Fletcher Farrar

 Though not much new came out of Monday’s panel discussion at the Sangamo Club, sponsored by the Better Government Association, on the “Impact of the Impasse,” it was interesting to hear areas on which the panelists agree. A hospital executive, a nonprofit social services director, a university administrator, an educator and an NAACP officer, all […]

 David Axelrod of Chicago, who was President Barack Obama’s chief political strategist and senior adviser, now a CNN commentator, was in Springfield last week for the Illinois Press Association conference.  He said he thought at first Bruce Rauner might be a progressive Republican as governor. Instead, Axelrod said, Rauner has made Illinois the “laughingstock” of […]

The fiscal policy center of Voices for Illinois Children, a respected and reliable nonprofit, offers “eight takeaways” to put the state’s fiscal problems in perspective. 1. Without a fully funded budget, Illinois is dismantling the foundations of a prosperous, compassionate state. It is causing the higher education system to fall apart, service providers to shut […]

There is no more apt description of the just concluded legislative session than Gov. Bruce Rauner’s: “Stunning failure.” He was pointing at the Democrats, as usual, but he is the one who failed the most, by failing to propose and win approval for a reasonable budget, and by failing to help business with cost-saving reforms […]

 We’re about to see who, if anyone, has any political negotiating skill at the Statehouse. As they prepare for their end game over the next few days, Mike Madigan and Bruce Rauner, the two tops, might study how Mohandas Gandhi negotiated with the British for India’s independence. Gandhi knew how to mobilize the masses behind […]

It’s beginning to look like Gov. Bruce Rauner and Speaker Mike Madigan will be spending another summer cooped up in the Statehouse, but the rest of us plan our time better. With the 72-page Illinois Times Summerlong Summerguide in hand, we can pick from hundreds of good things to do. We’ll order tickets for Hamlet […]

Gov. Bruce Rauner has distanced himself from Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, but the governor didn’t say why. Is it because Trump would close the country’s borders to Muslims? Maybe not – Rauner wants to close the state’s borders to Syrians. Maybe Rauner, who hasn’t funded social services, worries that Trump would lack compassion for […]

One after one they came to the Springfield stage as their names were called, 20 who had spent long years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. Altogether this group of exonerees from around the country had served more than 400 years in prison before courts determined they had been wrongfully convicted. The group photo, […]

 Voices for Illinois Children, the Chicago-based advocacy group, knows how to encourage children – and legislators – when they do something right. Emily Miller, the group’s policy and advocacy director, writes, “Since last week’s bipartisan agreement to provide emergency cash to higher education, a narrative of regret and finger-pointing has emerged from officials who are […]

Before there was Earth Day our own Adlai Stevenson, as U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, in what would become his last major speech, addressed the Economic and Security Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 9, 1965: “We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; […]

 The state budget crisis is about to come to a head, with Chicago State University about to close for lack of funding, other small universities hurting, piles of fiscal pain everywhere and the possibility that courts could put a stop to state employee paychecks. Gov. Bruce Rauner’s continual blaming of House Speaker Michael Madigan for […]

Several states require politicians to shut down their campaign funds after they leave office. Susan Garrett, board chair of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, says “in a perfect world” Illinois should have a similar requirement. But even Garrett has kept her campaign fund open three years after leaving her state Senate seat. As this […]