Fletcher Farrar

This is a milestone to celebrate – hiring our new CEO, naming a new editor and changing to a nonprofit company. It’s good, and brave, of Kate McKenzie to join us on our journey, and I thank my colleague, Michelle Ownbey, for taking on new challenges as ex... See more

It’s good that the community mental health board referendum won approval on its first attempt, shortening the time when public funds will help to repair a broken system. Many helped to win passage for the ballot measure, but it was the Massey Commission, ... See more

“A Forum on the City Garbage Ordinance,” the title of a recent Springfield public meeting, sounded like a recipe for complaints about disastrous public policy. Everybody knows, don’t we, that the city’s trash collection system, using multiple private haul... See more

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 abo... See more

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 ... See more