Tom Kacich
Verified- Enterprise Editor and Columnist, The News-Gazette (Champaign, IL)
- Columnist, WDWS-AM (Champaign, IL)
Central District, Hills District
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Tom Kacich
Champaign County's fragile link to the American Revolution
Two hundred and fifty years ago, when the Revolutionary War was in its early stages and the Declaration of Independence was being drafted, debated and adopted, Champaign County did not exist. Nor did Illinois. And, according to historians, it would be almost 50 years before a White man settled in this land of tallgrass prairie and swampy woods. Champaign County, 250 years ago, was 750 miles and many decades away from being part of the United States of America.
Champaign County's fragile link to the American Revolution
Jul. 3—Two hundred and fifty years ago, when the Revolutionary War was in its early stages and the Declaration of Independence was being drafted, debated and adopted, Champaign County did not exist. Nor did Illinois. And, according to historians, it would be almost 50 years before a White man settled in this land of tallgrass prairie and swampy woods. Champaign County, 250 years ago, was 750 miles and many decades away from being part of the United States of America.
Tom Kacich | Champaign County’s fragile link to the American Revolution
Two hundred and fifty years ago, when the Revolutionary War was in its early stages and the Declaration of Independence was being drafted, debated and adopted, Champaign County did not exist. Nor did Illinois. And, according to historians, it would be almost 50 years before a White man settled in this land of tallgrass prairie and swampy woods. Champaign County, 250 years ago, was 750 miles and many decades away from being part of the United States of America.
Tom Kacich | Calling it a career
Well, that was fun. The intention, back in August 1975, was to be here a few years and then move on. Aside from a few old guys who had been at the paper since the 1930s, the staff of The News-Gazette was young people who viewed this as a stop on the way to a big-city paper or an industry position. I was hired to work the copy desk, which everyone but editor Harold “Shorty” Holmes knew was a mistake because I had never done it before and I only wanted to be a writer.
Tom Kacich | Miller's vote on budget will hurt her constituents Original
Shortly after the U.S. House approved a spending plan that almost assuredly requires deep cuts to the federal- and state-funded Medicaid program, U.S. Rep.
100 years after merger first floated, Champaign, Urbana happy to be separately together
D.W. Stevick wasn't the first person to suggest that Champaign and Urbana should merge to become one larger city. But he was the first to have to apologize for suggesting it on the front page of his paper. People had been promoting the idea of a Champaign-Urbana consolidation as far back as 1865 - just five years after Champaign was incorporated - and it was a pet project of Stevick, publisher of The News-Gazette.
Williams holds big fundraising lead for Urbana mayor
Fundraising for the Feb. 25 Urbana mayoral primary election is approaching the $50,000 mark, with most of it going to DeShawn Williams, the chief deputy in the Champaign County treasurer's office. Williams has raised more than $37,500, including $29,830 that is itemized and $7,758 that is not itemized (individual contributions of less than $150). His opponent, Annie Adams, has raised $7,485 in itemized contributions and $2,521 in non-itemized contributions.
Tom Kacich | Williams holds big fundraising lead for Urbana mayor
Fundraising for the Feb. 25 Urbana mayoral primary election is approaching the $50,000 mark, with most of it going to DeShawn Williams, the chief deputy in the Champaign County treasurer’s office. Williams has raised more than $37,500, including $29,830 that is itemized and $7,758 that is not itemized (individual contributions of less than $150). His opponent, Annie Adams, has raised $7,485 in itemized contributions and $2,521 in non-itemized contributions.
Tom Kacich | We could use some of Lincoln's optimism
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development Store and/or access information on a device You can choose how your personal data is used.
Tom Kacich | We could use some of Lincoln's optimism
Next Tuesday — the day before we mark his birthday — is the 164th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s final departure from his beloved Illinois. Traveling by way of the Great Western Railroad, the president-elect was bound for Washington, D.C., where he was to be inaugurated on March 4. The Chicago Tribune reported the train would average 28 miles an hour through Illinois. It was not a particularly celebratory occasion.
Tom Kacich | UI athletics reports modest profit on record revenue, expenses
The University of Illinois athletics program set records in the last fiscal year for both revenue and expenses. The bottom line shows the program finished about $4.6 million in the black, but there’s more to the story. Sports yielded more than $174 million in revenue — almost $25 million more than in fiscal year 2023 and $52 million more than five years ago. But expenses, driven primarily by coach salaries and payments and benefits paid to support staff, have risen almost as much.
UI athletics reports modest profit on record revenue, expenses
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development Store and/or access information on a device You can choose how your personal data is used.
Loyalty to Trump pays off for Oakwood man charged in Capitol insurrection
Lance Ligocki is a lucky man. Unlike many of the defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection case, the Justice Department didn't get around to charging the Oakwood man until last year. He was among the last of the 58 Donald Trump supporters from Illinois to be charged with crimes at the U.S. Capitol melee, the unprecedented, violent effort to overturn a presidential election.
Loyalty to Trump pays off for Oakwood man charged in Capitol insurrection
Lance Ligocki is a lucky man. Unlike many of the defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection case, the Justice Department didn’t get around to charging the Oakwood man until last year. He was among the last of the 58 Donald Trump supporters from Illinois to be charged with crimes at the U.S. Capitol melee, the unprecedented, violent effort to overturn a presidential election.
Tom Kacich | Loyalty to Trump pays off for Oakwood man charged in Capitol insurrection
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development Store and/or access information on a device You can choose how your personal data is used.
Williams has big fundraising lead in Urbana mayoral race
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development Store and/or access information on a device You can choose how your personal data is used.
Tom Kacich | Williams has big fundraising lead in Urbana mayoral race
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development Store and/or access information on a device You can choose how your personal data is used.
Great orator Bryan visited C-U just before his last battle
He recalled that he had spoken in Champaign before, but the June 1925 speech by three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan was his most significant and certainly his most timely here. His approximately 90-minute address at First Methodist Episcopal Church - now known as First United Methodist and still standing today at 210 W. Church St. - came just five weeks before the start of the famous John T. Scopes "monkey trial" in Tennessee and six weeks before Bryan's untimely death.
Tom Kacich | Great orator Bryan visited C-U just before his last battle
He recalled that he had spoken in Champaign before, but the June 1925 speech by three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan was his most significant and certainly his most timely here. His approximately 90-minute address at First Methodist Episcopal Church — now known as First United Methodist and still standing today at 210 W. Church St. — came just five weeks before the start of the famous John T. Scopes “monkey trial” in Tennessee and six weeks before Bryan’s untimely death.
The last gloomy wartime Christmas in C-U
Christmas 1944 in the United States wasn't supposed to be like this. Five months earlier, pollster George Gallup reported that 59 percent of Americans thought the war with Germany would be over by the end of the year. Even more optimistically, 14 percent of those polled thought the war with Japan would be over by the end of 1944.
Water company's win leaves longtime customers carrying the bucket
Chalk up another win for the big guys. Illinois American Water Co. was awarded a $110 million rate increase by the Illinois Commerce Commission on Thursday - not quite the $152.4 million the private utility was seeking, but more than enough to satisfy its stockholders and dismay its 1.3 million Illinois customers. Consumers in the Champaign-Urbana area will pay about $16 a month more with the increase, or nearly $200 a year. The new rates go into effect Jan. 1.
Tom Kacich: Trump's election numbers -- good and bad -- are remarkably consistent
Dec. 1—The final, official 2024 election returns are in, and boy, are they consistent. When it comes to the last three presidential elections, 2024 doesn't look much different than 2016 or 2020 in our area. Let's start with Champaign County, where Donald Trump's losing percentage — a historically bad one for three consecutive elections — has barely budged. He got 36.52 percent in 2024, 36.92 percent in 2020 and 36.42 percent in 2016.
Tom Kacich | Trump's election numbers - good and bad - are remarkably consistent
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development Store and/or access information on a device You can choose how your personal data is used.
Tom Kacich: Water utility's rate-hike proposal springs a leak
Nov. 24—One of the primary issues in Illinois American Water Company's proposed $152 million rate-increase case is whether customers should be stuck with the bill after it acquired a water system in Villa Grove that became terribly costly. The rate-hike request is now before the Illinois Commerce Commission, which heard oral arguments on the case Wednesday and is expected to make a ruling in early December.
Tom Kacich | Water utility's rate-hike proposal springs a leak
One of the primary issues in Illinois American Water Company’s proposed $152 million rate-increase case is whether customers should be stuck with the bill after it acquired a water system in Villa Grove that became terribly costly. The rate-hike request is now before the Illinois Commerce Commission, which heard oral arguments on the case Wednesday and is expected to make a ruling in early December.
Tom Kacich | Champaign County GOP hits its nadir
Champaign County Republicans have seen the heights and now the depths. For most of the county’s history, the GOP was so dominant that it held virtually all of the countywide offices, controlled the county board of supervisors and later, the county board, and regularly sent Republicans to the Statehouse and Capitol Hill.
Tom Kacich | A blue island in a sea of red Original
Champaign County wasn’t quite a single blue island in a sea of red after the 2024 presidential election, but it was close. The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket unofficially got a beefy 59.79 percent of the vote here, the second-best percentage for a Democrat in the county’s modern election history. But nearly every other county within 100 miles — save McLean and Peoria — went overwhelmingly for the Donald Trump-J.D. Vance ticket. In almost every case, Trump’s total exceeded 60 percent.
Tom Kacich: Biggest backers of tax increase for Mahomet-Seymour schools? Contractors
Nov. 3—Some of the biggest backers of Tuesday's proposed $112 million construction-related tax increase for Mahomet-Seymour schools are contractors who would benefit from the work. Citizens for Mahomet-Seymour Schools is the advocacy group supporting the bond referendum, which would increase property taxes by nearly $1 per $100 of assessed valuation. Estimates show the district's tax rate would rise from $4.63 to $5.59 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Tom Kacich | Biggest backers of tax increase for Mahomet-Seymour schools? Contractors
Some of the biggest backers of Tuesday’s proposed $112 million construction-related tax increase for Mahomet-Seymour schools are contractors who would benefit from the work. Citizens for Mahomet-Seymour Schools is the advocacy group supporting the bond referendum, which would increase property taxes more than $1 per $100 of assessed valuation. Estimates show the district’s tax rate would rise from $4.63 to $5.92 per $100 of assessed valuation.
Tom Kacich | Biggest backers of tax increase for Mahomet-Seymour schools? Contractors
To subscribe, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To pitch a ‘My Turn’ guest column, email jdalessio@news-gazette.com. Sign up for our daily newsletter here Some of the biggest backers of Tuesday’s proposed $112 million construction-related tax increase for Mahomet-Seymour schools are contractors who would benefit from the work.
The day Democratic fundraising spiked
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development Store and/or access information on a device You can choose how your personal data is used.
Tom Kacich | Hotel Royer missed out on double-centennial celebration
It was almost three years ago — early November 2021 — that a ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the beginning of the renovation of the old Urbana-Lincoln/Jumer’s/Urbana Landmark Hotel in downtown Urbana. At that time, the developers of the 131-room project, now known as the Hotel Royer, said they hoped to open the refurbished boutique hotel in late 2022. Not even close. Another goal, unstated but optimal, came last November. Nov.
Tom Kacich | 1920s were boom times for college stadium constriction
Oct. 18—Until 1914, the seating capacity at Illinois Field, home of University of Illinois football, was just 4,000. But the arrival in 1913 of coach Bob Zuppke brought great on-field success, notoriety and new attendance records. Between 1915 and 1920, per-game attendance more than doubled (from 5,589 to 12,525), and the capacity at nondescript Illinois Field was enlarged twice so that it held 20,000 spectators, including standing room.
Tom Kacich | 1920s were boom times for college stadium constriction
Until 1914, the seating capacity at Illinois Field, home of University of Illinois football, was just 4,000. But the arrival in 1913 of coach Bob Zuppke brought great on-field success, notoriety and new attendance records. Between 1915 and 1920, per-game attendance more than doubled (from 5,589 to 12,525), and the capacity at nondescript Illinois Field was enlarged twice so that it held 20,000 spectators, including standing room. In 1922, more than 32,000 turned out for a game against Ohio State.
Tom Kacich: A bucketful of reasons rate-increase request doesn't hold water
Oct. 13—Opponents of Illinois American Water's proposed super-sized rate increase — a more-than-40-percent hike for the typical user in Champaign-Urbana and a number of smaller area towns — have made strong arguments why it should be dismissed. Soon it will be up to five members of the Illinois Commerce Commission to decide how persuasive those arguments are.
Tom Kacich | A bucketful of reasons rate-increase request doesn't hold water
Opponents of Illinois American Water’s proposed super-sized rate increase — a more-than-40-percent hike for the typical user in Champaign-Urbana and a number of smaller area towns — have made strong arguments why it should be dismissed. Soon it will be up to five members of the Illinois Commerce Commission to decide how persuasive those arguments are.
Tom Kacich | Out-of-state enrollment up at UI's Urbana campus
One question that state legislators frequently ask top University of Illinois officials is why their child/friend’s child/constituent’s child can’t get into the UI when out-of-state students are being admitted in greater numbers.
Tom Kacich | Champaign County, state in sync in presidential voting
As goes Champaign County, so goes Illinois. For the last 15 presidential elections — all the way back to Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964 — the candidate who won Champaign County also won Illinois. The chosen one in Champaign County (and Illinois) isn’t always the national winner — Gerald Ford in 1976, Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 are exceptions — but most of the time, they are.
Tom Kacich | Guidebook captured Illinois as it was 85 years ago
Many people are familiar with the Depression-era Works Progress Administration and its legacy of providing jobs to the unemployed in the United States. As President Franklin Roosevelt wrote in December 1942 in a closing report on the program, “Seven years ago, I was convinced that providing useful work is superior to any and every kind of dole.
Tom Kacich | Lincoln Square's last original tenant is moving
Sep. 8—The last original tenant of Urbana's Lincoln Square mall is leaving, ending a relationship that goes back some 60 years, with all sorts of historical and familial ties. The law firm of Webber and Thies, which opened at Lincoln Square on Oct. 27, 1964, as Webber Balbach and Thies, is moving across town to the Trade Centre South building on South Neil Street. It'll be a newer, larger and more open space, but it won't have the history of Lincoln Square. The founder of Webber and Thies, Charles M.
Tom Kacich | Fans want Sox to be the best at worst
For all of my long life I have been a fan of the Chicago Cubs. And if you grew up in the Chicago area and are a fan of the Cubs, that means you cannot be a fan of the Chicago White Sox. That was ingrained in me at the late St. Domitilla School where there was widespread agreement on every important issue — Johnson over Goldwater, Beatles over Herman’s Hermits, Twinkies over cupcakes — but eternal disagreement about Chicago’s baseball teams.
Tom Kacich | A musical quiz for the newcomers and returnees
To subscribe, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To pitch a ‘My Turn’ guest column, email jdalessio@news-gazette.com. Want to purchase today’s print edition? Here’s a map of single-copy locations. Sign up for our daily newsletter here Greetings, newcomers and returnees. Welcome back to flat East Central Illinois, where we have quite a history of making and enjoying all kinds of music. Here’s a quiz to help you get acquainted to our musical heritage.
Tom Kacich: The small city that sprang up in Sangamon County to arm the Allies
Aug. 18—In January 1942, a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, low-flying airplanes began appearing in the skies between Springfield and Decatur. Soon, farmers in the area were told they'd have 30 days to leave their land and urged to take as much personal property as they could in that time. They objected, saying their land was among the top 5 percent in the country for production of corn, wheat and soybeans. "We were told to raise food to win this war," farmer Harry E.
Tom Kacich | The small city that sprang up in Sangamon County to arm the Allies
In January 1942, a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, low-flying airplanes began appearing in the skies between Springfield and Decatur. Soon, farmers in the area were told they’d have 30 days to leave their land and urged to take as much personal property as they could in that time. They objected, saying their land was among the top 5 percent in the country for production of corn, wheat and soybeans. “We were told to raise food to win this war,” farmer Harry E.
Tom Kacich: Biden/Harris fundraising strong in C-U, weak outside it
Aug. 11—The Democratic presidential ticket holds a more than 2-to-1 fundraising lead in the Champaign-Urbana-Savoy area so far this election cycle, but it's a different story in much of the rest of the area. There was a real enthusiasm gap, reflected in fundraising numbers, through the period ending June 30.
Tom Kacich | Biden/Harris fundraising strong in C-U, weak outside it
The Democratic presidential ticket holds a more than 2-to-1 fundraising lead in the Champaign-Urbana-Savoy area so far this election cycle, but it’s a different story in much of the rest of the area. There was a real enthusiasm gap, reflected in fundraising numbers, through the period ending June 30.
Tom Kacich: Out of the courtroom and into the Urban Gardens
Aug. 4—Talk about a change of venue. In just a few years, Traci Nally went from being a well-known and active member of the bar in Champaign County to being a gentlewoman farmer with muddy boots, insect bites on her arms, dirt under her fingernails and some gorgeous vegetables and flowers. Particularly her zinnias.
Tom Kacich | Out of the courtroom and into the Urban Gardens
Talk about a change of venue. In just a few years, Traci Nally went from being a well-known and active member of the bar in Champaign County to being a gentlewoman farmer with muddy boots, insect bites on her arms, dirt under her fingernails and some gorgeous vegetables and flowers. Particularly her zinnias.
Tom Kacich: Unions, pro-Israel groups among Budzinski's biggest backers
Jul. 28—Labor unions and pro-Israel groups are among the biggest funders of U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski's re-election campaign, which recently reported having almost $2.1 million on hand. By contrast, her Republican opponent, Joshua Loyd of Virden, said he had just $2,883 as of June 30. Budzinski, a first-term Democrat whose 13th Congressional District snakes from the eastern St. Louis suburbs through Springfield to Champaign-Urbana, has already developed a nationwide fundraising base.
Tom Kacich | Unions, pro-Israel groups among Budzinski's biggest backers
Labor unions and pro-Israel groups are among the biggest funders of U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski’s re-election campaign, which recently reported having almost $2.1 million on hand. By contrast, her Republican opponent, Joshua Loyd of Virden, said he had just $2,883 as of June 30. Budzinski, a first-term Democrat whose 13th Congressional District snakes from the eastern St. Louis suburbs through Springfield to Champaign-Urbana, has already developed a nationwide fundraising base.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Tom
Contact Tom, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack