Fletcher Farrar

We’re fortunate to have few vocal election deniers in these parts. But after “Stop the steal” became attempted armed robbery at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, writer Dusty Rhodes of Springfield decided to take a closer look at how voting gets done. She volunteered to be an election judge. In her column, “Election integrity […]

Abraham Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1863. This was at the depth of the Civil War when, “harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict,” the proclamation reads, as if to say, except for this war, there would be peace. Among other “gracious gifts of the Most High God,” are that […]

As Thanksgiving approaches, thank goodness we made it through the midterms. Election deniers lost; ballots won. Arizona and Pennsylvania redeemed themselves. Georgia is next. Work remains. Pritzker needs to slow the end of bail. Biden needs to find a graceful exit. Republicans need to dump Trump. Doris Turner needs to lead with confidence. We need […]

This week’s cover story features The Outlet, its new home and big plans for the future. It is a story of Springfield coming together to address the crisis of men and boys. Boys are struggling in the classroom. By high school two-thirds of the top 10 percent of the class are girls, while about two-thirds […]

When there is so much confusion in this nation’s politics, when misinformation itself is on the ballot and election deniers campaign for election, it is more important than ever to vote. A vote is an endorsement of the process, and marks each voter as a participant in a system under attack. If the process thrives […]

I was trying to give international observers a Springfield perspective on the upcoming mid-term election. Has there been a problem with misinformation or disinformation during this political campaign? Not really, I told them. Has there been interference with the election process, or with press freedom to report on the election? Not here. I was being […]

Ah, it’s autumn, the time when thoughts go back to hayrides, bonfires and the old neighborhood back home. Those were the days when some of us thought we didn’t have to worry about white supremacy or gender equality, because we didn’t know what we didn’t know. I remember when alternative journalism just meant beating the […]

Great adventures in proofreading was the subject matter of Benjamin Dreyer’s essay, “My Life in Error,” in the Sept. 25 New York Times Book Review. He wrote of the satisfaction of changing “lead” when the writer meant “led,” and the horror of finding a typo in a finished book he had proofed. I can relate. […]

Democrats don’t want serious debate before the November election about eliminating cash bail under the Pretrial Fairness Act, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2023. Gov. JB Pritzker hasn’t been helpful by just talking about making sure wealthy criminals can’t buy their way out of jail, and his opponent, Darren Bailey, worries only that local […]

Long criticized for profiting from stock trades that might be based on inside information, members of Congress made a rule that they must disclose trades that may present conflicts of interest. Now those disclosures are showing why disclosure is not enough to keep legislators in line. The New York Times has examined the trading data […]

We all could use one, if only to slow things down when life gets out of control. A person in the role would tell us what’s OK and what’s not OK, whether we’re being treated fairly, and if we are still entitled to all the privileges we once enjoyed. We’ll see how it works for […]