Editor’s Note

As crowds of homeless people gather downtown – at the library and at the church across the street – we are reminded that homelessness is a community responsibility, and not just in winter. With the overflow shelter closed and campsites flooded, too many people have nowhere to go. Short-term answers, like the city providing portable […]

In the current Pure News USA, fellow newspaper CEO T.C. Christian, Jr. observes Father’s Day by paying tribute to his father, T.C. Christian, Sr., in a piece called “He left me his name.” The elder Christian, a butcher in the Armour meatpacking plant in East St. Louis, spoiled the son a bit with gifts like […]

 Almost overlooked during the flood of legislation coming out of the Statehouse was the May 31 tentative agreement on a new contract between AFSCME, the 40,000-member state employee union, and the Pritzker administration. If approved, it will be the first contract in four years. “Illinois has turned another important page from years of brutal ideological […]

As the General Assembly rushes to wind up its session by voting on legalizing sports betting, casino expansion, recreational marijuana and a big capital bill, comes the news that some Illinois legislators may be profiting from an industry they regulate. Shocking, we know. According to reporting by ProPublica and WBEZ Chicago, Senate Minority Leader Bill […]

 Installation of the 30-foot Lincoln statue outside the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum sent us to Illinois Times archives. In March 2005, then staff writer Dusty Rhodes headlined her column “This is no cowtown,” and described how Tony Leone tried to promote the idea of a contest that would put 100 “plastic Abes” around […]

This week’s cover photo, “Julia’s Blue Moon Club, 1945” illustrates both the rich cultural history of Springfield’s African-American community and the fragile nature of its physical structures. The Blue Moon Club was among the dozens of buildings bulldozed during the “urban renewal” push of the 1960s when entire blocks of structures along Washington Street between […]

 Legalizing recreational marijuana won’t make Illinois great. But the proposal is different from other recent addiction-for-profit schemes, like video gambling, the General Assembly likes to approve. Legalization will put an end to pot smoking being a criminal act, which has caused untold suffering for decades, and there are provisions for expunging minor marijuana offenses from […]

One of the benefits of being a small-town newspaper editor is you get to know important people. I was pleased to get a letter last week from U. S. Sen. Richard Durbin, wishing me a happy birthday. “Dear Bud,” it read. (He calls me Bud. I call him Dick.) “It is a pleasure to wish […]

Sometimes we just have to say no. Our friends at NPR Illinois, who already have an ad in the paper, were asking if we might find some editorial space this week to promote the many events they have planned for their first Public Radio Week, April 29-May 5. To make room for that we’d have […]

If talking sense about border security is what you want, send somebody from Springfield. Sen. Richard Durbin, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, was in El Paso last week to get a firsthand look at the situation on the southwest border. “President Trump’s border policies have failed.  His fixation with a wall and […]

 My goodness we’re in Code Red again and there’s another “cyclone bomb” headed our way, the second in three weeks. If we didn’t know such scary terms we’d think it’s just spring in Illinois, bringing unpredictable weather, warm one day and chilly the next, windy with a chance of rain. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO

Congratulations on your re-election Mr. Mayor, now let’s get back to work. Jim Langfelder is right that his first term “laid a foundation for a better tomorrow,” and voters showed confidence in him. It’s good of him to say he’ll make east side economic development a top priority in his second term, but the plan […]