The coroner’s job is to deal with dead bodies, but the campaign for this office is turning into a lively contest. On one side is incumbent Susan Boone, with 30 years of experience in the office; on the other is Angela “Aby” Phoenix — a registered nurse who has spent the past 16 years working […]
Dusty Rhodes
Posted inArts & Culture
The Grown-ups vs. the Webmasters
Here’s one of the most embarrassing moments of my life: My parents were visiting, and after dinner, we lingered around the table to chat. My son Milo, then 3, entertained himself with a footstool and a canister lid. Sitting on the footstool and holding the lid, he pretended to be driving a car. From his […]
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Kidney failure
Ask Roy Maxfield how his kidney transplant changed his life, and the 62-year-old retired state employee gets emotional: “I may get verklempt,” he warns. Then he recites a story that sounds like a fairytale, with a magical transformation that leads to a happily-ever-after ending. “Some people have diabetes and lose their kidney function that way. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The challenge of eating on $25 a week
Kris Armour never realized how much she enjoyed spending her afternoon break strolling to Del’s Popcorn Shop and ordering a vanilla-infused soda pop. The treat became such a habit that Armour bought a special Del’s mug entitling her to discounted refills. With that mug, her cola fix cost a mere buck plus change. Last week, […]
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Memorial temporarily halts kidney transplant program
Dialysis patients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant at Memorial Medical Center received bad news last week: The hospital will suspend its transplant program for at least three to four months, effective Oct. 1. In a letter dated Sept. 19, Rebecca Anderson, the director of transplant and bariatric surgery services at Memorial, notified […]
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City’s legal bills for ex-cops’ defense expected to soar
Legal fees for the City of Springfield to defend three former police officers against a civil lawsuit filed by an alleged drug dealer have likely far exceeded the amount approved by aldermen, according to documents obtained by Illinois Times. Responding to a request filed under the Freedom of Information Act, the city provided invoices showing […]
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Route 66 Flix
It’s funny what a smidge of positive press, a little marketing gizmo, and a good reputation can do for a film festival. This year’s Route 66 Film Festival — the 7th annual — received six times the usual number of submissions, says festival director Linda McElroy, including entries from every continent on the globe except […]
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Omit the chorus
Illinois Symphony Orchestra’s 2008-09 concert season begins next week with one notable difference: For the first time in more than two decades, the repertoire will be entirely instrumental, save for an unnamed guest chorus for the “Highlights from Messiah” section of the December concert. The change is the result of the unhappy departure of the […]
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Putting out the flame
When Buff Carmichael started his own monthly newspaper in 1996, he took it to the closest printer he could afford, in a town just about 25 miles away. The printer agreed to produce Carmichael’s paper on one condition: that Carmichael deliver his flats by 6 a.m. on production day, and depart with his bundles of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Regarding Sarah
A friend of mine recently called Barack Obama. Just dialed his cell number, then fell off his chair when the potential president actually answered. My friend freaked and clicked off without saying anything — stunned that the Democratic nominee for POTUS would personally pick up the telephone. That’s how it is here in Illinois: most […]
Posted inNews
Home for the holidays
Untitled Document For more than a year, volunteers from Hope Evangelical Church and Loving God Out Loud ministry have been working to restore the 16th Street home of Dorothy Milford, a 71-year-old grandmother who is legal guardian over six grandchildren, ages 6 to 15 [see Dusty Rhodes, “The way back home,” April 5, 2007]. Milford […]
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Fighting developers’ sweet deals
There’s an old saying: “You can’t fight city hall.” And nowhere has that adage proved more true than on the issue of Tax Increment Financing districts, or TIFs — an eye-glazingly complicated concept that most taxpayers don’t understand well enough to know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing when one comes to […]
