Guest Columns

Scientist Nikola Tesla died 75 years ago, Sunday, after a rags-to-riches to rags life. The eccentric inventor set the stage for many modern technologies. Match the following figures – Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi,…

By Regina Hansen The Conversation Over the past few decades, Halloween celebrations have gained in popularity, not only with children and families, but with all those fascinated with the spooky and scary. As a scholar of myth and religion…

5 questions answered By Lacey Wallace  The Conversation When Stephen Paddock opened fire Oct. 1 on concertgoers in Las Vegas, killing 59, the city became the unfortunate host of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Investigators are…

By John Guevara  Contributor It makes sense: Everybody should be on the same page when it comes to fighting crime. And what we saw during this last county budget process was not unity; it was division. Now, for the folks involved, who one…

By John Guevara  Contributor Even after the County Board’s budget vote on Thursday, slashing the Sheriff’s budget by $4.3 million (or 62 percent of the projected deficit), questions linger, tempers flare, and press conferences are called.…

By John Guevara  Contributor  Simon Sinek is an exceptional speaker, famous for his books and TED talks on leadership and the workplace. In 2014, he gave a talk, “Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe.” In that talk, he referenced Next Jump…

There was a time when Rod Blagojevich spent thousands of dollars on Oxxford suits and baby blue silk neckties. And there was a time more recently when he gave four postage stamps to a fellow prisoner in exchange for ironing his prison…

By John Guevara Contributor Let’s be clear: Had the Winnebago County Board raised property taxes every year from the 2011 budget until today, there would not be a budget deficit. Republican county board members Frank Gambino, John F.…

The Great Lakes have a new resident, brachionus leydigii, but nobody's rolling out the welcome mat. Although the species of microscopic zooplankton may prove to be harmless, it's yet another non-native species invading and possibly…

By Steven Mulroy  The Conversation President Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who illegally used racial profiling to enforce immigration laws, on Aug. 25. It’s true, Trump has the legal power to pardon pretty…

Exxon funded climate scientists while the bulk of its public-facing advertorials argued the science and cause of climate change was uncertain. By Katharine Hayhoe  The Conversation ExxonMobil’s deliberate attempts to sow doubt on the…

By Gary Anderson  Guest Contributor  Last Friday, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the four-year extension for the River Edge Historic Preservation Tax Credit program. This economic-development tool has been the key reason why downtown Rockford has…

By Jennifer Wenzel  The Conversation On August 12, Charlottesville Daily Progress photographer Ryan M. Kelly captured the exact moment that Nazi sympathizer James Alex Fields, Jr. drove his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of…

By Bruce Hammond For The Rock River Times With the passing of Karen Howard on Monday, Aug. 7, Rockford lost a truly iconic member of the local arts community. Along with husband Bill and daughters Lani and Jennifer, Karen (aka Ruby Skye)…

By Greg Wright  The Conversation President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un are playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship. North Korea got the world’s attention – and Trump’s – when it successfully launched an…