It is up to humans to design systems that make sense. Perhaps the best time to design this was yesterday, but as with many problems we are coming to grips with now, the next best time is today. Let’s start where we are. And for me, that means observing and asking questions.

We were supposed to be zipping along at 110 mph by now. We’re not. Thanks to delays in installing safety gear aimed at keeping trains from hitting things and each other, speeds still top out at 79 mph, same as before the feds poured money into the rail corridor that runs through Springfield in the name of stimulating the economy and saving the earth.

One of the early responses from opponents was to attempt to scare people into believing rich people will pack up and leave, even though one of our biggest exit problems is the tens of thousands of kids who leave for out-ofstate colleges every year and never come back.

Indeed, the Chinese have decided to no longer accept American recycling. But it is not as Mr. Rushton claims, that they consider it trash. It’s that, rightly so, they decided that Americans made these recyclables, and Americans should be responsible for dealing with them.

Sam Cahnman, an attorney in private practice who previously served two terms as alderman for Ward 5, is hoping to regain the office from current alderman Andrew Proctor, who was a political newcomer before successfully challenging Cahnman for his seat in 2015.

Ald. Joe McMenamin has drawn the ire of fellow aldermen whom he has excoriated for accepting campaign contributions from labor unions and entities that do business with the city.

Lekiesha Hightower left Chicago for Springfield more than five years ago, hoping for a better life for herself and her child. Until this past May, she lived with a family friend in her new hometown, but last spring she moved into a place of her own, in the Poplar Place subdivision on Springfield’s east side.

The poster child for east side decay is, arguably, Poplar Place, a housing development created in the 1940s. As years have passed, the development that includes more than 200 units, primarily duplexes, has fallen apart, with trash piling up and streets going unfixed.

Shop local this St. Patrick's Day weekend! A variety of locally raised products will be available for purchase at the Winter Farmers Market this Saturday, March 16, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the State House Inn.

Chloe Grace Moretz is along for the ride as Frances, a vulnerable college student who's still coming to terms with the death of her mother a year prior. While riding the subway one day, she spies a designer handbag someone's left behind.

We must -- or so we should -- so we shall, start off with our annual review of Irish/Celtic music around town for the big St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Our first act of the celebration is McKinney, Hennessy & O’Hare this Thursday (tonight, for our intrepid readers) at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in the Club Room.

Jack Flash with the Rick Mari Band.

Springfield’s best-known and longest-running Celtic-fusion band still has the green going on with plans to keep it growing for years to come. Once upon a time, before becoming TEU, group origins were in an area band called Stone Ring Circle.

American Association of University Women’s research on the gender pay gap shows that one year out of college women are already paid significantly less than men. Women who work full time take home 80 cents for every dollar a full-time male worker is paid.

St. Patrick’s Catholic School 6th Annual Blarney Bash.

Springfield’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been an annual event since 1985. That year the grand marshal was William “Pinky” McHenry who was instrumental in the revitalization of St. John’s Breadline and Friends of Brother James Court. This year the honor goes to Share the Spirit Foundation.