Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Thursday, June 18,2009

What’s wrong with the New York Times?

Placing faith in the archaic notion that journalism sells

I love the New York Times. I quote it so often my kids think I don’t know anything I didn’t read there. So naturally I was drawn to the long piece in May’s Vanity Fair on NYT publish

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, April 15,2009

Archaeology and a newspaper editor

Dishes dumped “out back” yield stories of a friend of Lincoln in early Springfield

By Fletcher Farrar

A plain white pitcher, a bowl, a broken plate and a whiskey bottle from the mid-to-late 1830s are among the finds from Floyd Mansberger’s digs on the block where the Abraham Lincoln

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, April 1,2009

The questionable future of FutureGen

Political clout may not be enough to make this project work

By Fletcher Farrar

When U. S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu met with the FutureGen Alliance on Monday to discuss whether to proceed with a large-scale coal gasification demonstration plant near Mattoon, he fa

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, March 18,2009

When the Crime Stoppers dumpster came to my street

Is this good police work, or a substitute for it?

By Fletcher Farrar

When I first heard about the new Crime Stoppers drug dumpster, I found it amusing. A trash dumpster, welded shut, painted orange, is stenciled with, “A suspected drug house is in thi

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, March 4,2009

For local banks, Springfield is a good place to be

Shielded from the worst of the chaos, they ride out the recession with confidence

By Fletcher Farrar

As America looks around for someone to blame for the current economic mess, bankers are the easiest target in sight. “No one wants to hug a banker,” reads a recent Newsweek hea

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, February 18,2009

The lies and demise of Roland Burris

We need a higher standard than telling the truth

By Fletcher Farrar

It is a sad and sickening sound, that of another good reputation gurgling down the drain. Only a few weeks ago, Roland Burris was remembered as a trailblazer in Illinois politics, who had

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, February 4,2009

Two strong women I knew

The people, the animals and the stories that shape our lives

By Fletcher Farrar

Georgina Blair died last week at 92. When I visited in her home on the family farm in Virden a few years ago, she showed me this picture of her and her father with one of his prize mules,

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, January 21,2009

What if things are as bad as Obama says?

Stirring words are welcome in troubled times

By Fletcher Farrar

People are so ready to be relieved of the Bush presidency, and to end the Iraq war, that Barack Obama could have said anything, or nothing, in his inaugural address and it would still be

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, January 7,2009

The homeless taking care of business

With clear goals, H.U.C. goes to work

By Fletcher Farrar

At this business meeting of homeless people, some of the speeches are long and rambling, but that’s no different from many of the church and professional meetings I sit through regu

Fletcher Farrar: Reporter at Large | Wednesday, December 24,2008

It’s the stupid economy

Rough days lie ahead. How we react will make the difference.

By Fletcher Farrar

The national economic crisis brings a sense of foreboding to a small city like Springfield. Sometimes the nation’s worst weather bypasses here; the coasts get the hurricanes, fires a