Fletcher Farrar

 After President Trump came out with his second Charlottesville statement on Monday, this one denouncing racism and the Ku Klux Klan, some listeners were ready to say it’s OK if he took 48 hours to get it right, or at least better. Sometimes presidents grow in office, said MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, citing JFK. Then on […]

If you had to choose politician-of-the-month between Donald Trump and Bruce Rauner, which would you pick? One threatens nuclear war, but then his secretary of state says ignore it, there’s nothing to worry about. The other plays Russian roulette with school funding days before school starts, and everyone says there’s plenty to worry about. If […]

 Last week I strolled around the U.S. Capitol in the early evening, stopping for a while to watch an orderly protest rally against the Republican plan to obliterate Obamacare, at that hour being debated inside the building. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we didn’t have to be always protesting something? I probably was […]

Gov. Bruce Rauner has a plan for schools, but he won’t disclose it or verify his financial projections until the General Assembly sends him their bill so he can veto it. He has called the legislature back to Springfield, but he says there is “nothing to discuss.” That’s why they call this session “special.” – […]

Peter Baker, the New York Times chief White House correspondent, was in Springfield the day Republican plans to dismantle Obamacare fell apart. It’s not easy for a president to dismantle a predecessor’s legacy, even though this president seems obsessed with doing so, said Baker, here to discuss his new book, Obama: The Call of History. […]

 It is a great relief that a reasonable state budget and a tax increase to pay for it have become law. This was accomplished by overriding the governor’s veto, with the help of some courageous House Republicans, including Springfield’s Sara Wojcicki Jimenez. There is more trouble ahead, however, because the governor is threatening to veto […]

Oh thank goodness. New Jersey finally resolved its budget impasse, while there were similar budget cliffhangers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. In New Jersey, the stalemate had stretched into three full days and closed state parks before a budget deal was finally made July 4. Gov. Chris Christie, fresh from a relaxing day at […]

After a Republican sweep of four recent elections for House seats, Democrats are doing some soul searching about how to regain their momentum. They need a positive economic program, some are saying, rather than the current strategy of repealing and replacing President Trump. But if congressional Republicans succeed in their effort to replace the Affordable […]

 That Gov. Bruce Rauner has a limitless capacity for audacity is well known. Yet his Tuesday evening plea for bipartisan “unity” while he is bankrolling ads attacking Democrats for supporting a tax plan similar to his own reached a new low. The governor calls for compromise, but so far he has been unwilling to compromise. […]

 With school out and summer heating up, bored kids get into trouble, sometimes with guns. After a signal from Mayor Jim Langfelder that  the way to address teen violence is with activities and summer jobs, activists in several meetings I’ve been in recently discuss ways to help. As the discussion turns to the difficulty finding […]

I’m pleased to announce that Michelle Ownbey was recently promoted to publisher of Illinois Times and Springfield Business Journal. She was associate publisher of Springfield Business Journal since January 2014, when it was acquired by Illinois Times. Earlier in her career, Michelle had been advertising manager of the Springfield Business Journal from 2001 to 2006, […]

 If you are like me and Trump and Rauner are about to get you down, it’s time to dig in the dirt and put some seeds in the ground. “When the world wearies and ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden,” is the quotation I have on my wall. It’s a little late for […]