. By Rich Miller State records show that Dan Proft’s People Who Play by the Rules PAC spent almost $36 million during the second half of 2022, mostly on advertising boosting Sen. Darren Bailey’s gubernatorial bid and opposing Gov. JB Pritzker. Of that, $2.4 million was spent on consulting. Former ABC7 political reporter Charles Thomas…

By Ray Hanania They’re talking about how Social Security will run out of money by the year 2033. Run out of money? Social Security recipients have been putting money into the system every year that they have been working, saving to feed their families and paying their share to cover the costs of our nation.…

By Richard Guebert Jr. As snow blankets our frozen fields, winter is a time of reflection for farmers. What worked well, what could we do better and what challenges will the upcoming spring bring? Those are questions we ask ourselves as we ring in the new year and begin planning for the next planting season.…

By Rich Miller The Rockford Register-Star reported last week that the state of Illinois “has submitted what could be its best offer to keep the Belvidere Assembly Plant operating and save what could be thousands of jobs.” Stellantis announced in December it would idle its Jeep Cherokee assembly plant in February. So, there appears to…

By Emily Leproust Humanity generates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — enough to max out the storage capacity of about 40 million iPhones — every day. Much of it gets stored “in the cloud,” meaning it’s saved in sprawling, frigid data centers. Unfortunately, these data centers are contributing to the destruction of the environment. They…

By Ray Hanania I don’t remember the first time I met Pat Ryan Michalski, but I am sure it was sometime while Harold Washington was mayor. Michalski was a dynamo when it came to connecting officials with ethnic and religious groups that were often excluded by government officials, like racist former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and…

By Ray Hanania When you go on vacation, you hope that it will be a pleasant experience where you can relax and enjoy the time off from your work. Over the years, vacations have changed. They are more expensive. Some locations, like Mexico, have become dangerous, with many resorts placing armed soldiers on beaches to…

Editor’s Note: This op-ed was distributed by Capitol News Illinois on behalf of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. By John T. Shaw I have some simple — and unsolicited — advice for Illinois college and university students: Do everything possible to study abroad while…

By Rich Miller Illinois House Deputy Majority Leader Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria) headed up her chamber’s efforts to amend the controversial SAFE-T Act this year. The day before the bill came up for a vote, I asked her what were, in her opinion, the largest misconceptions about the 2021 social justice reform law. Gordon-Booth pointed to…

By Ray Hanania At a time when newspapers are dying, it is gratifying to hear from so many people in the southwest suburbs and in the city who read our important community newspapers. So, I want to say thank you to our readers. Community newspapers are so important to the viability of our communities. You…