By Rich Miller Richard Irvin is a Republican. Period. Irvin might not be enough of a Republican for the purists. Democrats might want to weaken Irvin in the Republican primary for governor by pointing to some of the nice things he’s said about Democrats (including the governor) over the years. But Richard Irvin is still…

By Jim Nowlan Household incomes in America have become more and more unequal over recent decades, as measured by the Gini Index of Inequality. American society has also become more sharply polarized, as measured by Donald Trump’s continuing, intense support in small town and rural America. I know why, or at least know some of…

By Ray Hanania America has been weakened by the continuing and political selfish polarization between those who support former President Donald Trump and those who support President Joe Biden. The viciousness of the fighting is weakening America’s image internationally, and nations like Russia and China are being empowered to challenge our leadership of the Free…

By Josh Sharp To promote electric vehicle adoption and help establish a nationwide network of EV charging stations, five governors in the Midwest region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) agreed to join what they term the Regional Electric Vehicle Midwest Coalition. Based on the group’s initiative, the goal of this coalition is to foster increased cooperation between…

By Rich Miller Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch marked his first anniversary as his chamber’s top leader with a series of news media interviews last week. One of the questions I asked was what his legislative district’s constituents were talking to him about the most. “The number one issue in my district, and this is…

By Ray Hanania On the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 demonstrations at the Capitol, which included violence on the part of some of the protesters, President Biden spoke to the American people. The first part of the speech made a lot of sense, but the last half plummeted into typical partisan politics that only…

By Thomas L. Knapp In mid-2020, I mused that if the pandemic ended up producing any silver linings, the most likely bright spot would be its impact on government — so-called “public” — education. Throughout the previous spring, government schools had largely shut down in-person classes, switching to ad hoc and, it seems, fairly lame “remote…

By Rich Miller The Illinois Senate’s COVID-19 mitigation protocols (testing, masks and limited remote voting) didn’t anticipate a partisan attempt to use a record-breaking virus surge to shut the chamber down, but that’s what almost happened last week. Senate Republicans were rightfully outraged that the Democratic super-majority geared up to jam through a redistricting bill…

By Ben Jealous One of the most important reasons to vote Donald Trump out of the White House was to stop him from packing our federal courts with even more anti-voting-rights, anti-equality, pro-corporate judges. Stopping the flood of bad Trump judges was a huge accomplishment for every organizer and voter who helped elect Joe Biden as president. That’s…