The drive-in movie is one of the few pleasures in life designed with the whole family in mind. Traditionally a double-bill, the first show targets the kids, after which they (theoretically) lapse into slumber. Intermission features the vintage concession promo with the dancing soda pops and acrobatic hot dog. The second flick is geared toward […]
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Death takes no holiday
Is AIDS a big deal in Sangamon County? Ask the Springfield AIDS Resource Center. Its volunteers and staff performed about 500 HIV tests last year and expect to do the same this year. In 2001, there were just 5 new reported cases of AIDS, but that was up from the previous two years. At least […]
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Playing with firearms
Two bills winding their way through the Illinois legislature would legalize the use of handguns during the regular deer season. Currently, handgun permits are issued to hunters only on a county-by-county basis during a special three-day season in January. One of the bills’ sponsors, Todd Seiben, a Republican state senator from the northwestern Illinois town […]
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Springfield 1935
ORPHEUM THEATER Near the corner of Fifth and Washington once stood the Orpheum Theater, known for its lavish interior. It rivaled the big theaters of New York and then fell victim to “progress” in 1965, when it was demolished to make way for the Illinois National Bank. Historic preservationists still bemoan the loss of such […]
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Ode to the drive-in
The persistence of vision is a wonderful thing. I can still see my father handing over a few dollars to a man bathed in a single white light, his head swarming with moths and June bugs swirling up to the light and the neon sign above. We move into the darkness, slowly rolling into the […]
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The other election
Springfield District 186 has won awards. But it also has ten schools on the state’s Early Warning List–schools with more than half the students failing to meet state standards two years in a row. It routinely wins grants for reading, technology, science, and math. Yet most of its black students perform below state standards, while […]
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Husch-hush investigation
It was the kind of lawsuit that seemed almost hopeless. The Winchester ammunitions plant in East Alton had laid off about a quarter of its salaried employees, and a group of these workers banded together to sue, claiming age discrimination. A similar case, filed by a single worker, had already resulted in a $850,000 judgment […]
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Look before you leap
Taking early retirement is good if it means drawing a comfortable salary while no longer working for it. But for many state employees, early retirement means looking for another job or standing in line at the unemployment office. “A lady who took early retirement about four months ago came to see me,” says State Senator […]
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War stories
“War is Hell,” according to William Tecumseh Sherman. Ovbiously, he knew what he was talking about. Watching the invasion of Iraq on television, writer John Jermaine wondered about the naivete of the young soldiers under fire. What did they expect before they entered battle? He decided to visit with three older veterans of foreign wars […]
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Money for Nothing
On January 13 Governor Rod Blagojevich announced that the state was in danger of spending $5 billion more than it takes in this year. The next day a report appeared criticizing the state for having put hundreds of millions of dollars a year into feel-good economic development programs that aren’t paying off. Taxpayers, it made […]
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History in the making
November 8 was cold and windy, with gray, overcast skies threatening rain, but that didn’t stop a group of archaeologists and volunteers from walking over a tilled field about 65 miles west of Springfield. They were looking for remnants of the past. The field was once part of New Philadelphia, the first American town founded […]
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Earth first
Now that the Democrats have control of the statehouse, expect to see these environmental issues on the legislative agenda: • Thanks to a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision, more than 150,000 acres of isolated wetlands in Illinois no longer have any federal protection. Only three Illinois counties–DuPage, Kane, and Lake–have laws to protect wetlands, making […]
