Cover Story
My COVID year
Art adapts to COVID Art is a hands-on, in-person activity. The good news is that everyone at the Springfield Art Association is creative and energetic. We jumped into problem-solving mode and have generated a range of products and services that we can safely offer to keep us alive through the pandemic. Since SAA is more…
The final days
The demise of Val Yazell, fired by Mayor Jim Langfelder last week, came after arguments between the city’s erstwhile economic development director and the mayor’s office about money to fix a building used by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on 11th Street. On Dec. 31, the mayor signed an agreement with…
Mayor fires economic development director
Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder has terminated Val Yazell, the city’s economic development director. Yazell confirmed that she was terminated Thursday afternoon. She said that she had no immediate comment. Langfelder could not be immediately reached. Yazell had been paid $105,919 per year. She had recently clashed with Langfelder over funding for repairs to a building…
Community of music
Howdy, neighbor, and welcome to another edition of Now Playing in the ‘Patch and beyond. Far from the fear, anxiety and concern of a year ago, here we are working our way through a global pandemic, finally seeing some real progress in battling this nearly unimaginable, dangerous and tragic virus that seems unreal and so…
Decriminalizing HIV
In Illinois, engaging in certain activities as a person living with HIV can be a felony, punishable by a prison sentence and $25,000 fine. But public health experts say the law is harmful and outdated. Advocates for change say it is ineffective at stopping the spread of HIV, and instead acts to increase shame and…
Dancing with the Stars
Six dynamic dancing duos are competing for your vote in the Springfield Art Association’s Dancing with the Stars fundraiser. Visit the association’s website where you can view the dancers’ videos and vote for your favorite until noon on Saturday, March 27. The top three winners will be announced during a live-stream event beginning at 7…
DRIVER IN FATAL WRECK FLED POLICE
A suspected pot dealer accused of causing a fatal March 13 accident on South Grand Avenue was fleeing police, according to reports released by Springfield police. Devin Hogan, 26, fled from a parking lot at the intersection of Spring Street and South Grand before Officer Demetrius Suggs, who was pulling him over for running a…
ROOM TO GROW
The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) is seeking individuals and families who want to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs. The department’s community garden is on the infield of the racetrack at the Illinois State Fair Grandstand in Springfield. There are 200 garden plots in all; 100 are for organic gardening and the rest are…
Ready for some action?
Nobody is bloody great fun Having impressed as sleazeball lawyer Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Bob Odenkirk takes on an unexpected role – badass avenger. In Nobody, he’s Hutch Mansell, a regular guy whose marriage has gone cold and who works at a job that bores him to tears. He has…
Finding teachers
Springfield educators are brainstorming ways to bring more diverse staff to the district and address teacher shortages. Roy Gully, a social science teacher and football coach at Springfield High School, said teachers with the Springfield Education Association union know that lack of diversity is a major problem. Gully was recruited to be a part of…
Proposal would pay exonerees $50,000 per year served
A new proposal would set a standard award amount of $50,000 for each year an exoneree was wrongfully imprisoned. On March 16, Illinois legislators passed the measure out of a committee. John Horton, an exoneree from Rockford, testified during the hearing. He received a Certificate of Innocence (COI) in 2018, after another man confessed to…
TEDx in Springfield
University of Illinois Springfield students spoke about their visions when the school hosted its first TEDx event on March 20. Antone Evans Jr. is a member of the UIS Student Government Association and serves as student senator for the UIS College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He brought other student organizations on board to help…
SJ-R memories
I’ve toiled in many buildings, most recently, and for more than a year now, in my house. A cat’s purr or pug’s snore cannot compare to what once was. Editors, holding off panic as deadline looms, telling reporters in quiet staccato: We need it now. Loud whoops, sometimes expletives, as phones are hung up, sources…
Trailblazing record holder
The Illinois State Archives is located in the Margaret Cross Norton Building on the Capitol complex. Who, you might ask, is Margaret Cross Norton? Margaret Cross Norton (1891-1984) served from 1922 to 1957 as the first archivist for the state of Illinois. She left behind a legacy that is unrivaled among state archivists. Norton was…
Vaccine unhesitancy
Over the past 15 years, my husband and I have done countless things together, but had you told me that one day we would be receiving vaccinations to help stop a global pandemic, I never would have believed you. A few weeks ago, though, that’s exactly what we did as we walked hand-in-hand into the…
Leftovers and loose change
Leftover pizza could land a politician in trouble, according to a lawyer for Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino, who is asking the Illinois Supreme Court to overrule an appellate court that’s upheld allegations of improper campaign spending while Mautino was a legislator. The amount of money involved isn’t clear. Between 1999 and 2015, when legislative…
Editor’s Note 3/25/21
It is no insult to the Almighty to say it’s time for Congress to go beyond “thoughts and prayers” about ways to curtail gun violence. “Prayer leaders have their important place in this, but we are Senate leaders,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Springfield, as he convened his Senate Judiciary Committee after the latest mass killing.…
Pritzker pushes back: An interview with the governor
I’ve given Gov. JB Pritzker some grief for his failures during the past few months. His graduated income tax proposal went down in flames in November. He failed to pass his top priorities during January’s lame duck legislative session. And his candidate for Democratic Party of Illinois chair lost to US Rep. Robin Kelly earlier…
Oak Ridge angels
Cemeteries are mysterious places with magical names – cenotaphs, crypts, footstones, headstones, memorials, plots, tombs, urns, vaults and such – words that seldom surface in everyday discourse, unless you operate a funeral home. I’ve always been intrigued by these places, especially knowing I’ll probably end up in one. And I’ve been known to wander Springfield’s…
mental illness poem #1
during this covid time we were warned that violence, depression, suicide, would increase; statistics have proved this to be the case story: my sister a year older than I suffered sudden clinical depression in college she was hospitalized given shock treatments the then therapy returned home with blotto memory I was living at the farm…
Might be the best cheesecake I’ve ever had
In 2013, three chefs from Chicago’s acclaimed Alinea Group went on an R&D trip to Spain in pursuit of inspiration for upcoming menus. In San Sebastian, the culinary capital of Spain’s Basque region, their tour guides were the head chefs of restaurants Mugaritz and Arzak. The five members of this entourage were all superstars of…
Letters to the editor 3/25/21
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to letters@illinoistimes.com. —- SYBC WAS OVERLOOKED Imagine my surprise when I read in Illinois Times that the Springfield Youth Ballet Company was given a passing mention in your article about local arts and COVID, yet no one…
