The recent observance of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence last month brought back to mind my wife’s and my trip earlier this year to Philadelphia to celebrate the bar mitzvah of our very dear friends’ grandson. The hotel where we stayed is only one block away from Independence Hall, […]
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Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
UIS students find purpose while building a home in Guatemala
Earlier this summer, I stood on the side of a hill in Guatemala watching a University of Illinois Springfield student mix concrete by hand for the first time in her life. Getting there meant meeting on campus at 2 a.m., driving to St. Louis Lambert International Airport, and traveling for more than 12 hours, but […]
Posted inNews
183rd Wing to lose jet engine repair mission at Capital Airport
SPRINGFIELD — The U.S. Air Force is eliminating the long-standing jet engine repair mission at the Illinois Air National Guard’s 183rd Wing at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, a move that will affect 192 positions as the military shifts away from maintaining older aircraft. The Air National Guard Readiness Center informed the Illinois National Guard earlier […]
Posted inFilm
Motor City a thriller, The Dink is saved by its cast
“Motor” needs no words to thrill A highly stylized experiment, Potsy Ponciroli’s Motor City takes a standard revenge plot and gives it new life by omitting nearly all dialogue between its characters. Much like In a Violent Nature (2024), a slasher film with no music soundtrack, the omission of a narrative element we’ve come to […]
Posted inRich Miller
GOP trails Dems in campaign cash
The Illinois Republican Party filed its quarterly campaign finance report on the July 15 deadline. The party reported having just $223,000 in the bank. The next day, the party sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections saying they were “reconciling” their records after a leadership change, and then noted that their actual […]
Posted inRich Miller
Politicians and due process
Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 28, 2019, for attempting to bribe a state senator. House Speaker Michael Madigan, who was under investigation himself, called on Arroyo to resign that same day. The next day, Rep. Chris Welch (D-Hillside) was one of three House Democrats who signed a petition to […]
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Pritzker signs landmark AI regulation bill that aims to mitigate risks
Gov. JB Pritzker signed artificial intelligence legislation modeled after similar bills in California and New York on Monday, furthering a push for a state-driven national framework in lieu of federal regulations. “Congress and the president ought to be passing similar legislation, but they’ve so far been unwilling, because many are captive to special interests that […]
Posted inRich Miller
More budget fallout
About a week after the state budget passed both chambers in the dark of night, Attorney General Kwame Raoul spoke to the City Club of Chicago to complain that his budget was cut by $10 million. “For every dollar of General Revenue Fund spending on the attorney general’s office, we return $21. Anybody who has […]
Posted inFilm
Supergirl misses the mark for DC Studios, Strike lacks sense of urgency
Narrative inertia is Supergirl’s Kryptonite An oddly inert movie, Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl is a major misfire for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios, their reboot of the stable of superheroes already off to a less than stellar start with last year’s Superman. While that feature contained just enough to allow it to pass muster, […]
Posted inFilm
Leviticus both terrifying and heartbreaking, Jessie stars in Toy Story 5
Heartbreaking Leviticus terrifying yet poignant Though discredited, conversion therapy relating to homosexuality is still being used today, albeit with much less frequency. Some of these practices are folded into other approaches, have been renamed and also presented as a free speech issue through a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued in early 2026. While steps are […]
Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
Reflecting on a year of progress and what’s ahead for UIS
A few weeks ago, I stood on the stage of the Bank of Springfield Center, shaking the hands of more than 1,000 University of Illinois Springfield students who earned their degrees this year. Each graduate represents a story of perseverance, growth and achievement. It is a privilege to celebrate those journeys and to see the […]
Posted inRich Miller
Bill offers little state tax relief for homeowners
Before the House passed the megaprojects bill last month, we were told that the drafters didn’t want to just do some symbolic or “token” property tax relief. After the chamber passed the bill, we were told the property tax component will provide meaningful statewide relief for homeowners. Well, the governor’s office ran the numbers on […]
