Is Milton moonlighting?
Springfield School Superintendent Walter Milton is denying a media report that he is a candidate to become superintendent of a school district in Rochester, N.Y., his hometown. Citing unnamed sources, television station WHAM in Rochester reported Tuesday that Milton has interviewed to become superintendent of the Rochester City School District. In an interview with Illinois…
Manure and wife
My fiancee insists on having our wedding at “THE most magical place to get married,” this beautiful lake resort. Her family’s well-off, but having it there creates a financial hardship for my relatives and our friends, who are working crappy jobs in a terrible economy. Our guests mostly live in our hometown, and the lake…
Jesse White takes a tumble
It’s difficult not to contemplate how Secretary of State Jesse White has screwed up lately on so many fronts. Secretary White has managed to mostly avoid scandals throughout his life and as a result has become one of the most popular Democratic politicians of the past half century – one year winning all 102 Illinois…
Casa a regular fun house
They’re called “vanity projects,” films that major stars are allowed to make based on their clout at the box office. Often these films have little appeal to major studios, as they are of such a personal nature to the talent involved that it’s perceived that there’s little widespread appeal. With his films totaling well over…
Not at the trough
Perhaps the difficulty of making ends meet on a salary of $174,000 explains why 14 of 19 members of Congress from Illinois funneled campaign money to themselves, relatives or organizations linked to themselves or relatives. The list released last week by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a bipartisan affair. It includes…
Marching on to April
No themes this week, just several items worth mentioning to our illustrious readers as March moves on and April comes to pass. Kick off your party week with a visit to the Trading Post on Thursday to hear the “eclectic sounds and songs” of Kortney Leatherwood and Perry Zubeck “live and unplugged,” according to funnily…
Civil union adoption fight gets heated
More than nine months after Illinois’ civil union law took effect, state lawmakers are still arguing over what it means. That’s because of a controversial measure to exempt religious adoption agencies from the law. Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, sponsors Senate Bill 2495, which would allow a religious adoption agency to not place children in a…
All aboard
I suppose the question to the Springfield City Council ought to be phrased this way: If they come, will you build it? “It” is a multimodal transit center, a nice plan for which was unveiled in February by Downtown Springfield, Inc. and the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission [See the Feb. 23 IT cover story,…
SOMA
What happens when you take a batch of well-seasoned local musicians and combine them into a brand new concoction? Go see for yourself as SOMA breaks into the Springfield scene with its first full-on public display of live music. Featuring bandmates Brad Beneky on bass (Perfunctory This Band, Sarah Schneider Band, Frantic Sky), Tony Dyer…
A lackluster performance by Madigan’s candidate
The machine is dead. Long live the machine. So went the mixed messages voters sent in last week’s primary elections. Some things went as expected, notably the 50th Senate District race between incumbent Sam McCann of Carlinville and Gray Noll of Springfield, who got crushed in the Republican contest. No Democrat has filed and, given…
Hardscrabble sounds
Virginia country-folk duo, Doug and Telisha Williams, play at the Hoogland Center for the Arts Saturday, Mar. 31. This WUIS Bedrock 66 Live concert proves to be a memorable mix of the plight of Blue Ridge Mountain folk and the struggle of main street America. The pair has opened for the likes of Lucinda Williams,…
10-year prison sentence for hit-and-run driver
He was left to die in a pool of his own blood “like roadkill.” That’s how Sangamon County Circuit Judge Leo Zappa described the death of Danny Dapron Jr., a 30-year-old cyclist killed in a hit-and-run accident on Aug. 8, 2010. Zappa sentenced the driver, Ursula Jones, 23, of Springfield, to 10 years in prison…
Photo contest winners: Images of Illinois
The contest winners will be displayed at Gallery II, at 2 South Old State Capitol Plaza. Gallery II is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nearly 400 photographs were submitted by 117 Illinois amateur photographers to the first Prairie Art Alliance Images of Illinois Amateur Photography Contest, sponsored by Illinois Times. The…
Confessions of a (minor) rock star
Mike Doughty has been through the ringer. The former lead vocalist for sample-heavy ’90s alternative-rock mainstays Soul Coughing (“Super Bon Bon,” “Circles”) has put a lot of distance between himself and that band in the post-120 Minutes era, releasing a steady stream of solo recordings, all of which retain his trademark acerbic wit and sometimes-dense…
Doses of rock ‘n’ roll
Dive into the world of addiction and rock and roll as Mike Doughty stars at The Legacy Theatre on Friday, Mar. 30 reading from his new memoir, The Book of Drugs and playing tunes from two new albums, Yes and Also Yes and The Question Jar Show. The Book of Drugs is about Doughty’s eight…
timothy poem #1
our folks bought us the world booka handsome set of volumes a usefuland absorbing reference once Iset out to read the whole thingbogged down at aardvark or was itaardwolf realizing it was an impossiblegoal besides both animals soon flagged inothers’ interest as a conversational topicwhy do I three-quarter-century laterkeep working at unattainable goals eventaking on…
Banker hubris knows no bounds
Have you heard about the earthquake that has shaken Wall Street to its very core? Well, brace yourself, for this really is a shocker: Bonus payments are down. Yes, the exorbitant bonus checks pocketed each year by the Goldman Sachers, Citigroupers and other financial tinkerers have been cut by about 25 percent this year, and…
FREECYCLING FRIENDS
Spring cleaning is a gratifying practice, especially when it comes to eliminating clutter. Nearly everyone has a piece of old exercise equipment, a stack of National Geographic back issues, or some other treasure around the house that may have plenty of useful life left…just not for you. Maybe you can’t bear to throw out that…
DOLLARS FOR NEIGHBORHOODS
Are you a block captain or leader of your neighborhood organization within Ward 6? If so, the deadline to apply for a grant through the Ward 6 Rehabilitation and Revitalization Fund is on Monday, April 2, at 5:30 p.m. Grants awarded will be up to $1,000 per application or neighborhood organization. The theme of the…
Letter to the Editor 03/29/12
OAK RIDGE FINANCESFor this reason alone, there should not be differing laws governing municipal, religious and privately held cemeteries. [ See “Buried: Oak Ridge Cemetery has serious financial problems,” by Bruce Rushton, March 22.] For some reason, municipal and religious cemeteries have been given a legal pass where perpetual/endowment care fund accounts are handled. This…
Slick show
Over 100 Springfield Figure Skating Club members perform three ice shows at the Nelson Center on two days, March 31 and April 1. The group will perform ice versions of “Annie,” “Chicago,” “The Greatest Star” from Funny Girl, and Phantom of the Opera. U.S. and International competitor Max Aaron is a guest skater. Spotlight on…
Don’t let Springfield be Harrisburg, Pa.
Harrisburg, Pa., and Springfield have some interesting and frightening parallels. Like Springfield, Harrisburg is the capital city and the county seat. The city has a population of nearly 50,000 with a three-county regional agricultural area of approximately 500,000. Like Springfield, Harrisburg highlights its significance in American history and its economy is heavily reliant on government.…
More than morels
So far it’s been an iffy year for local morels, those wonderful wild mushrooms whose cratered caps resemble sponges. In fact, “sponge mushrooms” was what my family called them; I didn’t hear their “morel” moniker until I was an adult. Whether it’s a good or bad year for morels depends on several factors (as do…
String fling
Saturday, Mar. 31, at Sangamon Auditorium, UIS, guest conductor Andrew Sewell, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra music director, leads the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in a concert of swashbuckling overtures, brilliant symphonies and the beautiful Brahms Violin Concerto featuring extraordinary world-renown violinist, Vadim Gluzman. Gluzman is an Israeli violinist who appears regularly around the world with major orchestras.…
