by Kim Riedel
NP Columnist

May is an exciting month in the garden…watching all the buds forming on the blackberries, raspberries and miniature roses, blossoms on the apple tree, and small fruit appearing on the strawberry plants and the pear and plum trees. I have also loved the scent of my white lilac that is putting off a beautiful fragrance that floats through the air around our yard. One of the things that I love about perennials, plants that come back year after year, is that I can have blooming flowers before it is time to plant annuals, and there are already many that are blooming or getting ready to bloom. Gardens are taking shape as vegetable plants and flowers are being planted with the hopes of produce and beautiful colors. Read More

By James D. Nowlan
and J. Thomas Johnson
Outside Columnists

Illinois’s achievement in education is mired in the middle of the states. If Illinois were to make a major commitment to transforming how we educate our children, we would send the world a strong signal that we were serious about fixing our state.

Illinois enrolls more than three million students from pre-kindergarten to post-graduate education, almost one in four of our residents, and spends more than $30 billion, or four percent of gross state product, on the enterprise. Read More

By James D. Nowlan
and J. Thomas Johnson

Outside Columnists

When we were boys in the 1950s, we were proud to be from wealthy, self-confident Illinois.

Today, many of us in Illinois are in a funk. When we travel and mention we are from Illinois, there are disparaging responses about our governors being in jail.

Polling confirms our worries that others don’t think much of us. Read More

by Tori Floyd

In the United States, the routine breeding of animals, dogs in particular, has been a traditional practice for hundreds of years. But this intentional production of puppies walks a thin line and poses a few ethical questions. Where does tradition break ethics? Where does breeding become a burden? When does human intervention go too far?

Many people breed dogs to preserve a pure bloodline, but too often people breed dogs to make a profit. Each puppy bears a dollar sign. This fact is what makes innocent breeding escalade into puppy mills. This fact is what causes the horrible conditions. So many dogs are being born that the basic needs in living conditions, sanitation, exercise, and human socialization are all too great to be met. Read More

by Alex Love

Our state and national government requires standardized testing to gauge our children’s academic success. Often times, students are compared to one another due to the same test being administered to their fellow classmates. This notion poses a question; how fair is it to give a test to all students when no one child is the same?

Every child has his or her own strengths, weaknesses, and personalities. How fair is it to rely so heavily upon testing success to determine the future of our children? Standardized tests scores are used to show where a student is academically–exceeding, meeting, or Read More