It’s time for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the long-serving Democrat from Chicago, to resign.

Right now, America needs heroes. And we have one for the ages in John Lewis.

What will schools look like in the fall?

The Commonwealth Edison agreement with federal prosecutors gives Illinoisans $200 million reasons to demand legislators immediately get back to work on ethics reform.

The emails continue to pour in. Thousands of workers furloughed or laid off due to COVID-19 shutdowns still have not received unemployment help from the state of Illinois, to which they are entitled.

Area school officials deserve credit for their careful and thoughtful discussions about how best to return students to the classroom.

Did you see which Illinois millionaires got big bucks from the federal government’s coronavirus rescue package . while most businesses suffered? That’s one interpretation of the data released Monday on organizations that received aid via the Payroll Protection Program.

Although it was painful to read the announcement on Thursday morning, we applaud the Effingham County Fair Board for making the right decision about this year’s fair. Most of the activities are canceled.

If it had been up to John Adams, Independence Day would have been celebrated on the Second of July.

Please don't desecrate the American flag this Fourth of July weekend by displaying the Confederate battle emblem.

So many aspects of our lives are connected to the internet today. That makes an announcement this week very welcome news: Rural areas of Effingham County are among 28 projects in line for broadband expansion.

As the state prepares to enter Phase 4 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” plan on Friday, we want to reflect for a moment.

Did he commit a gaffe? Or didn’t he?

Remember how bitterly Democrats complained when Republicans stalled President Barack Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Merrick Garland?

A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

Suppose you were strolling through Forest Park and came across a flattering statue of Adolf Hitler. Or Fidel Castro. Or Osama bin Laden. Of course, nations don’t generally bestow statuary upon enemies — unless those enemies happen to be Confederate leaders in the Civil War.

We’re impressed by the effort underway in Altamont to meet a portion of the community’s energy demand with solar power.

Members of our community plan to peaceably assemble on Saturday in downtown Effingham to promote unity and racial equality. We applaud and support this effort.

The death of George Floyd beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer – now fired and charged with murder – may seem far away.

It should not surprise you that the Illinois legislature passed another state budget that doesn’t add up. It should not surprise you that spending will outpace revenue by billions of dollars, and lawmakers bragged about it anyway.

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.