Editorial

For the first time in more than a decade, a new name will adorn the offices on the 8th floor of downtown’s City Hall. Some have clamored for a new mayor since the first days of the outgoing Larry Morrissey administration, some 12 years ago.…

The ongoing game of political football over Gorman Co.’s plans to turn the ex-Amerock building into a massive downtown hotel and convention space has become the topic du jour for persons suddenly concerned with open government. The problem…

By Shane Nicholson  Managing Editor Rockford has lost another great friend and ally: Brian Leaf, the longtime Register Star reporter and mainstay of the community's music and bar scene, passed away Wednesday. He was 57. Leaf was someone I…

By Shane Nicholson  Managing Editor  It’s a common theme anywhere in the Midwest: you clear your driveway or sidewalk and a plow will come along in short order to cover your work back up again. It’s not always a city or county crew, either…

Editor and Publisher Frank Schier, whilst battling lung and brain cancer, took a few moments from his treatment to dictate this endorsement personally. Schier, over the telephone from his hospital room, said, “I couldn’t lay here and not…

People love to talk about “change candidates” nowadays. They can fall in both main parties, maybe pop up from a third party from time-to-time. What they plan to change is all relative to the market they’re running in. In Winnebago County,…

Where does one even begin with the current Winnebago County Board? Omnishambles might be under-performing in describing its work over the past two years. This year, we have four contested races on the ballot: three head-to-heads and one…

Speaking of change that Illinois needs, here’s what should be a non-political appointee position of a local legislative body taking up space on the ballot. Boy, do we love an election. It’s a letdown, really, to see these kinds of contests…

Democrat Cheri Bustos has served the 17th District admirably since being elected to the House for the first time in 2012. She has lent her name to legislation that is crucial to continued growth of the Rockford area and its surrounding…

Leslie Munger has self-identified as Bruce Rauner’s “right-hand” in the first term governor’s failed executive. For a position that should remain party-neutral, Munger has time and again waded into the fray to toss the political football…

Incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Kirk has never been one to eschew his own party’s leadership, bucking Republican standards to score political points. But therein lies the problem: Kirk does this because he’s a Republican in a Democratic state,…

The so-called road tax “lockbox” amendment is the first item on the ballot for voters across the state this year. The goal of the proposed amendment is to stop the use of state and local governing bodies from using transportation revenues…

The problems facing our county government have been chronicled at great length, not only in the pages of this paper but across the spectrum of media in the community. The county is ripe for change; only one candidate for the chairman…

By Shane Nicholson  Managing Editor  A silent and familiar scourge is creeping into Springfield again. With state legislators busy concerning themselves about campaign dollars and elections, ratings agencies sit with bated breath waiting…

By Shane Nicholson  Managing Editor  Ask anyone, they’ll tell you: newspapers are dying. The news media bears some agenda or carries the water for X or Y. People distrust the media. In fact, a recent Gallup poll showed that only 32 percent…