Untitled Document All is quiet at a Springfield quick-loan business on a recent Saturday afternoon. The color scheme of the building’s façade resembles that of a popular national chain of fast-food restaurants. Its spacious interior has the look and feel of a neighborhood bank. A woman who appears to be in her late twenties, dressed […]
R. L. Nave
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Lifeline
Untitled Document Homeless United for Change this week announced that two downtown churches will provide temporary shelter whenever the weather turns nasty this month. First United Methodist Church, 501 E. Capitol Ave., and First United Pentecostal Church, 600 W. Monroe St., have agreed to open their doors to the homeless during thunderstorms or when the […]
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Black and “right”
Untitled Document Political conservatism and the African-American experience could be lumped into the same category as oil and water, toothpaste and orange juice, and jumbo-sized tubs of buttery popcorn and diet cola — things that either do not mix or just don’t seem to belong together. But Dr. Eric Wallace doesn’t see it that way. […]
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A final SOS
Untitled Document As the Springfield Overflow Shelter’s final day in operation for the 2007-08 season draws near, it appears that a local homeless advocacy group’s goal to establish a full-time day center and crisis shelter by the end of March won’t happen after all. Setting up an oasis and emergency shelter was a formidable objective […]
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The next surge
Untitled Document As of this week, five years have passed since the U.S. launched the war on Iraq. Although analysts disagree on a precise figure, the total cost of the war will be between $1.4 trillion and $3 trillion. Illinois’ share, according to the National Priorities Project, an anti-war not-for-profit research group, will be around […]
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Echoes of injustice
Untitled Document In April 1961, John F. Kennedy came to Chicago to pay tribute to Mayor Richard Daley, who just a few months earlier had delivered Illinois to the Democrat in the presidential race. Abraham Bolden, then a rookie agent assigned to the Chicago field office of the Secret Service, remembers his chance encounter with […]
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Tiny wonders
Untitled Document Anyone who’s shattered a pricey cell phone on the sidewalk, gagged on the smell of a roommate’s stinky sweat socks, or endured a serious illness should appreciate the various nanotechnology-research endeavors at universities around Illinois. “Nanotechnology is likely to be as important as the Industrial Revolution was 100 years ago or the Computer […]
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Green peace
Untitled Document The Democratic Party may not be the only party facing a contentious nominating convention this summer. Battle lines are being drawn for a possible showdown between Green Party members at their convention, scheduled to take place in Chicago in July. On Super Tuesday, Cynthia McKinney — a former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia who […]
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Rocky road
Untitled Document The middle-school kids who trudge past the immense beige structure on South MacArthur Boulevard twice a day aren’t old enough to remember when the building housed a Venture store. Even many of their parents are too young to recall the days when the Red Grill restaurant, Woolco store, and automotive center stood there. […]
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“A key component”
Untitled Document What’s the difference between a person with a mental illness and one with diabetes or a broken limb? Groups that specialize in providing mental-health services would argue that the only distinction is that, assuming they have enough health insurance to pay for the treatment, people are more likely to seek help for a […]
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Get low
Untitled Document Even though 17-year-old citizens are allowed to drive, get jobs at the local cineplex, and serve in the armed forces, anybody familiar with kids of that age knows that teenagers also have a predilection for treating their parents’ cars like GT prototypes, getting fired for sneaking their friends into National Treasure: Book of […]
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The principle, not the principal
Untitled Document It’s difficult enough these days to get through high school without having your peers and teachers slap a label on you: Prep. Goth. Emo. Nerd. Jock. But “HIV-positive”? For 20 years in Illinois, whenever a young person tests positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, state health officials have been required, under […]
