Letters to the Editor

BRAGGING ON BRANDON I thoroughly enjoyed your article on my grandson, Brandon Sheppard. (“Cleaning up,” Bruce Rushton, Aug 10). You got it right, and our family would like to thank you for capturing his accomplishments and his personality so spot on. I talked to Brandon on Thursday morning and he was very happy with the […]

MADIGAN’S TO BLAMEI believe it is rather clear that there will not be any meaningful reforms passed by the House as long as Michael Madigan is speaker. He made sure the budget got to such a crisis state that even some Republicans felt compelled to vote for the budget, even though Speaker Madigan reneged on […]

SOLAR PARKING METERS Thank you Bruce Rushton, for your excellent article on parking, including the Decatur idea, worth considering, of yanking all the parking meters. [See “Time expired?” July 20.] One of the biggest problems with parking meters is they make you guess how long you’ll be gone and then insert the money for that […]

  RACE DISCRIMINATIONPublications aimed at senior citizens are constantly reminding us about the importance of getting in and staying in shape through programs of regular exercise. And there is no better way to stay fit than to always be looking forward to one’s next competition. I’m talking about racing, whether it be a local 5K, […]

ABOUT THE AMARANTH APPLE Now that Springfield’s Amaranth Apple Festival has come and gone, we ought to learn something about the origin of the name. The fictional apple, sadly unavailable from orchards or grocers, grows only in Vachel Lindsay’s The Golden Book of Springfield, his 1920 narrative work envisioning a utopian Springfield developed between 1918 […]

  THE BUDGET BURDENThe Illinois legislature has overturned the governor’s veto, thereby implementing a budget unseen by the state in more than two years. In order to pay its spiraling liabilities and avoid junk bond status, the legislature has seen fit to raise the income tax rate and the corporate tax rate, each more than […]

LESSONS ON LIFE SKILLS I agree with the June 29 article titled “Real innovation,” written by James Krohe Jr. Even though I have a college degree that served me well, I think too much emphasis is put on sending everyone to college and not enough on life skills and thriving in the real world. I think more […]

  RESPONSE TO ‘KILLING FIELDS’The recent article by Bruce Rushton titled “Killing Fields” (Jun 22) highlights a growing concern across this country: the soaring number of gun store burglaries. These guns are ending up in the illegal market and are causing the increase in gun violence in Springfield, Chicago and across Illinois. SB 1657, sponsored […]

STATE STORAGEI enjoyed James Krohe Jr.’s piece on the Department of Human Services record storage problems (“More floppies in a shoebox,” June 15), but was rather amazed that you could write so much without getting to the point. In every story written about this DHS records “scandal,” no one has bothered to define exactly what […]

LETTERS We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. — MISSING PUZZLES, ADVICE I enjoy your publication. Having said that, I’m extremely disappointed your three puzzles (Crossword, JoshJosh, Sudoku) and the “Advice Goddess” column were missing from the June 8 edition. These are […]

  DIVERSE AND PROUDI am an avid reader of your paper and generally look forward to your weekly editions. I was happy to see that you covered pride and put it on the cover of your May 18 edition (“The gayest day,” by Scott Faingold). However, I was disappointed to see all white people on […]

Y BLOCK IMPROVEMENTS The first thing that caught my eye when I opened up Illinois Times last week (“Park-ing problems,” James Krohe Jr., May 25) was the architectural rendering of the Y block plan submitted by John Shafer and Associates. It’s a good plan because it relates to the surrounding land uses well. It fills […]