I love the New York Times. I quote it so often my kids think I don’t know anything I didn’t read there. So naturally I was drawn to the long piece in May’s Vanity Fair on NYT publish]]> Let’s keep working on this Salvation Army issue. There has to be a better location for a homeless shelter than the site the Army has picked, out by the airport. The ]]> Now that the Illinois General Assembly has acted to restore Gov. Rod Blagojevich's budget cuts — using a one-time-only gimmick to supposedly fund the deficit — it's time to ]]> The visiting architects and city planners who made up the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team said over and over that Springfield is poised on the edge of greatness. ]]> My summer reading has turned to cities, realizing the good that is in them, solving their problems through leadership, and deciding what personal role to play. My books ]]> Former Gov. George Ryan is remembered for two things. First, that he went to prison after being convicted on corruption charges. Second, that, in his final days in office, he cleared out dea]]> I know parents who wish they had half as much information about the boys their daughters bring home as cattle breeders have about today’s purebred bulls. The 38th Annua]]> Hunter Lake is a 40-year-old idea whose time, if there ever was one, has passed. The 3,010-acre lake would hold far more water than Springfield needs. There are less expensive alt]]> When I first heard about the new Crime Stoppers drug dumpster, I found it amusing. A trash dumpster, welded shut, painted orange, is stenciled with, “A suspected drug house is in thi]]> When U. S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu met with the FutureGen Alliance on Monday to discuss whether to proceed with a large-scale coal gasification demonstration plant near Mattoon, he fa]]> 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]]> Now that we finally have President George W. Bush talking about “a new way forward” for the United States in Iraq, it would be good to hear Gov. Rod Blagojevich discuss ways to deal with r]]> 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 ]]> Though I knew how the story turned out, as I read I kept hoping that one of the safety inspection reports on Centralia Coal Co. Mine No. 5 would move somebody to action before it was too late. In the ]]> Untitled Document Not long after Dan Walker took office as governor, in 1973, I interviewed him in his office in the Capitol. I was finishing a journalism degree at Northwestern ]]> Illinois farmers have a big problem on their hands: They’re about to harvest a huge crop. The U.S. Department of Agriculture started the bad news when it predicted a few weeks ago that total U.S]]> 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]]> Untitled Document It is August, and all the gardeners in Springfield are harvesting their juicy red tomatoes to take to the state fair. They do this not to compete in the produce]]> As America looks around for someone to blame for the current economic mess, bankers are the easiest target in sight. “No one wants to hug a banker,” reads a recent Newsweek hea]]> Untitled Document Lying with a needle in his arm and parts of his blood streaming into three separate bags, David Parsons is    donating platelets, which takes longer t]]>