Former state Sen. Kirk Dillard has been RTA chairman since 2014. To whatever extent local choices contributed to the current crisis, he can shoulder responsibility.

"Can anybody guess why these drugs went up so much in only three months??" Chuck Berndt of McHenry writes in a letter to the editor.

Implying a measured decrease in students is sufficient to reveal a failing elementary or high school district ignores other factors that might be at play.

The American Cancer Society recently released its latest Cancer Prevention and Early Detection statistics report. Anyone who is concerned about their risk of cancer should be interested in what the report has to say.

We’re still left with a scenario where lawmakers built something without knowing if it could be staffed and supported.

Those unfamiliar with an affected family likely give little regular thought to how much these challenges dominate every aspect of daily life.

I regularly encourage readers to become informed voters and the media should play a role so voters don’t have to track down individual candidates at home just to get a question answered.

Paper pushers could go mad trying to figure out how much of each cafeteria pizza can trace its origins to the Land of Lincoln. To be fair, Rep. Harper isn’t suggesting anyone solve such an equation.

Recent storms and coverage of the 60th anniversary of the Palm Sunday tornado in Crystal Lake is a good reminder that it's best to be prepared in case disaster strikes.

It’s very easy to argue that young children facing accusations that would warrant detention are far more likely to have their lives set on a new course if kept out of institutional punitive settings.

Senate Bill 1238 would make it easier for residents in Illinois to access nonopioid pain treatment options.

In Gideon, Justice Hugo Black described the “noble ideal (of) fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law.”

"Stuck behind [a delivery truck] waiting to get around, sometimes five minutes or so, makes a great Tums commercial," Nancy Fike of McHenry writes in a letter to the editor.

"After reading Terry Trobiani’s letter concerning the Social Security system, I felt I had to share my experience," Debra Gummerson of Crystal Lake writes in a letter to the editor.

Voters often feel isolated from Washington, D.C., and Springfield. Math and distance make it inevitable. Being cut off from local officials is a choice, one we need not make.