As Joe Biden was sworn in as our 46th president, he delivered a simple yet eloquent speech about America’s “uncivil war” and preached unity to a politically divided nation.

As the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, I don’t pay an undue amount of attention to the weather. However, Monday, Jan. 28, 2019, was different.

Candace Owens has declared war on fact-checkers.

Good luck roses to the state lawmakers from our area that took their seats in Springfield this week. New to their jobs are Darren Bailey, who takes his place in the state senate, representing the 55th District, and Adam Niemerg, who is the new representative of the 109th District – Bailey’s …

As I was watching in horror the disturbing images of the pro-President Trump supporters breaching and assaulting the Capitol on Jan. 6, I sat in front the TV with my mouth open. I could not believe what I was witnessing.

Last year about this same time, I began in earnest to campaign to be the State Representative for the 109th District. This time last year, I was either going to an event or walking door to door to meet with potential voters.

The dance of democracy continues in 2021 with the once-a-decade ritual of drawing new state legislative and congressional district lines in Illinois and across the nation. In two-thirds of the states, including Illinois, the legislators themselves draw the lines. This means the party in powe…

The Illinois Republican Party is at a crossroads. The selection of our next party chairman will help determine our future.

Politics have caused all of us to be bombarded with inflammatory comments from both sides of the aisle. If we’re honest, we should all be able to agree on that.

As soon as the COVID-19 vaccine became available to her department, Lynn Griesmaier, nurse coordinator for breast medical oncology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, jumped at the opportunity.

President Trump is his own woeful enemy.

President Trump’s nasty campaign to undo the 2020 presidential election and sack President-elect Joe Biden is moving perilously close to inflaming disorder.

Twenty years ago, some folks called Al Gore a sore loser.

Thorns to the Year 2020. Your EDN editor is glad it is gone. Here’s hoping for a rosey 2021. It can’t get any worse than the year we’ve just had. Can it?

Written in quill pen (not literally; it was 1965), my master’s thesis was about “Leaderless Politics: The Illinois Republican Party.” Not much has changed.

Tucker Carlson says the coronavirus vaccine is getting too much promotion.

Never has the danger of election cycles and political expediency been more apparent – or more threatening – for higher education in Illinois than it is right now.

Even with the state in near insolvency, Governor JB Pritzker remains defiant in his opposition to reforms that could address the state’s financial crisis and put us back on the road to financial stability.

After an arduous year, it was pretty rosey this week to see healthcare workers at St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital and Sarah Bush Lincoln rolling up their sleeves for the area’s first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. St. Anthony’s on Thursday administered the first COVID-19 vaccine dose to Rebe…

The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University asked me to do some noodling about the future of Illinois. I have mentioned this to several friends. The responses — a roll of the eyes; a belly laugh; a retort that it is too late to do anything about Illinois. Nobody ha…

Both of my grandfathers made it to their 90s, and although the average life expectancy is on the decline for most Americans, I’m still optimistically referring to my upcoming birthday as “middle-aged.”

The last 10 months have been very brutal in the human toll taken by COVID-19 across the globe. Many families lost loved ones. Many friends lost close friends. The human loss is staggering. The United Stated did not fare very well in terms of infection rate and death rate. As of now, more tha…

As the New Year approaches, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the last 52 weeks and all our accomplishments and shortcomings. This also presents a chance to make a resolution or a promise to ourselves. Some do this loosely and never really bother to adhere, while others take the process more…

In recent years, colleges across America have developed comprehensive services for students that go beyond academic support. In addition to tutoring, study skills courses and individualized office hours to ensure classroom success, colleges are creating resources and services that support st…

More roses for voters in Illinois who turned out to make their voices heard last month. Capitol News Illinois reported Friday Republicans made a net gain of one seat in the Illinois House while losing one in the state Senate, according to certified official results from the Nov. 3 general el…

Politically, Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Madigan is a dead man walking. The recent ComEd admissions of a decade of bribery killed him.

Hunters in Illinois harvested a preliminary total of 47,147 deer during the first weekend of the Illinois Firearm Deer Season Nov. 20-22 compared with 50,173 deer taken during the first firearm weekend in 2019, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Roses to the Effingham…

It is important for every Father to know and understand this one point. You do not have to add up to the American standard for Father. This image has been compromised with the mindset of pride, selfishness, and more things value. It can become very frightening to do so.

Through wars and social movements and a wild ride of presidential administrations, Dolly Parton has remained one of the closest things we have to a universally beloved national figure.

We are so fortunate to live in a very caring area, where people are concerned about their neighbors, friends and family. It is why meals suddenly appear on kitchen tables after a tragedy, clothes after a fire, or money for someone in need. So, it isn’t natural what we need to do this Thanksg…

Thanksgiving will always be a roseworthy holiday, even in the darkest of times. So accept this bouquet of roses from your EDN editor and his family. It’s not our place to tell you how to celebrate. Find joy in whatever way you are able. We hope that you stay safe and remain healthy throughou…

On the surface, it seems that it would be difficult to celebrate Thanksgiving and be thankful during the challenging circumstances that plague our country now. From a raging pandemic that is sweeping the land and killing Americans by more than a thousand every day, to a contested election th…

In the wake of the 2020 election, many Americans are wondering whether bipartisanship is even possible anymore.

There’s no doubt 2020 was not the year anyone expected it to be. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced students everywhere to attend school online from their home. For college students like me, the experience taught many life lessons that won’t disappear anytime soon.

Joe Biden described the agonizing wait for the outcome of the presidential election thusly: “Democracy can sometimes be messy.”

Groups of kids pile on a yellow bus with excitement and anticipation on their faces as they await their destination. While this field trip scene may not be possible for quite some time due to the ongoing pandemic, there are virtual field trips and other alternative activities that teachers c…

Effingham County Clerk Kerry J. Hirtzel reports a brisk pace for early voting locally, a trend playing out across the nation. Roses to those who have voted and roses to those who intend to vote on Tuesday, Election Day. Your EDN editor doesn’t care who you vote for. But there are thorns in y…

Last week I wrote a column about Abraham Lincoln, wheelbarrows, French acrobats, the Civil War, politics and dumpster fires.

Sleeping is important to me, and so I’ve learned over the years to get most of my dumpster fire news from NPR. I choose NPR because other sources seem too ideological and have a tendency to make me think I’m in tremendous and immediate danger.

Too often people nowadays seem to take offense over words that are not grounded in truth. They become enraged over that which are lies. They believe the lies and reject the truth. How do we discern what is true?

By the end of WW II, it became evident that the United States was the uncontested world leader. America became respected and admired as the reach of its values and power made it a global leader and example to the world.

As an unusual summer of quarantining, wearing masks and social distancing came to an end a few months ago, it was time yet again to head back to school. There was no doubt this fall semester was going to be strange, and nothing has changed much since those assumptions.

Back in June, leading adolescent brain researcher Laurence Steinberg wrote a New York Times op-ed predicting that students returning to college campuses during a pandemic would not go well.

Forty-four years ago this week, I came to America. I had no idea what to expect. Most of my information about this country was from American movies that I adored.

Substantive change requires steadfast focus, a commitment to bold and decisive action, and a spirit of fortitude when addressing challenges.