Editor’s Note

In Springfield this week little children put on their masks, held tight to somebody’s hand, and headed off to in-person school, an act of bravery repeated millions of times all over the country and around the world. If parents were given the remote option, many of them would have kept their children home; if masks […]

Wars are easy to get into and hard to get out of. I remember the Sunday morning, Oct. 7, 2001, when President George W. Bush launched an intense bombing attack on Afghanistan’s major cities. It was inexplicable except as a retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks, though no case had been made that the attackers […]

Our writer’s lead paragraph in the article on this page sent me fact-checking. Springfield’s racial income disparity is the worst in the nation? That’s what Governing magazine concluded in its 2019 series that analyzed 2017 census data, and apparently nobody has challenged the accuracy of the analysis since. This newspaper published an article from that […]

For once the city of Springfield and Sangamon County have plenty of new money. The city will have $33.8 million and the county $37.8 million in federal pandemic-relief funds with few restrictions on spending. As Sangamon County administrator Brian McFadden and Springfield budget director Bill McCarty told the Citizens Club July 23, spending guidelines for […]

The pandemic is sort of over, but we’re waiting to see what will happen when school starts, and worrying whether we have enough social distance from Missouri. The garden, not so long ago full of hope, is growing up in weeds, waiting for a decision on whether to plant more seeds or just let it […]

When everyone says the U.S. has to “do something” in Haiti, the Biden administration has resisted sending in troops or billions of dollars, typical crisis reactions which have led to corruption. Many fear all is lost in Afghanistan now that Biden is pulling out U.S troops, but it’s too soon to count out home-grown resistance […]

Christina Shutt, the new director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, is already making small waves in the capital city by suggesting that we “humanize” the historical figure too many of us know only as a “great” man. Lincoln’s views on race evolved, she recently told host Brian Mackey on NPR’s “The 21st”, […]

For the past year, Springfield historian Mark Flotow has been doing newspaper transcription work about Springfield during the Civil War era. He found a gem from the Illinois State Journal, dated July 6, 1866, that noted celebration of July 4 by the city’s Black residents: “Feeling that they also now have an interest in the […]

As life continues to reemerge, we’re being more selective about what meetings to attend, how much socializing to do, how we spend our time. Businesses, happy to have survived, are looking for ways to do business differently, more boldly. Activists, empowered, are gathering ideas for next steps. State politics is on the move. The new […]

CWLP chief Doug Brown was right when he said in a recent interview that proposed energy legislation is shortsighted for focusing on the environmental goal of getting rid of coal, while ignoring other factors. Reliability, affordability, safety and nuclear waste should also be considered in planning the state’s energy future. But Brown is probably wrong […]

As Juneteenth becomes more widely recognized beyond the Black community, there are an increasing number of activities and events happening in Springfield. For the first time, we’ve put together a guide to Juneteenth, and explained some of the history and culture behind the holiday, so all may join in the celebration of emancipation. We invited […]

Gun violence is getting worse, with more deaths, increased frequency of incidents and new tactics by killers. America sits by helpless, enthralled with the old notion that the status quo is protected by the Constitution and there is nothing anybody can do. Abraham Lincoln faced a similar addiction to slavery, but “viewed the whole nation […]