Associated Press photo U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen in 1968.

•March 14, 2018•

By Kerry Lester
The Daily Herald

The Gettysburg Address. Hull House. The nation’s first African American president — and first lady. All of these are due to Illinois’ bumper crop of political figures and politicians, who represent a diverse range of viewpoints and contributions throughout history.

Here, in alphabetical order, are some of the leaders who came from our state:

Jane Addams

A social worker and a leader in the women’s suffrage movement, Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She ran Hull House, a settlement house for poor immigrants in Chicago, and co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union. She also chaired a women’s conference for peace in the Netherlands in 1919 and worked unsuccessfully to get the United States to serve as a mediator between warring countries in World War I. She died in 1935 in Chicago. I-90 in Illinois is named after her. Read More

The Old State Capitol building in Springfield may no longer be used to conduct the people's business, but it is a popular place for events, re-enactments and political rallies. Barack Obama declared in 2007 he intended to seek the Democratic nomination for president during an announcement at the Old State Capitol. T.J. Salsman/The State Journal-Register

•March 7, 2018•

By Kate Schott
Of the State Journal-Register

When state lawmakers head to the Capitol to do the people’s business, they travel to Springfield. But that wasn’t always the case.

Springfield became the state’s third capital city in 1839. And the story of how Springfield became the capital is a tall tale … well, it’s a tale with an outcome scripted by nine tall men.

Illinois has been governed from three cities and six buildings (one that was rented and five that were owned by the state), as told in an article in the 1975-76 edition of the legislative Illinois Blue Book. Kaskaskia was the first state capital after Illinois was admitted to the union in 1818, with the 29 House members and 14 senators in the first General Assembly of Illinois working in a rented two-story brick building at a cost of $4 per day.

Yet by December 1820, the second General Assembly was meeting in a new building in a new capital city, Vandalia, which was a more central location within the state’s original 16 southern counties. Lawmakers agreed Vandalia would remain the capital city for at least the next 20 years. Read More

•February 28, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

On this 200th anniversary year of statehood for Illinois, I will, now and then, profile Illinoisans who played key roles in shaping our state, but whom most readers probably don’t know.

Edward Coles was a Virginia patrician with a strong sense of noblesse oblige. He served in the White House for six years as James Madison’s personal secretary and later led the first mission on a US warship into the Baltic Sea, where he successfully smoothed over a diplomatic problem with the Czar.

Yet Coles was drawn to Illinois. Before reaching our state in 1819, he freed his inherited slaves. In the Prairie State, Coles developed a big farm near Edwardsville.

Elected governor with one-third of the vote in 1822 in a multi-candidate race, Coles faced a pro-slavery legislature. Read More

•February 21, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

In its just released report, the Civic Federation of Chicago prescribes bitter medicine as the only way to cure the state’s fiscal woes. The remedies offered are probably more than many or most readers can stomach. And please don’t shoot this messenger for what follows.

I write this just before Gov. Bruce Rauner is to give his annual budget message. I will wager dollars to dimes he did not echo the Civic Federation.

Founded in 1894, the Civic Federation of Chicago board is a roll call of Chicagoland’s leading businessmen and women, not a wild-eyed liberal group.

The group’s staff of 12 analysts pore over the budgets of Chicago, Cook County and state governments. Their recommendations are respected but not always adopted. Gluttons for punishment may download the 60-page report by going to the group’s website.

First, the Civic Federation lays out a list of atrocious budget realities, a few of which are: Read More

•February 14, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Abortion is the defining, underlying issue of the Illinois GOP gubernatorial primary. Not taxes, not the budget deficit, nor the pension burden, nor education nor infrastructure—matters the governor and legislature can do something about.

This column is not about pro-life or pro-choice arguments, but about whether the two sides could ever come together to work on efforts both sides might agree on—how to reduce the number of abortions. My friend Perry Klopfenstein of Gridley (north of Bloomington) thinks it is possible.

First, the governor’s race. Earlier this year Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill that provides taxpayer funding for abortions, after declaring on several occasions, even to the Catholic cardinal of Chicago, that he would veto the bill.

This action prompted outrage among pro-life conservative Christian groups in the state. And it was the catalyst for the GOP gubernatorial run of conservative state Rep. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton. Read More