Springfield group earns freedom for wrongly convicted man
A judge vacated the conviction of a Chicago man today in a 1984 murder, thanks in part to the efforts of the Illinois Innocence Project in Springfield. Christopher Abernathy of Midlothian, then age 17, was convicted in 1987 of the murder of 15-year-old Kristina Hickey in Park Forest. He is due to be released today…
Art Beat: Lincoln’s B-Day, A Vintage Shop Tour + Music & More
This week we bring you info for a vintage shop tour on Saturday in Springfield that is offering customers free charms to make jewelry with (flyer is posted in this post, more info here). That event also includes Incredibly Delicious! PLUS: Events about Lincoln just in time for Abe’s birthday (Thur. 12th) can be found at…
Internationally acclaimed artist alert
O White Gods On Friday, Feb. 6, from 6-8:30 p.m., DEMO Project hosts a reception to celebrate the opening of O White Gods, a contemporary art exhibition by visual artist Travis Shaffer. The Missouri-based artist’s most recent exhibition speaks to the process of finding and creating art objects, and leveraging meaning onto said objects via…
Kilborn Alley Blues Band
Kilborn Alley Blues Band The blues came to visit a young Andrew Duncanson, and he answered the call of the crossroads. In high school, the singing blues guitarist’s chance meeting with Josh Stimmel over a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt led to the gradual formation of Kilborn Alley. With Chris Breen on bass and veteran drummer Ed…
Coal mine plan halted near Peoria
Joe Cooper (right, with map) owns a farm across the road from the planned mine site and opposed the mine. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE A community group near Peoria defeated a coal mine project last week, and its victory could have far-reaching effects for coal projects around the state. That’s because the group discovered that…
Editor’s note 2/5/15
Could we get Sen. Dick Durbin and other public officials to apply some common sense before promoting another big “clean coal” project? It is only natural for job-hungry politicians to crow about Illinois being “the Saudi Arabia of coal,” as U. S. Sen. Barack Obama described his state in 2006. But somebody needs to tell…
Lincoln’s loyal leaders
Lincoln Home National Historic Site Volunteer Recruitment Open House The Lincoln Home National Historic Site is currently recruiting volunteers for the 2015 season. On Saturday, Feb. 7, at 10 a.m., stop by the Lincoln Home Conference Center for an information session lead by Lincoln Home National Historic Site staff and current volunteers. The session will…
Lawmakers call for oversight of rail project
Job opportunities for minorities and women on Springfield’s 10th Street rail relocation project aren’t living up to promises by the city and state, according to one community group. Meanwhile, leaders from the city and the project’s main engineering firm say they’ve actually exceeded their obligations. The apparent confusion led two lawmakers representing Springfield to propose…
Legislators looking to move up
Illinois State Sen. Daniel Biss appears to be the first Democrat to actively float his name for the 2016 special election for state comptroller. The Evanston Democrat is known as a policy wonk around the Statehouse, but he’s also a prodigious fundraiser, ending the fourth quarter reporting period with $721,000 in the bank. The special…
A whining Wall Street banker pleads for pity
J.P. Morgan was recently socked in the wallet by financial regulators who levied yet another multi-billion dollar fine against the Wall Street baron for massive illegalities. Well, not a fine against John Pierpont Morgan, the man. This 19th-century robber baron was born to a great banking fortune and, by hook and crook, leveraged it to…
Famed orations from Frederick Douglass
“Frederick Douglass on Race: A Souls Evolution” On Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m., head to UIS Brookens Auditorium for a Black History Month event hosted by the UIS ECCE Speaker Series. This living history presentation features actor Fred Morsell and his riveting reprisal of Frederick E. Douglass’ most poignant commentary on slavery, racial discrimination…
Illinois poverty at dangerous level
Sangamon County is one of 42 Illinois counties put on a poverty watch list in a report released by the Social Impact Research Center Jan. 29. The center, part of the Chicago-based anti-poverty group Heartland Alliance, has been publishing reports on poverty in Illinois since 2001. This year’s edition, “Poor by Comparison,” looks at Illinois…
Masters of the new machine
Gov. Bruce Rauner PHOTO BY Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/TNS “We’re going to pay what we need to bring in talented people,” said Illinois’ new governor to reporters on Jan. 23. He was defending the many six-figure salaries he’s offered to the people he wants to handle the pumps and keep afloat a State of Illinois that is…
Letters to the Editor 2/5/15
Former Illinois Gov. William G. Stratton and two books attesting to his admirable leadership record. REMEMBERING STRATTON In your Dec. 25 issue, Mr. Bill Ward wrote (“The name game,” letters) that the main distinction of Gov. William G. Stratton was that he was the only governor tried for corruption and acquitted. Ironically, in that same…
Violent: Much ado about little
Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year. Like the only guy at a party who doesn’t get the joke, I’m wondering what it is about J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year that I’m missing. Riding a wave of good reviews (the film is trending 90 percent positive on the Rotten Tomatoes website),…
The facts on Illinois taxes
With the huge budget hole created by the recent 25 percent tax cut to both Illinois’ personal and corporate income tax rate, lawmakers must make critical decisions about whether to make deep cuts or raise revenue. In the past, inaccurate information has circulated about Illinois’ tax levels compared with other states and about the effect…
Killing bobcats
The bobcat population has rebounded throughout the United States, including in Illinois. Bobcat hunting, Ron Edgerly swears, is about as much fun as a man can have in the woods. Just listen to him tell what happened when the quarry doubled back on its tracks in the frozen Gogomain Swamp in the upper reaches of…
City loses drowning case
Lifeguards who never practiced rescue plans. A complaint about no lifeguards on duty less than a month before tragedy struck. A 16-year-old boy who didn’t know how to swim. It added up to a $1 million verdict against the city of Springfield on Tuesday as a Sangamon County jury sided with the family of Eric…
Alzina
Alzina in her kitchen. PHOTO BY Sara Roahen She’s been called “The Greatest Cajun Cook Alive” – not least by people with the expertise to say so. A documentary has been made about her, magazine articles written, other media have featured her. Culinary “pilgrims” from far-away Brooklyn and even further-away France have come to eat…
Rant’s tomb
I’m a woman in my early 20s. I do fine getting dates, but only first dates. And no, I’m not having sex with guys on the first date, but I still never hear from them again. I ran into one of these guys at a party and begged him to tell me what had gone…
Blessing in disguise
Curses, foiled againClayton Dial, 23, pulled a gun and demanded cash at a Japanese restaurant in Champaign, Ill., only to have chef Tetsuji Miwa thwart the robbery. “I instantly grabbed my sushi knife, walked up to him, wrapped my arm around his shoulder and asked him what he wanted,” Miwa said. “He saw the blade,…
Homespun resolution
Jeff Austin (formerly of Yonder Mountain String Band) brings his touring band of fine musicians to Homespun Republic (formerly Donnie’s Homespun) on Wed., Feb. 11 with opening act Bones, Jugs N Harmony. Welcome to the first full weekend in February 2015, complete with an assortment of entities sure to entice you into indulging in a…
Lincoln’s scandalous nephew
The Sangamon County Courthouse, where Abraham Lincoln’s nephew killed the Union soldier who tried to rape his sister. If the Lincolns continued to take a Springfield newspaper even after they moved to Washington, D.C., no doubt they would have been shocked by the May 12, 1864, issue of the Illinois State Journal, which carried the…
Rauner butts heads with unions
PHOTO BY Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/TNS Gov. Bruce Rauner is pushing a controversial labor policy aimed at unions, but it’s unlikely the state legislature will adopt his idea. Instead, he said it should be up to cities and counties to take action. Ahead of his first State of the State Address on Feb. 4, Rauner toured…
goats poem #1
goats poem #1 juniper bursts from her stall when the gate is opened leaps nimbly onto the milking bench buries her nose in oats while gillian washes her udder then pulls a stream of milk from eachswollen tit into a cup to be sure it’s okfastens on the syringe of the homemademilking machine (long…
