Sometimes public officials are put between a rock and a hard place. The harsh glare of public scrutiny does little to soften either side.

Memorial Day always has been a mishmash of emotions.

State Rep. Darren Bailey is our voice in Springfield at a time when we must speak loudly.

Illinois Republicans are rightly calling for the removal of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax referendum from the November ballot.

Illinois Republicans are rightly calling for the removal of Gov. JB Pritzker's graduated income tax referendum from the November ballot.

Social media companies might need to rethink their efforts to control the spread of disinformation.

We thought the Effingham County Board intended to have a serious discussion on Wednesday about “reopening” Illinois. That’s why we devoted so much newsprint in that day’s paper to State Rep. Blaine Wilhour’s plan to do that.

We’re as anxious as anyone for the local economy to get rolling again. The plan to do that regionally proposed by Rep. Blaine Wilhour of Beecher City has its merits. It also raises questions – but any plan worth considering should be able to stand up to questioning.

This is literally a breath of fresh air.

People in Central Illinois have probably had enough of the Illinois stay-at-home order, of the northeast corner of the state and of Cook County in general.

We feel the frustration that drove state Rep. Darren Bailey to file a lawsuit challenging Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s extension of the state’s “stay-at-home” order, which has caused incredible hardship in our community and across the state. We think Bailey raises important issues regarding the stat…

For weeks now, this editorial page has beat the drum for at least one more big federal stimulus package to help all states — red ones and blue ones — recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic is a stress test of our nation’s most fundamental systems, institutions and safety nets, just as the Great Depression was during the 1930s.

On March 17, Illinois held a primary election, one of three states to do so.

Given the other things on our minds, it is hard for any of us to turn our attention these days to Illinois’ sorry practice of gerrymandering, and it feels particularly unfair to expect Gov. J.B Pritzker to place any of his attention on it.

The coronavirus pandemic is changing life on the outside and the inside — the outside world where the vast majority of people live and inside Illinois’ prisons.

Staying at home is the prudent course of action to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

A primary argument of Gov. J.B. Pritzker and legislative supporters of a graduated income tax is that we can trust them. We can trust them to use additional money it would generate to shore up the state’s finances. We can trust them not to use it to come up with new ways to spend money. We c…

In a time of national despair, Congress rushed to pass an economic stimulus bill aimed at assisting individuals and businesses — both large and small — whose financial status is jeopardized by the ongoing and open-ended national economic shutdown.

Most of us are understandably preoccupied with the latest news about COVID-19. So much else goes unnoticed.

On June 1, 2019, the votes of state Rep. Allen Skillicorn on two dozen bills and resolutions that came before the House that day were placed into the legislative record, and the East Dundee Republican was listed as present at the 12:15 p.m. roll call. But Skillicorn was nowhere near Springfi…

Remember the original threat-level warning established by the United States following the Sept. 11 attacks? The since-abandoned color chart gave the degree of alert under which the country should be.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants to ensure that as many illegal immigrants who are convicted felons as possible remain in the state.

What does the hard-won, long-overdue conviction of Harvey Weinstein demonstrate?

A governor’s budget address is supposed to be about numbers that are shaped by the administration’s political priorities.

There is nothing wrong with suggesting Illinois should be the first state to vote in presidential primaries. The idea is fine. Just don’t expect it to be adopted.

There’s a lot of political hot air and insincere rhetoric floating around Springfield about a proposal filed in the General Assembly that would allow voters to consign legislative gerrymandering to the ash heap of Illinois history.

“I’ve got this thing and it’s f---- — golden,” Rod Blagojevich gushed as federal investigators listened in on a wiretap.

Only curmudgeons would begrudge living things kindness, and only grumps would oppose laws to protect those living things.

It is an odd thing to seek unity at the outset of a heated presidential campaign, but, on the heels of a historic impeachment vote and a contentious State of the Union address, oh, how we yearn for something like it.

As corruption scandals worm through the establishment Democratic Party, Gov. J.B. Pritzker finds himself with new and unexpected leverage. He can push for meaningful ethics reform in Illinois government by removing the barricades his own party’s leaders erected in the past. Those Democrats a…

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has announced that he’s backing an ambitious criminal-justice reform package he wants the General Assembly to pass this year.

A new report by the Office of the Inspector General of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services counts 123 children who died within a year of family contact with DCFS. In some cases a state worker, a neighbor or a professional required by law to report suspected child abuse di…

We often tell visiting out-of-towners that they’ll know they’re in Effingham when they see the big cross at the side of the interstate. It’s a better signpost than any signpost. For many who live here, and those who visit, The Cross at the Crossroads represents Effingham.

Great fortunes provide great flexibility, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker has demonstrated.

The next time you think lawmakers should DO SOMETHING to make things better for you and me, consider this: More than 250 new laws took effect in Illinois on Jan. 1 and many of them will hit you in the pocketbook.

For much of the past two years, ominous clouds have hung over America’s trade relations with the rest of the world. It’s too soon to forecast blue skies and pleasant breezes, but the weather is improving.

Alaina Hampton, one of several women who came forward with sexual harassment allegations that rocked Illinois Democratic circles, has settled a lawsuit against political committees backing House Speaker Michael Madigan. Yet in some ways, Hampton is just getting started in demonstrating what …

About a month ago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker released a task force report calling for the consolidation of downstate municipal fire and police pension funds and called for quick action by the legislature to pass it into law.

When you say the name John Cullerton, our editorial board thinks of an afternoon in early January 2017, when the president of the Illinois Senate sat next to then-Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno in our board room and said “enough.”

Public officials in some states see income taxes as the path to economic salvation, a surefire way to pay for what programs legislators can come up wit h.

In the aftermath of bribery charges filed against a state representative, leaders of the Illinois General Assembly offered responses ringing with the typical righteous indignation.

Let’s imagine a Southern Illinois University football player makes a leaping interception against Missouri State.

The impeachment fat was already in the fire. Last week’s partisan vote by the full U.S. House of Representatives to proceed with a formal impeachment process produced a roaring blaze. It won’t be long before the impending conflagration starts claiming victims.

Illinois doesn’t see many unicorns. But there’s been a sighting in Normal, where an electric truck manufacturer called Rivian operates out of the former Mitsubishi auto plant.

When top state officials discuss the need to invest more resources into the Department of Children and Family Services to produce better results, people, generally speaking, understand why.

A central Illinois harvest is a time of prosperity and beauty. It’s a time of long days and nights for our farmers whose livelihood is complicated by many factors including the weather.

Illinois is a real contender when it comes to a race to the fiscal bottom