We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES Sangamon County has already been bought and sold on the data center by CyrusOne, and the public hearing was a joke. The project is being rushed forward on the basis of info overwhelmingly […]
Opinion
Posted inRich Miller
SAFE-T Act under fire again
In the days after the horrific burning of a woman on a Chicago CTA train by a clearly deranged habitual criminal suspect last month, some in the news media immediately focused on their go-to issue: The SAFE-T Act. “Illinois leaders blast SAFE-T Act after repeat offender charged with lighting woman on fire on CTA Blue […]
Posted inEditor's Note
Editor’s Note
We who are “upsessed” about Washington must resist being distracted from Springfield and local affairs. It was here our Vachel Lindsay in 1914 preached “the new localism”: “The things most worthwhile are one’s own hearth and neighborhood. We should make our own home and neighborhood the most democratic, the most beautiful and the holiest in […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letters to the editor
GONE DOWNHILL This was such a sad article to read (“Seniors struggle at Sangamon Towers,” Nov. 13). Sangamon Towers, at one time, was a very nice place for seniors to live. Two of my uncles and three of my aunts had all lived there and I visited them often. Then, the building was very secure […]
Posted inOpinion
Scarecrows in the cornfields
Often, when driving on I-55 to and from Chicago, I while away the hours with word games. (How many words mean “dull”?) Until I reach McLean County, that is, when the towers of the Twin Groves Wind Farm come into view. Even though they’ve stood there for years – the farm was built way back […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letters to the editor 11/27/25
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. DON’T GIVE UP It was disappointing to see the Springfield City Council vote down Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams’ resolution to put an advisory referendum on the March 17 primary ballot on whether the city […]
Posted inEditor's Note
Editors note 11/27/25
“Accountability, without systemic transformation, is not justice,” the Massey Commission writes in its elegant “Response to the Grayson Verdict,” posted on the commission’s page on Sangamon County’s website (sangamonil.gov). The Oct. 29 verdict brings a “breath of hope” and a “whisper of justice,” the statement reads. “We are called now to listen to the pain […]
Posted inRich Miller
State targets SNAP program error rate
Congress’ “Big Beautiful Bill” that passed last summer could prove to be far more damaging to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Illinois than most people know. A SNAP “death penalty” is built into the budget reconciliation law. Before we go further, there’s a caveat: The US Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has […]
Posted inOpinion
Springfield’s city plan at 100
Rampant and haphazard growth after the Civil War left Springfield dirty, dangerous, unhealthful and inconvenient. The race riots in 1908 left the city’s worthy citizens with what we might call a reputational problem, so progressive-minded locals undertook a municipal housecleaning. The 1911 commission reform promised to fix politics. The election that same year of Willis […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letter to the editor
EMPTY PROMISES I attended the Oct. 29 meeting at Lincoln Library and I was grateful for the presentations made by everyone (“Data center plans delayed,” Nov. 5). There are too many promises made that we see other cities now suffering through, because once the data center is built, it’s the companies with big money and […]
Posted inOpinion
Misinformation about Pretrial Fairness Act in Illinois
Spurred on by Donald Trump’s fearmongering about “cashless bail” and a “lawless” Illinois, some law enforcement officials and Republican elected officials are recycling tired misconceptions about the Pretrial Fairness Act to distract the public from their real policy failures. This was most recently seen in the Illinois Valley, where hospitals are closing, shelters are overflowing […]
Posted inRich Miller
Chuy Garcia and the machine
You likely already know that U.S. Rep. Chuy García (D-Chicago) dropped out of his re-election race in a way that essentially handed his seat to his top aide. After his doctor advised him not to run again because of his heart condition, and his spouse who has multiple sclerosis which didn’t respond to her most […]
