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Another View: Another institution failed to protect kids

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The most enduring image from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta was gymnast Kerri Strug's courageous second vault and perfect landing on a badly sprained ankle that sealed the all-around gold medal for Team USA. As she was carried off the floor, she was turned over to the tender mercies of team doctor Larry Nassar, helping cement his fame as a healer.On Wednesday, Nassar, 54, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison on multiple counts of sexual assault involving young women he treated. [...]

Another View: Tariffs almost always bad for business

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President Trump decided on Tuesday to kick off his long-promised war on imports — and American consumers."Our action today helps to create jobs in America for Americans," President Donald Trump declared as he imposed tariffs on solar cells and washing machines. "You're going to have a lot of plants built in the United States that were thinking of coming, but they would never have come unless we did this."The scary part is he really seems to believe this. And toward [...]

Another View: Checking the long arm of the law

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We're glad to see changes on the horizon for the state's "civil asset forfeiture" law.But we're unsure that those changes go far enough to prevent the abuses that local officials say could happen.Still, we encourage local police and area state's attorneys to use their discretion wisely in such cases. Because, as the law will continue to say even after July 1, a criminal conviction is not necessary for authorities to pursue in civil court the forfeiture of property related to [...]

Editor's Notebook: Business codes and partisan columnists

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In last Sunday’s edition, The Register-Mail published an in-depth story about the code process for business owners in Galesburg.The first thing I’d like to clear up is the headline, which was modified by print designers on the fly and changed the context significantly. The correct headline, and the one that ran online, is “Code surprises impede business growth.” In the print edition, the word “surprises” was omitted. I apologize for that error, [...]

Another View: Curtailing use of the 'R' Word

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The overflowing indignation over President Donald Trump's reportedly profane characterization of Third World countries during a private meeting cemented in the minds of many Trump critics that he is a racist.Really, it masks a simple point: The evolution of immigration trends makes any discussion of reform inherently "racist," thus making it too easy to brand with the scarlet R those who think we must plug our porous borders, enforce existing immigration laws and promote legal [...]

Another View: Girl Scouts take on big tobacco, and win

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To battle a giant, send in the Girl Scouts — a special-forces team Big Tobacco should fear.The tobacco industry sets the standard for lobbyists. The industry's stealth, formidable tactics affect outcomes in city, county, state and federal politics. The fast-growing marijuana industry follows Big Tobacco's model."The tobacco industry invented the kind of special-interest lobbying that has become so characteristic of late 20th- and earlier 21st-century American [...]

Another View: Opioid crisis requires help from Congress

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For most of the past 20 years, prescription opioid abuse was treated like the weather: Everyone complained about it, but no one ever did anything about it. As a result, it exploded into a national epidemic that killed 17,000 Americans in 2016. Add to that about 35,000 overdose deaths from heroin and synthetic opioids — often used by addicts when they can't get prescription drugs anymore — and you're approaching a Vietnam War death toll every year.Public [...]

Another View: Big money crippling our politics

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If you're frustrated at the easy availability of assault rifles in America, don't blame the National Rifle Association.If the rise of "sanctuary cities" infuriates you, don't blame liberal groups like Democracy for America, either.The real problem lies with our political system's failure to rein in the outsized influence of money in politics.Limits on political donations by individuals, businesses and political action committees are rendered moot by the unlimited [...]

Another View: Officers risk lives for others

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Critics say a few deputies are "cowards" for declining to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, to save children from a madman on a killing spree.Although troubled by the lack of assistance students received during the rampage, we reserve judgment until more facts emerge. No one knows the full story.Whether the school resource officer and others who arrived on scene are cowards, we know most law enforcement officers do not fit this description. Often in this community, [...]

Editor's Notebook: Readers depend on Register-Mail

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My first coffee hour with readers yielded only five people, but we had a valuable discussion.The lasting message from these readers was that they depend on this newspaper. In fact, one man looked at me and said, "You're all we've got."It caught me a little off guard. In this climate of newspaper industry decline, it's easy to start believing that the newspaper is expendable. All five of the readers who came to Hy-Vee for this coffeee hour care deeply about The [...]

Editor's Notebook: Next coffee with editor is Thursday

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Join me at 8 a.m. Thursday, March 29, at InnKeeper's for my third coffee hour with readers.I’m interested in your thoughts about The Register-Mail and galesburg.com. Stop in at InnKeeper's anytime between 8 and 9 a.m. Thursday.So far, I’ve had two coffee hours, one at Hy-Vee on National Boulevard and one at Beanhive. About six readers came to the first chat and eight attended the second one.The folks who attended last week’s coffee hour were [...]

Editorial: What would make us safer?

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The Galesburg community is still reeling from the fatal shooting of Jenni McGruder one week ago.Her body was found outside Seminary Street Pub, 105 S. Seminary St., early Easter morning after police responded to a call of shots fired at 1:37 a.m. At the scene police found three shell casings and the body of 26-year-old McGruder, who was unconnected to the fight that caused someone to pull the trigger. She was a bystander.Police are unsure whether the suspect was shooting at [...]

Editor's Notebook: Galesburg an 'unassuming slice' of heartland

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A story by Eric Shawn of Fox News was sent to me by many readers over the past week. And why not? Galesburg was in the headline of a national story about Russians hacking our “voter rolls.”The story is rather alarming, about how Russian hackers gained access to the voter database in Illinois, including the information of 14,121 [...]

Editor's Notebook: Coffee with the editor Thursday

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Readers, I’ll be at Hy-Vee, 2030 East Main, from 9 to 10 a.m. Thursday, April 26.This is my fourth coffee hour out in the community this year. I did three in March — at Henderson Street Hy-Vee, Beanhive and Innkeeper’s Coffee — and met several nice people. This is basically a listening tour for me to find out how we can better connect to readers.• What do you like about The Register-Mail?• What do you dislike about The Register- [...]

Editor seeking reader feedback

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Come visit me Thursday or Friday morning. It’s been April since I held coffee hours in the community, so I’m planning one at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at Hy-Vee on Henderson Street and another at 8:30 a.m. Friday at Delinos’ Italian Deli and Bakery, 319 E. Main St. I’ll stay one hour at each location.The purpose is to meet with members of the community and hear what you think about The Register-Mail. I’m glad to meet with subscribers as [...]

Another View: Trump shouldn’t ease up on Russia sanctions

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Unlike his Singapore one-on-one with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, slated for July 16 in Helsinki, doesn't suggest history in the making. Trump and Putin have already met — twice. Russian and American leaders have been meeting for decades. By contrast, no U.S. president ever had met a North Korean leader.Yet a sense of suspense hangs over the Trump-Putin summit. Or is it dread?There's always merit [...]

Editor's Notebook: Thanks for support in light of newsroom shooting

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Last week journalists at The Register-Mail mourned the deaths of five people in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland. There, a man with an apparent grudge against the newspaper came into the newsroom and opened fire, according to police. Jarrod W. Ramos has been arrested for the killings. A letter from Ramos sent to the newspaper’s attorney that day said he intended to kill everyone in the newsroom.Staying true to its mission, The Capital Gazette printed its [...]

Editor's Notebook: Visit R-M staff at Taste of Galesburg

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The Register-Mail is once again a title sponsor of the Taste of Galesburg event, which runs from 4 to 10:30 p.m. Thursday on Simmons Street downtown. It’s one of the city’s top events each summer with food from more than 20 area restaurants, kids activities and live music.Publisher David Adams and members of the newsroom (Jay Redfern, Robyn Gautschy, Robert Connelly, Tom Loewy, myself and others) will have a booth and invite people to stop by while at the event. Looks [...]

Editor's Notebook: Was Bill Higgins' letter over the edge?

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Bill Higgins wrote a local letter last week that included references to former President Barack Obama’s race and religion. Specifically, Higgins wrote that Obama is “neither totally black nor African-American and he's Muslim even though he claimed to be a Christian.”Race and religion are highly charged issues. I stopped and read the section twice. Higgins seemed to be using our former president’s race (that he’s not fully African-American) and [...]

Editorial: We believe in power of good journalism

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President Donald Trump wants you to believe that some journalists are your enemy. He draws a distinction between news media and "fake news" media, a term he uses to discredit reporting that presents him in an unfavorable light. He used variations of the term more than 400 times during his first year as president, according to CNN.On Aug. 5, the President tweeted: “The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am [...]
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