Students and professors at University of Illinois at Springfield could soon experience campus life without the help of secretaries, food service workers, and janitors, if mediation between their union and UIS administration fails to reach a satisfactory settlement. Members of the UIS chapter of University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100 voted unanimously Monday night to […]
Dusty Rhodes
Posted inNews
Beloved soldier
To most of us, war is something we see on TV or scan in the daily paper or flip past in a news magazine. It’s something we don’t have to fret about much, unless we’re studying for a current-events quiz or trying to decide how to vote. To some people, though, war is a much […]
Posted inOpinion
Backdraft
I feel sorry for Mark Dyment’s first-grade teacher. I’ve never met the lady and don’t know who she is; I just know she had her hands full. Dyment has a full-throttle personality. Perpetually revved up and endlessly enthusiastic, he must have spent half of every semester sentenced to stand in the corner for rambunctious behavior. […]
Posted inNews
Trouble in the air
Crumbled asbestos left on the roof of a St. John’s Hospital office building in August and September posed an “imminent threat to human health and the environment,” according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. In a certified letter dated Sept. 15, the IEPA charged the hospital with eight violations and warned of possible litigation and […]
Posted inNews
Prosecution proceeds
Now it’s official: Despite the confession of a serial killer, and despite an appellate court’s decision to overturn her conviction, Julie Rea-Harper will stand trial a second time for the brutal murder of her young son. In October 1997, 10-year-old Joel Kirkpatrick was stabbed to death as he slept in his mother’s Lawrenceville home. Three […]
Posted inNews
Hometown advantage
Up until about four years ago, anybody who wanted to draw a paycheck from the city of Springfield also had to live inside the city limits. In 2000, by a 6-4 vote, City Council repealed that requirement for all but the highest-ranking city employees. Now, the council appears likely to confront that question again, thanks […]
Posted inOpinion
Bar hopping blues
You can’t tell me 3 o’clock bars are all bad. There’s one with a big fluorescent placard out front that offers a blunt lesson in democracy: “SAT NIGHT FREE WITH VOTER REGISTRATION CARD,” the sign reads. “VOTE OR GET SCREWED.” Don’t know if the sign has anything to do with it, but on this Saturday […]
Posted inNews
Bar owner on hot seat
The owner of a downtown tavern faces a hearing before the city of Springfield’s Community Relations Commission for allegedly discriminating against a group of lesbians in a St. Patrick’s Day incident. Robert Stoeppler, co-owner of Bob’s Butternut Hut, asked a group of about two dozen women to leave the tavern at 215 N. Second St. […]
Posted inNews
Fudging the numbers
In an attempt to justify the city of Springfield’s low percentage of minority employees, Mayor Tim Davlin this week referred activists and reporters to a study that suggests the city’s numbers are on a par with the percentage of minorities in the work force. However, the study Davlin cited is based not on the population […]
Posted inOpinion
The road home
Nobody who knew Tom Teague can believe he’s dead. It happened last Saturday, on his 61st birthday, as he napped. At this point, though, his departure is merely physical. Spiritually, Tom had so much momentum going that his presence will linger for some time. His writing — straightforward, spare, and efficient — has fed Illinois […]
Posted inNews
“A bunch of bozos”
The Springfield City Council on Tuesday night pressed for an answer to a question contained in a Freedom of Information Act request filed last week by Illinois Times. That question: What are the race and sex statistics for city employees? Officials in other cities readily answered this question when contacted by Illinois Times and offered […]
Posted inOpinion
What are they hiding?
If you want to know what percentage of city employees are white and what percentage are minority, all you have to do is call the city personnel office and talk to assistant director Lori Bluhm. She’ll tell you that 87 percent of employees are white. Ask about their sex, and she’ll tell you that 38 […]
