Cop Out: The Aftermath
City responds with nothing, then everything The revelations of last week’s cover story, “Cop Out,” inspired a special city council meeting last Monday at which Springfield Police Department Chief John Harris was the guest of honor. Aldermen Frank Kunz and Frank McNeil repeatedly asked the chief and the SPD’s legal counsel, William Workman, how they…
A Town Without Pity
At around 5 AM, every member of my family was asleep. Everyone except my mother, Renatta Frazier. She was just arriving home from another long night as a Springfield police officer, another night full of drama and upset. Crying, exhausted, and cold, she stumbled into our townhouse and exhaled, dropping her bag and belt at…
Cop Out 4
Last Saturday morning, at Union Baptist Church, the crowd ebbed and flowed, some arriving late, others leaving early, but always with the people slightly outnumbering chairs, forcing neighbors to choose between sitting next to a stranger or leaning against a wall. Hosted by Unity in the Community, a relatively new group of activists headed by…
Cop Out 3
Illinois Times’ October 31 cover article revealed the truth behind a story that had been repeated scores of time in the local media over the past year: Springfield Police Department was reported to be conducting an internal investigation into whether rookie officer Renatta Frazier failed to prevent the rape of another officer’s daughter. Frazier subsequently…
So Sue Me
Two months ago, in the midst of a special City Council meeting, Mayor Karen Hasara made an unusual plea: She begged to be sued. “We’re going to be in court. We want to be in court!” she said. Furthermore, she wanted this lawsuit to be filed posthaste. “I hope the Black Guardians will hurry up…
Real Estate
To place your ad E-mail: classifieds@illinoistimes.com Phone: 217-679-7814 Phone and Office hours: M-f 8am-5:30pm Deadline for classified line ads: Friday 12pm before publication Deadline for classified display ads: Thursday 1pm before publication The fine print Payments: All ads must be paid in advance by cash, check or credit card. Ads must be cancelled prior to…
Disturbing the peace
Sheila Walk was puzzled when she showed up for the Heartland Peace Center’s annual meeting in January. It was supposed to be held at the Space on Super Bowl Sunday. For years, the Heartland Peace Center’s annual meeting has always been on Super Bowl Sunday. This year was supposed to be no different; Walk, a…
Between the lines
For a moment, it looked like the Black Guardians might have a point. The group of black cops had been complaining (some say whining) for years about discriminatory testing, uneven discipline, and other indignities they say added up to a hostile work environment at the Springfield Police Department. But in this era of subtler racism,…
Your Turn 5-15-03
Selective memories To the editor: In the May 1, 2003, issue’s feature story “The Lost City,” about the book Living Lucy: The Diary of Lucy C. Williams, Cinda Klickna wrote, “Everyone should come away wanting to read and learn more about the people and places Lucy mentions.” We agree. That’s why we put Lucy C.…
Chicago’s big appetite
Remember last year when Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan warned that Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley would control the state’s agenda if Rod Blagojevich got elected? Well, Ryan may have been right. Last week SBC–the giant Texas-based company that swallowed up Ameritech a few years back and is now run by Bill Daley, the mayor’s…
Full Disclosure
My nine-year-old came home from school last Friday with a carton of $1 candy bars and a head full of pep talk on door-to-door sales. He was fired up and eager to walk the neighborhood, peddling chocolate to raise money for a copy machine for the school office. I wouldn’t let him and couldn’t tell…
Perfect Match
Patty Hoffman, a trim, 57-year-old redhead with sensible Aunt Bea shoes, a ready smile, and an encylopedic knowledge of the city’s streets, has been driving a bus for the Springfield Mass Transit District since October 1, 1977. Over the years, she has safely delivered thousands of riders to their destinations with nary a mishap or…
Now Playing 2-13-03
Two holidays in one week, yahoo! Now how does this affect you, the bar-going music lover? Read on to find out. It’s the sweetheart of deals on Friday when St. Valentine bestows his blessing upon lovers of all kinds. Take your honey dancing at the Eagles Club on E. Ash, where you can swing to…
Houses divided
In 1838 Maria Goudy married George Chapman. Over the next 13 years they had five children. When Maria discovered George was unfaithful, she sued for divorce. George hired a lawyer and denied his wife’s charges. But the court found him guilty, granting Maria the divorce and custody of their children. The judge ordered George to…
Movie Reviews – Daredevil, The Hours
Daredevil Daredevil is the Marvel Comics take on Stan Lee’s Batman. Like Gotham’s Dark Knight, Daredevil is a costumed vigilante who prowls New York to mete out justice and restore order, a mission prompted by the death of his father. Both have costumes no sane person would wear in public, have remarkable gadgets, and commit…
Fellow traveler
Miss Vernon rents her guest-room by the night To tourists passing through. Imagine that! Complete strangers, maybe a squalling brat, Sharing your bath. Somehow that don’t seem right. There’s mighty few in town that I’d invite To stay–much less offer the welcome mat. But yesterday when I stopped by to chat And heard how much…
The food of love
Nothing says Valentine’s Day quite like chocolate. Rob Flesher knows why. “It’s the food of love,” says the co-owner and sales manager of Pease’s Candy Shops. “There’s a chemical in the chocolate that’s been proven to be an aphrodisiac.” That chemical is phenylethylamine, a substance supposedly produced in the brains of people who are in…
Good-bye, One-Eye
The official word on last week’s firing of longtime talk-radio ringmaster Don “One-Eyed Jack” Jackson is that Capitol Radio Group had decided WTAX-AM needed a new format. Something more informative and less offensive. Something better able to deliver breaking stories. Something the new general manager, Leanne Arndt, calls “a structured news wheel.” Insiders, however, call…
Backstage Pass
Theater has always held a mirror up to society, and the view is often unflattering. The old Shubert Theatre in Chicago usually hosts traveling musicals, but this weekend wraps up The Exonerated, a powerful play by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. The script, culled from actual interviews and court transcripts, relates the stories of six…
Still the Space
If struggle is a great teacher, Marc Sanson has already learned its lessons well. Every month when the rent comes due on the tiny white house at 830 S. College dubbed “the Space,” Sanson seems to be counting his pennies. Yet just when he considers declaring a public state of emergency, the money miraculously comes…
Your Turn 2-13-03
No child left behind? To the editor: I am writing to applaud Illinois Times for publishing Cinda Klickna’s sobering school-crisis article “Empty Promises” [February 6]. After working for two years as a junior high school teacher at a low-income school in Arizona, I find that the “No Child Left Behind Act” is infuriatingly typical of…
More med district maneuvers
Duane Schlueter wanted to make some money from Springfield hospitals, family members say, but his refusal to visit one put an end to his plan. Schlueter, who died on Saturday, January 18, at the age of 62, owned a couple of lots in Enos Park near the southwest corner of Third and Carpenter. “He was…
Georgeart
George Colin doesn’t exhibit at the Old Capitol Art Fair. He doesn’t need to. The 74-year-old Colin has become a folk-art phenomenon since he retired in 1977 from Pillsbury Mills, where he sacked flour for 30 years. Actually Colin did show some paintings at the very first Old Capitol Art Fair in 1962, but one…
Now Playing 5-15-03
It’s the middle of May, and we’re flying high, heading for the edge of summer. Hang on–let’s go. The Blazers have been compared to Los Lobos time and again–and rightfully so. Both bands can roots-rock it or strum through traditional Mexican tunes with ease. The Blazers began in 1971 when high school buddies Ruben Guaderrama…
Dr. Elamin Elamin
Dr. Elamin Elamin came to Illinois from Egypt 16 years ago. He is now director of the Critical Care Division of Pulmonary Medicine at Southern Illinois University’s School of Medicine. In 1999 he joined millions of Muslims on the spiritual pilgrimage known as the Hajj. The pilgrimage is one of five Pillars of Islam, and…
Not in my public housing complex
Times are not good for the Springfield Housing Authority. About 25 percent of all SHA units are empty and federal funding has plummeted over the past five years, according to SHA director Willis Logan. The feds briefly took over the SHA in 1996, as the agency struggled with financial woes and high vacancy rates. The…
Movie Reviews – A Mighty Wind, Daddy Day Care
A Mighty Wind It’s always fun to see great actors firing on all cylinders. That’s really what’s at the root of A Mighty Wind, the latest “mock documentary” by Christopher Guest, a Saturday Night Live alum and co-creator of This Is Spinal Tap. Guest previously skewered small-town theater in the very funny Waiting for Guffman…
Bards of the Sangamo 5-15-03
Phineas Fletcher The first tornado or the last hard freeze — I mark the dates in records that I keep, No wind too cold, no drifted snow too deep To calculate in inches or degrees. I’m partial to a good storm, one where trees Are tossed and barns leveled by winds that sweep The prairie…
“I Saw You”
Fairy tales usually have happy endings, especially the ones involving love at first sight. Cinderella and Snow White both snared their princes with just one look. It would seem only fitting if the following story ends as happily. To protect this subject’s privacy, we’ll call our prince “Lance.” Readers might know him better as the…
A taste of Chicago. . .
Dottie Washington faced a dilemma. She had dined on a barbecued rib sandwich, tasted a turkey leg, and enjoyed a cheese-filled puff pastry. She had her eye on a chicken burrito that looked too tantalizing to pass up, and yet she hadn’t reached the tables piled high with pizza pies, cheesecake, ice cream, and pasta…
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