Cover Story
Working for less than minimum wage
The scene was brutal: 32 adult men with intellectual disabilities housed in segregation in an abandoned schoolhouse rented by Henry’s Turkey Farm in Iowa. A social worker who checked on her clients found them living in squalor, sleeping on soiled mattresses in a residence infested with rodents and cockroaches, a leaking roof, windows covered with…
Belfast a charmer, Spencer a clunker, Wain shines
Branagh’s Belfast a charmer Were I given the opportunity to make a film based on a part of my young life, I can only hope it would be half as beautiful as Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, an account of the actor/director’s ninth year, a tumultuous time for his family and the town where they lived. Rocked…
The many sad faces of nursing home closures
“I was very sad,” said Susan Hovey, a geriatric researcher at University of Illinois Chicago, when she heard the annoucements of the closing of St. Joseph’s Home of Springfield and Heritage Health of Springfield. Hovey, who also serves as the associate director of the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science, said she took students to observe…
Words from a friend on an earlier trauma
“I am still in shock about MLK’s assassination. I spent lonely hours in front of a television set choking on my shame, like millions of others. The conference I was attending was dealing with violence in America but we listened to light weight minds exchange banalities, trivialities about unimportant aspects of large questions. My class…
Letters to the editor 11/11/21
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. —- COVID CASUALTY I enjoyed and passed on the Guestwork by Carly Hinkle (“A nurse’s plea: Help us fight this war,” Oct. 21). It was very relevant to our family. My sister-in-law got COVID last…
Will Parental Notification repeal hurt Pritzker at reelection time?
I interviewed Gov. JB Pritzker a few days before his Democratic Party was stunned by losses and near-losses in Virginia and New Jersey last week. Now, I am not one of those folks who automatically believes that candidates should plan for the next election based on the most recent election results. I also don’t think…
Holding police accountable
The No. 1 reason innocent people go to prison is because of government misconduct. That’s not just my opinion. It’s the view of the National Registry of Exonerations, which catalogs wrongful conviction cases and their underlying causes. The group concluded recently that in 54% of cases in which someone was wrongly convicted, it was through…
World War I defined the 20th century
It was called the “Great War” and the “war to end all wars.” Unfortunately for mankind, there were even greater, and more deadly, wars to come. Though overshadowed today by the Second World War, the effects of the first world conflict defined the remainder of the twentieth century. The war ostensibly began when Austrian Archduke…
ISO raises the roof, Russian-style
The second concert of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra’s 2021-2022 season was held this past Saturday at the UIS Performing Arts Center and proved to be an exciting evening of contrasting moods and surprising choices, including renditions of major works by two very different Russian masters and the debut of a new piece by a contemporary…
Editors note 11/11/21
On a “civil rights” tour of Alabama, many of the speakers resist making connections to the present, preferring to discuss the desegregation and voting rights struggles of the 1950s and 60s as a closed book, the way we explain Lincoln. Others see Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma as an important chapter in the continuing antiracism struggle.…
Promoting visibility for Black creatives
Black business owners have long been a force in Springfield. From William De Fleurville, a Haitian immigrant who moved to Springfield in the 1830s and was a business owner and barber for Abraham Lincoln, to the modern-day owners of businesses like Clay’s BBQ and Boyd’s New Generation on Springfield’s east side, the legacy of area…
Trees, art and museums add quality to life
It’s easy to be overwhelmed with controversial issues dominating the news. There are many positive things happening in the capital city. Here’s a sampling. • Leland Grove is partnering with Trees Forever to inventory all the trees on the public rights-of-way. Knowing what trees already exist helps communities plan for maintenance and future plantings. Leland…
Historical Midwest poet comes to life on video
In 1979 John Hallwas was a young professor, doing research about what early Illinois settlers would have read. While scouring through newspapers from the 1830s, he found poems in the Sangamo Journal that caught his attention, each simply signed “H.” Hallwas wondered who the poet was and kept searching, finding a total of 71 poems…
Literacy at the laundromat
Family Pride Laundry in Springfield has a new spin for its customers: a children’s library. The idea of turning a corner of the laundromat into a place where youngsters can read originated with Amanda Brown, a 20-year-old student at University of Illinois Springfield. “I was just really attracted to it because I love working with…
Insane treatment of women
Readers of Kate Moore’s new book will not be silenced. Anyone who delves into The Woman They Could Not Silence likely will come away aghast at the treatment of women, especially the book’s subject, Elizabeth Packard, at the state insane asylum in Jacksonville in the mid-1800s. In an October Zoom discussion sponsored by the Illinois…
Feast of Plenty
The kitchen at Central Baptist Church will be humming once again this Thanksgiving Day. The historic downtown church has been providing turkey dinners to the Springfield community for over 35 years at its annual Feast of Plenty dinner. “The original intent was to provide a place where people could gather together – we didn’t want…
Music menagerie
Bring it on home, folks, and let’s get it going. There’s much to do and talk about in our music scene. So let’s have at it, shall we. First, we have an announcement to make about a helpful and hopeful happening that concerns musicians and venues, and thereby, our community of music. A new deal…
Entertaining central Illinois families since 1946
Come one, come all, to the greatest show in three rings. Equestrian ringmaster Andre McClain, with his dazzling personality, will open the show and introduce all of the marvelous acts. You will be amazed at the effortless grace of the high-flying family and friends of the The Flying Cortes Family Spectacular Trapeze Act. Watch with…
