Rutter: Illinois still burdened by too many public schools
Once upon a time, Illinois was capable of fixing big problems with big solutions. Ask your grandparents about those days. They could tell such stories it would make your head...
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Rutter: In honor of Millennials on this Labor Day
Matthew McGuire was a machinist and Peter McGuire was a carpenter. They were unrelated except for immigrant Irish temperament and civic inventiveness. So they invented Labor Day in 1882. It...
Rutter: Illinois community colleges master mediocrity
Piddling. That was a favorite description in my family. It signifies a person, event, category or achievement so inconsequential or irrelevant as to be hardly worth discussing. "Yes, he bakes...
Rutter: Eclipse fans will freak out in Carbondale
Unless you need an undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University, there are limited reasons beyond random wanderlust to visit Carbondale, the de facto capital of Little Egypt and likely the...
Rutter: Men can’t figure out that pay inequity thing
Here's how unfairness spawns. Most of the first public school teachers in America were men. The task being a noble, significant, professional pursuit, it made sense for men to hold...
Rutter: Libertarian candidates always look a little stoned
On the days you are tempted to despondency over presidential voting choices, a bright thought captures your attention. "I'll vote Libertarian. Yeah, that's the ticket." After all, presidential candidate Gary...
Rutter: Lochte’s personality locked in at age 10
Every guy knows Ryan Lochte, or another male who closely resembles the Olympic swimmer in key personality traits. If you are a guy who does not recognize the Lochte doppelganger...
Rutter: Cooter Flegm and Euphus Imbroglio rise to debate
On his reputable days of honest employment, Chris Lamb is a journalism professor at IUPUI in Indianapolis, plus a book author and renaissance hottentot of high regard. If we have...
Rutter: Drivers less deadly, but more irritating
We all know one thing for sure. American divers speed. They zoom on interstates. They zip on state and county roads. They roar out of their driveways. They speed to...
Rutter: Judge a state on how it treats the poorest children
If you have taken the inadvertent joy ride of living in multiple states, you are perfectly positioned to compare what state was a great place and which was a dim...