DEMOCRACY IN ACTION MICHAEL ZIRI can now enjoy his summer. At last week’s meeting of the Capital Township — whose borders overlap those of the city of Springfield — township electors agreed to place an advisory referendum on the November general-election ballot giving residents the opportunity to take a stand on the occupation of Iraq. […]
R. L. Nave
Posted inNews
Boiling point
This week, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 484 and officials from the Celanese chemical company will try to work out a deal that could put an end to a 10-month lockout at the Celanese Emulsions plant in Meredosia, located in Morgan County. According to Kelly Street, president of Local 484, the two sides were scheduled […]
Posted inOpinion
The Hype
Where’s the fire? Nowhere. Gov. Rod Blagojevich picked up a major endorsement this week from the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois — for whom, as first responders, a few seconds can be the difference between life and death. The governor arrived 23 minutes late. At least he didn’t disappoint. The governor’s notorious for being fashionably late. […]
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Hot in here
Three tornadoes in Springfield within a matter of days. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Melting polar ice caps. Such extreme weather events and climate changes are symptoms of global warming, says Colleen Sarna, the Global Warming Conservation Organizer for the Illinois Sierra Club — and it’s going to take local solutions to stop it. On March […]
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Culture wars
At 7 in the morning of Oct. 11, Daniel McCarthy stood in front of University Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois at Springfield, holding a piece of chalk. It was National Coming Out Day. As members of SASSI — Students Against Sexual Stereotypes and Inequalities — McCarthy and fellow members Renee Rathjen, […]
Posted inOpinion
The Hype
AN ISSUE IN 2007? Now that spring has arrived, Capt. Deon Oliver, head of the Salvation Army in Springfield, says that, unfortunately, folks have moved on and forgotten about homelessness in the city. However, Oliver hopes that they’ll remember this time next year, when Mayor Tim Davlin goes up for reelection and five city wards each […]
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Disenchanted
African-American Democrats long have had to possess a sort of double political consciousness — as party loyalists on one hand and as members of the socially oppressed black community on the other. In downstate Illinois, things are even more complicated. Scattered and fewer, blacks here depend heavily on powerful African-American Democrats from Chicago to make […]
Posted inOpinion
The Hype
COMIN’ OUT HARD Not a full day after locking up the Democratic nomination for governor, Gov. Rod Blagojevich came out swinging, unveiling ads attacking his opponent, GOP hopeful Judy Baar Topinka, and inviting her to participate in a series of debates. That’s funny, given that throughout the Democratic primary campaign Blago claimed that he was […]
Posted inOpinion
The Hype
PARTY TIME If Springfield’s election-night parties are at all indicative of how energetically followers will stump for their political parties, it’s a good thing Gov. Rod Blagojevich has $15 million in the bank. The Democratic, um, party at the Carpenters Union Hall on Tuesday night was about as exciting as the governor’s hair — and […]
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Winners and losers
At the Sankey Hi-Rise polling station early Tuesday morning, plows delegated to clear the snow that blanketed central Illinois seemed to be working against each other: Just as one plow managed to clear a patch of asphalt, the other one pushed the snow right back where it had been. In many ways the plow trucks […]
Posted inOpinion
The Hype
A DIFFERENT MARCH MADNESS I asked Christopher Z. Mooney, professor at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Springfield, to point out a few things to look for in Tuesday’s general primary. Here goes. The race for treasurer, Mooney says, may be the one to watch because it pits […]
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To the wire
Chuck Redpath and Sam Cahnman — Democratic candidates for the 99th House District seat — have similar strategies going into the last leg of a race that no one thought would even be close. Voter lists in hand, Cahnman, a lawyer and member of the Sangamon County Board, is going from door to Democratic door, […]
