This is not – repeat, not – a scientific exercise. Professional beer judges will, and do, say that discretion and restraint are necessary to properly judge ales, lagers, porters and so forth. They eschew mixing and matching: Today, we will sample only pale ales, tomorrow it will be stout. Nothing more substantive than unsalted water […]
Bruce Rushton
Bruce Rushton is a freelance journalist.
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Springfield nursing home sued
A Springfield nursing home with a history of problems is facing a six-figure fine from the government and a lawsuit from the widow of a man who died after being thrown from a van’s faulty wheelchair lift. After sustaining a broken neck when his wheelchair was catapulted from the lift at Lewis Memorial Christian Village […]
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A case of misdirected mail
A candidate for Sangamon County circuit court judge has been accused of concealing a bankruptcy petition from a Springfield business owner. Ryan Bandy, owner of the Station House bar in downtown Springfield, says that his business and legal affairs would have gone more smoothly if he had known that a former business partner had declared […]
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Obed and Isaac’s redux
It is the single biggest investment that Court and Karen Conn have made on a historic preservation path that has proven profitable. And the nickel tour at the new Obed and Isaac’s in Peoria that opened on Sept. 26 starts in the women’s restroom. It is instantly obvious why this is not the men’s room. […]
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The forfeit game
Police can seize lottery winnings and patches worn by members of motorcycle clubs under two recent Illinois court rulings. In one case, a Decatur man would have done well to exercise his right to remain silent during a 2014 arrest for selling drugs after officers served a search warrant at his home. Instead, Terrance Norwood […]
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Former Springfield man arrested in Missouri
A former Springfield man whose criminal history was detailed in a 2005 Illinois Times story has been arrested in Missouri. Police in Monroe City, about 25 miles west of Hannibal, arrested Michael Redpath on Thursday on suspicion of failure to register as a sex offender and unlawfully being within 500 feet of a park with […]
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Girl of murdered dad in state custody
Sidney Watkins, the nine-year-old girl whose father was murdered by her maternal grandmother in 2008, is in the custody of child protective authorities in Massachusetts following the arrest of her mother on Thursday. Jennifer Watkins was arrested by Norwood police on a warrant out of Cass County, where she is wanted for refusing to allow […]
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Jennifer Watkins arrested
Jennifer Watkins, who has refused to allow visits between her daughter and the girl’s paternal grandparents after the girl’s father was murdered, was arrested today in Massachusetts. Watkins has refused to allow Sidney, her daughter, to visit with the girl’s grandparents despite a Cass County Circuit Court order. A spokesman for the Norwood Police Department […]
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Water wars
Grubs. Just when Craig Hall figured he’d heard it all, fans at a recent Glenwood High School football game recognized him as a South Sangamon Water Commission trustee and complained about a gridiron grub infestation. “Grubs on the field because – of course – of the water,” Hall recalls. “I had four people say that. […]
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Wanna drive drunk? Borrow a Bentley
Drunken drivers with prior convictions for driving under the influence might consider driving expensive cars, given a recent ruling by an Illinois appellate court. “That’s, essentially, the policy that’s being espoused by the Fifth District (Appellate Court),” said David Robinson, a state appellate prosecutor who came out on the losing end of a case in […]
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Digging deep on Hunter Lake
While Pawnee questions the design of Hunter Lake, an engineering firm that has worked for the village questions the need for a 3,000-acre reservoir, which would stretch to the burg south of Springfield. Mudflats and mosquitoes are Pawnee’s “number one environmental issue,” village attorney John Myers wrote in a Sept. 14 letter to the U.S. […]
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Weeding things out
Chainsaws and herbicide and matches, it turns out, can be an environmentalist’s best friend. After more than two years of clearing brush with saws and poison and fire, Friends of the Sangamon Valley, a nonprofit preservationist group concerned with environmental issues, has completed its mission of removing non-native plants from 60 wooded acres on Lake […]
