On paper, a Springfield smoking ban was a sure thing. In May, the state Legislature passed House Bill 672, which amends the 1989 Illinois Clean Indoor Air Act by handing municipal governments the power to impose local smoking bans. Then, a poll commissioned this summer by Smoke Free Springfield, a coalition of 36 local organizations, […]
R. L. Nave
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Taxing matters
Making a half-percent city sales-tax hike permanent isn’t going to make or break the city of Springfield, but Mayor Tim Davlin says that it’s critical to maintaining the status quo, let alone financing new projects. The council voted in 2003 to increase the sales-tax rate to 1.5 percent, from 1 percent, on the condition that […]
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Freddie’s ready. . .
Preparing for an overseas trip, Freddie L. Lambert looked at his birth certificate and noticed that his race was listed as “Colored” but that his wife’s birth certificate said “Negro.” “So I used to tell people I’m in mixed marriage,” says Lambert, a 20-year Springfield resident now living in Durham, N.C. Such observations provided the […]
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Politics of the dinner plate
Archer Daniels Midland Co. has many people to thank this year. First, of course, the Decatur-based agribusiness giant can thank American Indians. They taught white settlers to grow corn — and corn is a major contributor to the ADM’s success. No other company in the world processes more corn. ADM uses the crop to make […]
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Global warnings
Having already run through our own alphabet and now just into the Greek alphabet, more hurricanes have been named in 2005 than any other year since the naming system started in 1953. And while politicians may be blamed for their aftermath, some scientists postulate that the storms themselves are the manifestations of global warming. Others […]
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Achievement examination
The achievement gap, typically thought of as disparities in test scores between racial groups, is really more complex than that. Among 11th-grade students in Springfield’s District 186, only 20 percent of low-income students met or exceeded standards on the science portion of the Prairie State Achievement Examination. The issue of the achievement gap and, more […]
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Judy raises the bar
We have ourselves a ballgame. After keeping everyone guessing for months, state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka on Monday finally threw her hat into the three-ring circus that will be the Illinois governor’s race, albeit unofficially. But before Topinka locks horns with Gov. Rod Blagojevich in next year’s general election, she must beat out at least […]
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Pubescent enlightening
Teenagers sometimes do the darnedest things. And whether it’s smoking dope or setting fire to the dining-room table, parents have the darnedest time figuring out why their teens do the wacky, or self-destructive, things they do. Thumbing her nose at previous theories on teen mental health, Barbara Strauch, medical-science and health editor of the New […]
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Making the ban
The ashtrays outnumber the customers at Mac’s Lounge on Tuesday night and, of the dozen-or-so patrons, only a few are smoking. Two of them, Rufus Wallace and Ernie Drake, agree that smoking is unhealthy, though their opinions diverge on the question of whether the Springfield City Council should impose a citywide smoking ban. “They’d probably […]
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Battle of the ban
In cities across the United States, debates over citywide smoking bans have gotten as hot as a lit cigarette. In Springfield? Not so much. Perhaps it was the venue, but during the first public hearing on a proposed ordinance to ban most indoor smoking, held at Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church last week, the exchange […]
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Designing woman
Farah Salim grieves to see the international community fail to open its wallet to Pakistan in the way it did for victims of last year’s Southeast Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Compared with the $1.3 billion in relief given to victims of the tsunami, which killed 123,000 people, Pakistan has received $620 million to help […]
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A reluctant fight
Capt. Deon Oliver, commanding officer of the Salvation Army of Springfield, and Oak Ridge Neighborhood Association president Phil Douglas agree on one thing: They wish that they didn’t have to battle each other over a proposed Salvation Army community center and homeless shelter. But that’s just what’s happening. Douglas says that the location the Salvation […]
