Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, September 6,2012

Endangered repose

Dogs love to talk. Pity they have nothing to say.

Ever notice that there is only two letters’ difference between dog and blog? The dog and blogger are kin to the extent that too many of each are noisily eager to share their ignorance with every

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, August 30,2012

It’s Springfield’s fault

Does geographic isolation explain why Statehouse politics are corrupt?

By James Krohe Jr.

A few weeks ago the nation was briefly distracted from the work of buying, stealing and subverting this year’s elections by the release of a report from researchers at the Kennedy School of Gove

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, August 23,2012

Just what the doctor ordered

Spending too much on health care that does too little

By James Krohe Jr.

When it comes to their health – and eventually, everything does – Americans’ motto is, “Too much is never enough.” That phrase ought to be printed on every test report, e

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, August 16,2012

Bus-age wonders

Is the bus the future of short-haul intercity travel?

By James Krohe Jr.

While I was coming of age in central Illinois in the 1960s, the motor vehicle that figured daily in my life was not a car – I didn’t have one – but the bus. I rode buses to school, I

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, August 9,2012

Carp diem

What are the leaping fish trying to tell us?

By James Krohe Jr.

The two Old Friends (I am told) were sitting at breakfast. Old Friend No. 1 recalled the summer nights of her youth when she would join her beau on the banks of Lake Springfield, there to mix Wheaties

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, August 2,2012

Criminal injustice

The soft case for hard time for Bill Cellini

By James Krohe Jr.

The feds want Bill Cellini to get at least six and a half years in a steel box when he is sentenced in October in Chicago. His lawyers have argued that the feds seem to forget that Cellini was not con

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, July 26,2012

Fiscalizing land use policy

Good for the City of Springfield, yes, but for the city?

By James Krohe Jr.

“People,” goes an old political adage, “vote their pocketbooks.” That goes for people in elected office too.A diligent reader attended a Springfield Park Board meeting at which

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, July 19,2012

The message from the graves

What do the Oneota teach us about ourselves?

By James Krohe Jr.

The other day a passing canoeist (who else?) found an unusual pottery fragment on a sandbar in the Sangamon between Springfield and Petersburg. The find prompted the usual questions? How old is it? Wh

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, July 12,2012

The twenty acre wood

Should Griffin Woods be spared “development”?

By James Krohe Jr.

Few of our readers know the words and music to “Woodman, Spare that Tree,” a mawkish ballad that was a hit in the 1830s. Instead they are singing the blues about the destruction of Griffin

Illinois - James Krohe Jr | Thursday, July 5,2012

Kumbaya around the campfire

Jim Edgar tries to bridge the Chicago-Downstate divide

By James Krohe Jr.

Jim Edgar is the closest thing the Illinois Republican Party has to a sage. His long career in elective office made him wise – wise enough anyway to retire from elective office – and he ge