PHOTO BY DAVID HINE Is it entirely a coincidence that the Washington Park tennis courts, where the Springfield Park District offers lessons for young players, now are painted like a child’s bedroom? The courts were reopened in September after having been resurfaced, re-netted and painted blue and green, in the new approved U.S. Tennis Association […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Moocher
Last week I didn’t want to write another rant about corporate moochers any more than you probably wanted to read one, but as long as these kinds of deals keep getting proposed, we will have to keep ranting. I mentioned in that column my view that Archer Daniels Midland, or ADM as the firm prefers […]
Posted inOpinion
Pennies and nickels
For a lot of people in Springfield, Decatur is just a place to stop when you get hungry on the way back from a U of I game. But people live there too – at least some still do; the city has lost nearly 20 percent of its population since 1980. And it’s going to […]
Posted inOpinion
Rodney Davis warns of disaster
13th District congressman Rodney Davis. PHOTO COURTESY US GOVERNMENT Usually, when I read Mad-Hatteresque pronouncements from members of the Republican caucus of the U.S. House, I am reminded of the works of Lewis Carroll. Reading the remarks by 13th District congressman Rodney Davis during his recent campaign announcement tour, I thought instead of James Fenimore […]
Posted inOpinion
A little knowledge…No. 4 in a series
A recent NYT/CBS poll that found that 54% of American voters “disapprove” of the way Barack Obama is handling the deficit left Slate’s David Weigel puzzled. “What are voters reacting to, exactly? Can it be the size of the deficit? That wouldn’t make sense, as the deficit is down 35 percent from this time last […]
Posted inOpinion
Fixing the wrong problem
“Throw the bums out!” I say. Ah, if only we knew who the bums are. Bruce Rauner thinks he knows – they are public sector unions, public school systems and the politicians who enable them. To bring about the Millennium in Illinois, Rauner is circulating petitions to put on the ballot a constitutional amendment authorizing […]
Posted inOpinion
Fast company
In “Unplugged,” I reported that the city of Chattanooga was planning to piggy-back a municipally owned fiber optic cable network on its public electrical utility. As the Washington Post reported the other day, it’s going very well, thank you. The city now operates some 8,000 miles of fiber for 56,000 commercial and residential internet customers. […]
Posted inOpinion
Old arguments
Ordinarily, I would be thrilled that so many people were discussing the merits of the ongoing historical restoration of the Illinois Capitol. Except they aren’t. They’re discussing “excessive flourishes,” $80,000 chandeliers and $600,000 ornamental doorways. They haven’t found any gold-plated toilet fixtures yet, but I’ll bet they’re looking. “They” is people like Chicago State Senator […]
Posted inOpinion
The people’s art museum
Soon, the West Wing of the Illinois Capitol will emerge after two years inside a cocoon of plywood and tarps. The structure was closed off, paradoxically, to make that part of the building both newer – by upgrading the building’s mechanical systems and making access and safety improvements – and older, by restoring it to […]
Posted inOpinion
The Baffler
The University of Illinois tells us that enrollment for the fall term at its Urbana campus is nearly 43,400 students, the most in the school’s history, thanks in part to the second-largest number ever of incoming freshmen. That’s progress for the university. Whether it will mean progress for all those freshmen is another question, writes […]
Posted inOpinion
Southern pride
“The people of Southern Illinois will be extremely pleased with who my running mate is,” said State Sen. Kirk Dillard when he announced who would run with him as he campaigns for the governorship in the Republican primary. She is Rep. Jil Tracy of Quincy, who was born in Carbondale, lived in Anna, and took […]
Posted inOpinion
Radical fellows
Champaign is used to naive people who overestimate their prospects of success at endeavors at which clearer-eyed observers know they will fail. Think of all those incoming freshmen, all those Fighting Illini teams, all those University of Illinois ethics panels. We must add to that list one David Green, a 63-year-old physics professor who is […]
