Palmer remembers
In “Historic omissions” (April 6, 2017) I praised Carlinville’s John M. Palmer as a memoirist. He published his Perrsonal Recollections: The Story of an Earnest Life (Robert Clarke Company, Cincinnati) in 1901. These days it’s hard to come by. It is in the collections of the Illinois State Library, Brookens Library out at UIS and…
The Zombies embark on a final Odessey
Fans of 1960s popular music are no doubt familiar with The Zombies and their hits, such as “She’s Not There” and “Time of the Season.” The latter is the closing track to the 1968 album many consider to be their masterpiece, Odessey & Oracle (the misspelling was a typo on the commissioned artwork for the…
Historic omissions
For some time I have been working on a history of mid-Illinois. One might ask – several potential publishers did – how one can make an interesting book of even modest size with facts and stories about such a dull place. After all, you can read a hundred county histories whose highlight was that time…
Does Rauner really want a deal?
As the Senate’s two leaders tried again to find the votes to pass their “grand bargain” last week to end the state’s two-year governmental gridlock, Gov. Rauner began spending more than a million dollars on two new TV ads that portray him as an every-man “duct tape” hero in the fight for Illinois’ future. “Illinois…
Letters to the Editor 4/6/17
WORKING WITH DEMS Trump says he wants to work with the Democrats now. Good. Please start by apologizing to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, then, as a show of sincerity, withdraw Neil Gorsuch from consideration as our next Supreme Court judge and endorse and begin vesting of Merrick Garland. Merrick Garland is the initially nominated…
Editors Note 4/6/17
If you haven’t yet been to the Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum, get there. The new location, a building leased from the city just outside the Monument Avenue entrance to Oak Ridge Cemetery, is ideal. The board and volunteers are energized, continually offering new exhibits and programs. The museum plays a key…
How to handle the Russia mess
The announcement by FBI Director James Comey that his agency is investigating links between members of President Trump’s campaign and Russia has upended Washington. Yet there needs to be an even stronger and broader investigation to get to the bottom of what happened. There are really two questions at hand. The first involves Russian meddling…
Lincoln lovers
For the 2017 edition of Capital City Visitor, the Illinois Times staff asked readers to submit their best artistic renditions of Springfield’s greatest celebrity (Abraham Lincoln) to grace the cover of our annual tourism guide. See 2017’s winning portrait, created by Estefania Loret de Mola, a current graphic design and marketing student at the University…
Illinois Innocence Project
On April 12, join the Illinois Innocence Project at University of Illinois Springfield along with WSEC/Network Knowledge and the Hoogland Center for the Arts for a screening of The Central Park Five. This award-winning documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were convicted of…
Insecurity blanket
I’m extremely insecure about my looks, though objectively I know I’m pretty. I constantly ask my boyfriend for reassurance. He gives it to me but feels bad that I feel this way. Now I’m worrying that I’m making such a good case for what’s wrong with me that he’ll start believing me. Possible? – Bag…
Where history offers hope
On Monument Avenue, next to the main entrance of Oak Ridge Cemetery, the Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum sits in view of the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site. The museum opened on March 3, 2016, and recently celebrated its anniversary by signing a three-year lease with the City of Springfield, owners of…
Ka-ching!
While legislators consider banning the Illinois Department of Corrections from privatizing prison health care jobs, pay records show that prison workers earn substantially more than counterparts in the private sector as well as prison employees in other Midwestern states. Prison workers, ranging from nurses to bureaucrats to plumbers to barbers, are far more likely to…
Protesters demand funding for adult ed
Protesters from across the state gathered at the Capitol in Springfield March 29 to demand that lawmakers end the budget crisis and fund adult education. The event was organized by the Illinois Adult and Continuing Educators Association (IACEA). The IACEA promotes the education of adults by helping them achieve high school equivalency, improve their literacy…
Lax procedures allow theft
When purchasers of surplus state property showed up with money orders at the Central Management Services warehouse on South 10 1/2 Street, Ashleigh E. Watson, office administrator, was eager to help. At least once, she even took over in mid-transaction for another employee without being asked. Watson, it turned out, was pocketing money orders, bilking…
ILLINOIS WOMEN MARCH
Activists from Illinois prepare to rally to support a progressive legislative agenda, while they lobby lawmakers to pass a budget. The Illinois Women March on Springfield will be held on Tuesday, April 25, at the Capitol Building. Members of more than 50 organizations and supporters will march around the Capitol to raise awareness on issues…
OPIOID RECOVERY CENTER
Dr. Rakesh Chandra, a DATA 2000 waivered psychiatrist, is addressing the widespread problem of opioid and heroin abuse by opening Rassik Complete Recovery, Inc., at 1201 S. Fourth St. in Springfield. It offers medication-assisted treatment for addicts, utilizing a combination of Suboxone (a medication that prevents withdrawal and cravings as well as eliminating the high…
Johansson’s humanity makes for rewarding Ghost
With last week’s announcement that Elon Musk and his team are working on developing implants that will be put in our brains so that we can interface wirelessly with computers, we were brought one step closer towards realizing all that the sci-fi genre promised us was possible. The line between science fiction and science fact…
Friday music making
If this falls on deaf ears, I suppose that we could turn a blind eye to it and move on. But let’s believe in all who listen and make the most of making music matter. Friday night’s “Pub Crawl” demonstrates a selection that really shows the collection of music in Springfield. At the Cardologist, next…
The Good Companions
Founded in 2014 “out of a mutual love of good songcraft and honest live performance,” bandmates Colin Helton (guitar, vocals) and Danny Kerwin (bass, vocals) started out, as all good musical experiences do, by making music in a jam session. The accomplished and experienced local musicians had played in other bands but not together before.…
A clueless dealmaker’s deal goes down
Question: What do you get when you mix together a barrel of fables, a sack of mendacity, a gross of hyperboles, a bucket of spite and a jar of venomous vituperation – all covered with a thick layer of subterfuge? Answer: the fiasco called Trumpcare. With the GOP now in control of the whole national…
n fifth st poem no 22
n fifth st poem no 22 nobody says I HAVE to write about the lincoln half marathon every year but this year marks the seventh that my neighbor amaya now ten has skipped about in the street as runners – toward the end dragly walkers limpers – go by given them high fives of encouragement…
The healing power of chicken soup
Spring has sprung! Brightly colored bulb flowers are beginning to bloom and the cheeky chatter of songbirds fills the air. Winter is officially behind us. Unfortunately, the flu season has not completely melted away like the snow and ice. Everywhere I turn it seems another friend has been struck down with the virus. Indeed the…
