Untitled Document Presidential candidates don’t think it’s too early to start planning for the 2008 election — and neither does the Illinois Green Party. As the legislature sputters, trying to pass a budget, address electric-rate relief, and beat back efforts by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to pass a massive new health-care initiative — all in the […]
R. L. Nave
Posted inNews
PURPA haze
Untitled Document A local environmental group is calling on City Water, Light & Power to adopt five standards of the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. But federal law only requires that CWLP consider the new standards, formally accepting or rejecting them by August. “We’re not required not to do anything right away. That would […]
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Beyond potholes
Untitled Document Irv Smith now knows how poor transportation planning feels. Late last month, Smith and his wife, Joan, were injured in the six-vehicle pileup at MacArthur Boulevard and Lawrence Avenue. But as alderman of Ward 8 for two decades, Smith always sided with neighborhood preservationists in opposing plans to make improvements there. Now the […]
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Slowly rising
Untitled Document Mike Pittman doesn’t drink coffee, but he thinks $4 is too much to pay for a cup o’ joe. A local real estate developer and newspaper publisher, Pittman wouldn’t mind having on the near east side a small coffee shop, with wireless Internet availability, and where people don’t have to take out a […]
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Out of sight
Untitled Document Onlookers gather on the east side of Seventh Street, in front of Lincoln Library, waiting for a young bride and her dark-haired groom to emerge from doors of First Presbyterian Church. An elderly couple smiles at the newlyweds as if seeing themselves as they were long ago, and a pair of teenage girls […]
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Divestment redux
Untitled Document An amendment to the state’s Sudan-divestiture law was approved by the Illinois House this week. Senate Bill 1169, sponsored by Sen. Jacqueline Y. Collins, D-Chicago, makes technical changes to the Illinois’ definition of prohibited transactions, directing the state to “disassociate from genocide and terrorism in Sudan.” The bill is designed to fix a […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Summer exposure
Untitled Document From far away, it might look like an ordinary field, but once you step inside, you realize that the prairie is alive with bees, birds, and butterflies — and although the prairie can be an allergy sufferer’s nightmare, it’s a photographer’s dream. Summer is the best time of year to shoot the prairies […]
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For Frankophiles
Untitled Document When you have a career as remarkable as the one Frank McNeil has had in his 20 years on the City Council — from his participation in the voting-rights lawsuit that established Springfield’s aldermanic system of government to creating a police-review board and being the city’s conscience — somebody’s bound to throw you […]
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Pointing the finger
Untitled Document The offices of the Illinois Association of Minorities in Government remained locked this week as new allegations of mismanagement against Roy Williams Jr., executive director of the 1,400-member organization and a Springfield community activist, surfaced. Williams, who was hired in 2005, and three members of his staff were put on administrative leave and […]
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Advocacy on hold
Untitled Document All activities of the Illinois Association of Minorities in Government are suspended and the future of executive director Roy Williams is in doubt as IAMG board members seek answers to questions about the organization’s finances. During the IAMG’s annual conference, held in Springfield last week, the organization’s eight-member board voted to put Williams […]
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Paper cuts
Untitled Document At least nine longtime employees of the State Journal-Register were fired last week. The dismissals came less than a month after GateHouse Media Inc. completed its acquisition of the State Journal-Register and other Illinois and Ohio dailies previously operated by Copley Press in a deal worth $380 million. Several advertising and marketing management positions were […]
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Sour grapes
Untitled Document The bulk of a lawsuit against the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, brought by an Italian winemaker last summer, was recently dismissed. Two of four counts were dismissed with prejudice on May 8; the remaining two were also stricken, according to Sangamon County Circuit Court records. Villa Monteleone Winery, however, has a month to […]
