Category: Opinion

. By Rich Miller . “The woke left is coming after me for peeing on a tree during my college days,” state Rep. Adam Niemerg (R-Dietrich) told me not long ago. I’ve told you about this race before. The 102nd Illinois House District is one of a handful of southeastern and southern Illinois Republican primaries […]

. By Rich Miller . “Mayors slam Pritzker’s proposal to eliminate grocery tax,” was the Daily Herald’s headline above a story last week about several mayors of upper-income suburban communities complaining about a proposed tax cut. I don’t know if the mayors quite understand this, but headlines like that are basically an in-kind campaign contribution […]

. By Ray Hanania . Meteorology, or the science of guessing the weather on television, has been an entertaining segment since humans began watching television. Often, the weather reports were the least frightening to handle, compared to the growing domination of crime news that has filled up the expanding TV news broadcasts. There’s so much […]

. By Rich Miller . Gov. JB Pritzker proposed some changes to the state’s pension system during his budget/State of the State speech last month that will likely please the New York City-based bond rating agencies by giving them something they want, as well as his fellow Democrats by freeing up some money to spend […]

. By Rich Miller . Two press conferences held after Gov. JB Pritzker’s recent budget address didn’t receive much news media attention. As the saying goes, coverage follows conflict, and the two pressers were far more subtle and polite in their criticisms of the governor’s plan than those held by Republicans, so they were mostly […]

. By Rich Miller . “Everybody gets pinched, but you did it right; you told ’em nothin’ and they got nothin’” Jimmy Conway told a youthful Henry Hill in the classic gangster movie Goodfellas after the mob-connected teenager was arrested for selling stolen cigarettes, clammed up to the police and was then released by a […]

. By Ray Hanania . If the ugly, disrespectful politics of Orland Park has shown us anything, it is that individual selfish politics is driving America’s future. And this is going to be an ugly year for politics in America. It all comes down to who is at the top of the political heap. Right […]

. By Ray Hanania . I remember my dad buying a new car in the 1960s for about $1,400. It wasn’t a Mercedes, but just a normal car with the basic bells and whistles like air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, a good radio and a great interior. Dad’s income at the time was about […]

. By Rich Miller . Way back in 1990, I was making $17,000 a year working for an online Statehouse news and information company. I was too broke for a vacation, so I helped pay for a modest trip by covering a strike at the Delta Pride catfish processing company in Indianola, Miss. for a […]