Illinois House Democrats were told last week that a state capital projects plan designed to assist Arlington Height’s bid to lure the Chicago Bears away from their Indiana stadium gambit would cost up to $895 million. None of the money would be used to directly build the new Bears stadium or the surrounding commercial district […]
Opinion
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letters to the editor
YES TO LOGAN COUNTY DATA CENTER As a proud Logan County resident, I support our county moving forward with the proposed data center project near Latham (“Data center opposition,” Jan. 7). Logan County has always been built on hard work, progress and providing for the next generation. This project brings over 100 long-term local jobs, […]
Posted inJames Krohe Jr.
Dumb. Outmoded. Unusable.
When people who live in the rest of Illinois complain about being fleeced by the sharpers in Springfield, they usually refer to state legislators, but the locals used to be pretty good at it too. Drop by the Levee district a century ago and you were likely to leave a poorer but wiser man, having […]
Posted inEditor's Note
Editor’s Note
Ryan P. Burge was pastor of an American Baptist church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, for 17 years before his church closed for good in 2024. Since then he has become an influential political scientist, teaching at Washington University, while writing books about what happened to his church and many others like it. He’s been on […]
Posted inRich Miller
Resign-and-replacement schemes
Remember the national uproar last November when U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia bowed out of his reelection race at the last minute and quietly passed petitions to put his chief of staff Patty Garcia on the ballot? We saw a lesser, but still quite palpable mass grumbling when state Rep. Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines) did the […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letters to the editor 1/15/26
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. NO TO SANGAMON COUNTY DATA CENTER I just want to add my voice to the chorus of citizens who have already spoken out against allowing a data center in our community (“Data center debates,” Dec. […]
Posted inEditor's Note
Editor’s note 1/15/26
Cairo, the small Illinois town (population 2,100) with a large legacy, is claiming its place at the confluence of rivers and history. It is a landmark on the state’s Freedom Trail, celebrating the “physical and spiritual pathways of freedom-seekers.” Don Patton, a lifelong resident of Cairo and president of the Cairo Historical Preservation Project, led […]
Posted inEditor's Note
Editor’s Note
The one good thing about radical politicians is that they tend to bring us in the center closer together. The days when politics used to divide between “conservatives” and “liberals” seem almost quaint today, when many of us would prefer a good old-fashioned conservative or even a God-and-country liberal any day over the wildfire coming […]
Posted inRich Miller
SAFE-T Act questions persist
Gov. JB Pritzker set off a chain reaction last November when he told reporters he’d be open to changes in the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail and replaced it with a new pre-trial release/retention system, among other things. Pritzker was asked about the case of a woman, Bethany MaGee, who was horrifically set ablaze […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
UPHOLD CONSTITUTION The situation involving Larry Criscione is more than a disagreement over tone or workplace etiquette (“The cost of free speech,” Dec. 18). It reveals a federal agency disregarding the constitutional protections, statutory requirements and due‑process procedures that exist to safeguard both employees and the public interest. When a regulatory body charged with protecting […]
Posted inOpinion
Build systems for equitable AI growth
Artificial intelligence continues to spark a robust debate in our society, but all can agree it is a technology with true staying power. This is why it is essential for Illinois and the United States to take a leading role in the advancement of this technology. The global landscape is shifting rapidly, particularly as nations […]
Posted inOpinion
Power grab
Cyrus the Great of Persia was a king who lived in the fifth century before Christ. An able general, Cyrus used both force and diplomacy to bring under his sway now-forgotten kingdoms such as the Median Empire, Lydia, even, eventually Babylonia. The territory of southwest Sangamon County is seldom compared to ancient Babylonia, except maybe by […]
