It’s mid-summer, but the thoughts of every red-blooded Illinoisan are already turned to autumn. The fields resound with the satisfying crunch of pads against pads, helmet against helmet, brain against skull as college football squads go through their two-a-days. College football, like basketball, is a tribal thing, and I’m not of that tribe. It isn’t […]
Illinois
Posted inNews
Interview with a sailor at sea
Somewhere in the Coral Sea, off the northeast coast of Australia, a U.S. aircraft carrier is conducting training exercises with the Royal Australian Navy. Aboard that 1,092-foot carrier, named USS George Washington, a young Springfield native serving in the U.S. Navy is working through the night, making sure the ship can communicate with other vessels. […]
Posted inOpinion
Manufacturing mediocrity
In July the National Council on Teacher Quality, a D.C.-based reform group, issued a study that concluded that the nation’s teacher-education colleges have turned into an “industry of mediocrity.” Oh, the Council thought well enough of most the central Illinois’ colleges of education, specifically those at Eastern, U of I’s Champaign campus, Southern’s two campuses […]
Posted inOpinion
Taxing work
In 2011, the General Assembly, kicking and screaming, did what was good for it and ate its spinach. Members raised the rate at which the State of Illinois taxes the income of its citizens, thus forestalling a revenue crisis. That tasted so bad that they could not swallow it; the rate will have to be […]
Posted inNews
Subsidizing coal costs Illinois budget $20 million
Coal companies have extracted about $3 billion worth of coal from Illinois so far this year. So why is the state of Illinois giving them subsidies? That’s the question asked by an alliance of environmental groups in a report released June 27. Titled “The Impact of Coal on the Illinois State Budget,” the report says […]
Posted inNews
Supreme Court decisions bolster same-sex marriage fight in Illinois
Two decisions handed down last week from the U.S. Supreme Court gave momentum to advocates of same-sex marriage in Illinois. But the broadness of the rulings means same-sex couples in Illinois won’t actually get any new rights immediately. And while an Illinois court considers a class-action lawsuit suing for same-sex marriage rights, proponents are pushing […]
Posted inNews
What to expect with fracking
Illinois will soon be open range for hydraulic fracturing, the controversial technique for freeing oil and natural gas trapped in underground shale rock. But even as the state prepares its rules governing the technique, some environmental activists are vowing a continued fight in cities and counties across southern Illinois. On June 17, Illinois Gov. Pat […]
Posted inNews
Illinois leaders campaign for federal immigration reform
Several prominent public figures in Illinois are pushing for passage of a federal immigration reform bill, which President Barack Obama called “the best chance we’ve had in years to fix our broken immigration system.” The Senate could pass the bill by July 4, though it faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives. For […]
Posted inOpinion
Buying time
Rich Miller reported on June 11 (Caps off for general if busted in primary) that HB 2418 passed both chambers and is likely to be signed by Mr. Quinn. The bill stipulates (speaking very broadly) that if Bruce Rauner or any other rich guy busts the contribution cap in a primary race and wins the […]
Posted inOpinion
Moonrise in Illinois
Reacting to my “In defense of the politician,” a veteran State of Illinois employee told me that he thought it would be fun to work under a governor like Jerry Brown. Younger readers might be interested to know that Illinois very nearly had its Jerry Brown, in 1982 and 1986, when the 11-year U.S> Senator […]
Posted inOpinion
Certain-kind-of-family guy
When I want to learn what a politician thinks, I read what she writes. When I need only to learn what a politician says he thinks, I listen to him speak. Here’s why. Republican governor wanna-be Kirk Dillard ventured an opinion to a radio reporter last week about what kind of people ought to inhabit […]
Posted inOpinion
Haunted house
Republican Kirk Dillard recently raised the issue of which kind of family ought to be living in the Executive Mansion in Springfield. It is a question we ventilated in in 2009. (“Life in the Big House.) Clearly, it was not a question on the minds of the two most recent occupants of the house. Mr. Blagojevich […]
