Fletcher Farrar

It would have been refreshing had Mayor Mike Houston proclaimed his single term a success and announced his willingness to step aside, as promised. Springfield has a number of young, talented public servants with ideas and energy, waiting for a chance. They will likely have to wait longer, as the pretty good mayor – with […]

 While central Illinois is glowing about this year’s fine corn and bean crops, some farmers, along with the fertilizer industry and government policymakers, are looking for ways to keep more of their expensive fertilizers on the farm and out of the Gulf of Mexico. Nutrients, mostly from agricultural sources, cause a large and growing “dead […]

 Every year around the Fourth of July Springfield celebrates Independents Week by appreciating and patronizing independent, locally owned businesses. There are dozens of reasons to shop Local First, including the one pointed out on page 14 by Bill McMahon, executive director of Local First Springfield. McMahon makes the case that when you buy from locally […]

 This week the winners of the Small Business Owner of the Year awards, sponsored by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, all talked about taking care of their employees and their customers, persevering through hard times and putting in some long hours. Several referenced prayer as a key to their success. But none spoke of […]

We cleaned up at the Illinois Press Association annual newspaper awards banquet last week, bringing home the top “general excellence” awards for our division in both advertising and editorial. In addition, we took eight first-place editorial awards. Bruce Rushton won five of those firsts, including the prestigious investigative reporting category for “You drink, you drive, […]

 The Compass after-school program for homeless and low-income children this week marked the end of the school year by recognizing the dozens of volunteers who give an afternoon a week to being a guiding presence in the lives of children. The program, finishing its third year, has grown from one site serving children from Dubois […]

Once again the General Assembly leaves town amid chaos, with a who-knows-what’s-in-it budget that doesn’t balance with projected revenues because legislators refused to pass the income tax extension that Illinois sorely needed. Deficits remain, backlogs will grow, reforms will be shelved, cuts will be needed. In other words, the status quo continues. Some may argue […]

 Thanks to Illinois Issues for reporting that the Illinois Department of Agriculture is trying out a new weapon in its battle against gypsy moths, which in their caterpillar stage defoliate millions of acres of trees. The females secrete pheromones to attract males, so this year the Ag Dept. plans to spread the smell of females […]

 Thanks to our freshman state senator, Andy Manar, for getting school aid formula reform out on the legislative table. (See “Fixing school funding,” by Lauren P. Duncan, p. 11.) The formula for determining which schools get how big a slice of the state aid pie hasn’t been changed since 1997, to the detriment of Springfield […]

 We suppose it’s better late than never: The Quinn administration Department of Natural Resources has agreed to stop being so cozy with Big Coal. As you’ll read in Bruce Rushton’s story on p. 10 (“Reform wave hits DNR”), the department has agreed to comply with regulations requiring public notice of mine permit applications, and to […]

 Our comprehensive report this week on video gambling [see “A gambling mecca,” by Bruce Rushton, p. 12] includes the fact that Springfield is leading the state in the number of machines. Aren’t we proud! In the past two years since the machines have been legal, Springfield and Sangamon County gamblers have lost about $18 million […]

Now that Bruce Rauner is the Republican nominee for governor, battle lines are drawn and stakes are high for the fall election. Gov. Pat Quinn will begin staking out ground in his March 26 budget address, making the case that allowing the temporary income tax hike to expire without a replacement, as Rauner advocates, would […]