Opinion

I recently learned that several counties are hoping to leave our state. While this seems legally dubious, the sentiment behind this move concerns me as an Illinoisian and I take it seriously.  I am a relatively new resident of Illinois and Springfield, but I have a lot of love for this place. I love the […]

On Oct. 9, a great celebration was held at HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield for the 1908 race riot site’s federal designation as a national monument, which establishes it as a unit of the National Park Service. In 2014, a search for buried historical items in a portion of land purchased for the […]

Ben Franklin once said death and taxes are inevitable, but he never said it’s inevitable to be taxed to death – especially by Illinois’ complicated and unfair property tax system with its bewildering array of terms, rules and deadlines designed to be confusing and intimidating to the average property taxpayer. Illinois has the second-highest property […]

In an age of intense rhetoric by those who do it poorly, it is easy to forget how beautiful politics can be. At base, politics is the art of freedom. Where freedom exists, politics thrive, and where freedom is absent, politics is squelched. This correlation between politics and freedom is a true one, and the […]

The recent “Lobbying for libraries” article started with this statement: “Two numbers that concern Melissa Hostetter are 76% and zero. The first is the percentage of fourth-graders in Springfield School District 186 who aren’t proficient in reading. The second is the number of librarians in the district’s elementary schools” (Sept. 5). Related I disagree with […]

Gov. JB Pritzker and state Democrats have been touting the catchphrase, “Democrats get things done.” In one west central Illinois town, that couldn’t be further from the truth. In an election year where House Speaker Chris Welch is talking about flipping seats in this district and that, there are a handful of districts state Democrats […]

These are comments written and delivered by Sheila Stocks-Smith to the Sangamon County Board during the board’s meeting at the BoS Center Aug. 13. For decades I have been concerned about questionable tactics and inmate deaths at the Sangamon County Jail. A brief overview: Amon Paul Carlock, age 57, who died in 2007, had severe, […]

On Aug. 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., the Enola Gay, a U. S. B-29 bomber, dropped and detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, a city of approximately 255,000 in western Japan. Three days later, on Aug. 9, a second bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, where some 40,000 people were likewise incinerated.  Temperatures from the blast […]

The traumatic events that affect the Black community are never-ending. Breonna Taylor and George Floyd weighed heavy on the hearts of many, but moreso on Black Americans. After each event there is outrage and disgust by all, yet, after emotions subside, the status quo remains. The one solace I have had as a Black woman […]

Over the last few years, a marked transformation has occurred in education. Long-standing research on how to best teach children to read was acknowledged. School districts around the country embraced the “science of reading” – an interdisciplinary body of knowledge about reading and writing. Thankfully, our local districts have begun to make this long-overdue change. […]

The U.S. Surgeon General has recently identified gun violence in America as a public health crisis. The American Medical Association has long considered the uncontrolled ownership and use of firearms a threat to public health. And yet all political attempts to curb gun injuries and deaths have been met with fierce resistance.  What is missing […]