Fletcher Farrar

It doesn’t help much for Illinois editorialists to get angry, bang the table and shout “Unacceptable” about the Statehouse budget impasse, or “Enough,” as they did a year ago. The neutral, blaming-everybody approach lets everybody – legislators and the governor – off the hook so they can escape responsibility as long as they appear to […]

It was the largest commencement in University of Illinois Springfield history, with 1,270 graduates walking across the stage. Their poetic names – Indian, African, Middle Eastern, Chicagoan – reflect the global diversity that UIS has come to represent. Near the front of the procession of academics, just ahead of Chancellor Susan Koch and Timothy Killeen, […]

 At the Better Government Association’s Monday evening forum on “The Future of News: Covering the Capitol,” more than one of the journalists and editors on the panel agreed the news business will never get back to the staffing levels of 15 years ago when some 40 reporters covered the Statehouse. Some thought that’s not all […]

 A year ago, Mayor Jim Langfelder in his state of the city address talked about streamlining the city’s approach to requests for public records. Now, the city is saying that drafts of an environmental study on Hunter Lake (rhymes with “money sinkhole”) required by the Army Corps of Engineers won’t be shared with the public […]

As the U. S. Senate heads to the White House to hear the administration’s assessment of North Korea’s nuclear capability, and as President Trump continues his threat to use preemptive military strikes, what seems strange is that there is no sense of alarm here, nothing like the dread felt during the Cuban missile crisis. The […]

As our Chris Britt says in his inimitable way on p. 4, nobody is excited about the current crop of Democratic candidates for governor. Long gone are the days when a powerful political machine could put forward a progressive gubernatorial candidate like Adlai Stevenson and win on the benefit of ideas and integrity. Now Democrats, […]

Every Good Friday for the past 30 years or so a small group of Christians and other compassionate activists follow someone carrying a big wooden cross around downtown, stopping occasionally to sing and pray. This is the Way of the Cross walk for peace and justice which begins, again this year, in front of the […]

 If you haven’t yet been to the Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum, get there. The new location, a building leased from the city just outside the Monument Avenue entrance to Oak Ridge Cemetery, is ideal. The board and volunteers are energized, continually offering new exhibits and programs. The museum plays a key […]

Other than that, Jackie, how was the conference? If you tried to email Springfield Housing Authority executive director Jackie Newman earlier this week, you received this automatic reply: “I am currently out of the office at the NAHRO Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. listening to HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson explain why this administration is […]

 It gave us a shudder to hear the new secretary of state rattling his saber this week about Korea. The policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea is over, he said, and “all options are on the table” – presumably including a preemptive military strike – to respond if North Korea threatens South Korea. Did […]

Dr. Jerry Kruse, dean and provost of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, has weighed in against the current Republican legislation to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. His is an important voice reflecting SIU’s efforts to improve health care for low-income residents of this region. Now we need to hear from Gov. Bruce […]

It is now looking increasingly unlikely that Gov. Bruce Rauner and the General Assembly will come up with a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. After Gov. Bruce Rauner withdrew his support from Senate negotiations on a “grand bargain,” the governor has called on Democrats to propose more spending cuts, after proposing none of his […]