Fletcher Farrar

There is still time for Judy Baar Topinka to talk straight to the people of Illinois. That’s the only thing that might help her win this disappointing campaign against Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his phony fiscal proposals. Time is running out for her. She must try a desperate tactic: honesty. Lately the two candidates have […]

Just over a decade ago, in October 1995, Springfield saw a huge outpouring of civic energy into what has become known as “the trip to Atlanta.” That’s when 39 of Springfield’s movers and shakers — leaders from the fields of politics, business, education, and religion — miraculously came together for a 24-hour adventure in the […]

Illinois farmers have a big problem on their hands: They’re about to harvest a huge crop. The U.S. Department of Agriculture started the bad news when it predicted a few weeks ago that total U.S. corn production will be 10.9 billion bushels, nearly a record. To make things worse, the weather has continued to be […]

When I noticed that the City Council was preparing to address the problems of homelessness, I stopped by outside St. John’s Breadline after lunch to ask the poor and the homeless, and those who try to help them, whether they had any suggestions for the city’s leaders. I asked John, a blind man tapping his […]

Nobody likes deals done in secret, or under the threat of a lawsuit, but the substance of the Sierra Club deal with City Water, Light & Power is excellent. It gets Springfield involved in wind energy, as well as promotion of energy efficiency and conservation, while reducing emissions of harmful gases and cutting down on […]

“The greatest thing about not being president anymore,” Bill Clinton told our crowd at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies gathering in Little Rock last weekend, “is, I can say whatever the hell I please.” Some of us got our pencils ready. “The only trouble is, you all don’t have to pay any attention anymore.” Many […]

Last week’s panel discussion of race relations in Springfield was well under way when Mayor Tim Davlin slipped into the room and sat in the back row, but he was there for the best part. That was when two of the panelists brought history home to the present. University of Illinois at Springfield emeritus professor […]

There wasn’t much that was more exciting for this small-town boy 50 years ago than to load up with my family in Dad’s Oldsmobile and drive two hours to go shopping in downtown St. Louis. That was on two lanes, believe it or not, and before we started locking our car doors for the drive […]

John Kenneth Galbraith was 43 years old and already had a national reputation when he arrived in Springfield in the summer of 1952 to work as a speechwriter for Gov. Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign. American Capitalism, his first book (of the 33 he would eventually write), had been published earlier that year and had become […]

In the wake of the George Ryan verdict, there is a need to consult another Illinois governor about public morality and corruption. Ryan got caught in the basest kind, selling contracts for kickbacks and using public influence for private financial gain. He wasn’t clever enough to disguise his graft as campaign contributions, as smarter politicians […]

As war overwhelms the nation’s social agenda and Illinois political candidates continue to ignore the state’s failure to provide adequate school funding, a crucial conversation continues, largely behind the scenes. At first, President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” education reform was seen as a Republican hoax, an unfunded mandate, a punitive approach to […]

I know parents who wish they had half as much information about the boys their daughters bring home as cattle breeders have about today’s purebred bulls. The 38th Annual Illinois Performance Tested Bull Sale, held Feb. 23 at the state fairgrounds, was a showcase of animal genetics. Most of the 111 boys sold that day […]