interview, Mr. Schwartz recalled that he grew up surrounded by an extended family whos