Cover Story
A deadly delay
An Illinois law intended to help people with mental illness avoid confrontations with police had been on the books for three years when Sonya Massey was shot by a Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy. The Community Emergency Services and Supports Act, or CESSA, requires mental and behavioral health calls to 911 be handled by mental health…
Paula Crouch to be nominated for Sangamon County Sheriff
According to a press release issued Sept. 17 by Sangamon County, Board Chairman Andy Van Meter will nominate Paula Crouch, 51, to serve as sheriff at the Sept. 18 board meeting, filling the vacancy left by the retirement of former Sheriff Jack Campbell. The press release reads as follows: A lifelong resident of Sangamon County,…
ADM carbon sequestration project violated Safe Drinking Water Act, per EPA
Agribusiness giant ADM violated federal regulations, a federal permit and the Safe Drinking Water Act earlier this year when a monitoring well at its carbon sequestration site in Decatur leaked liquified carbon dioxide into “unauthorized zones,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In an August notice, the federal regulatory agency also alleged the company…
Chicago mayor elevates controversial figure
It’s been an open secret for weeks that at least some members of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s intergovernmental affairs staff would be leaving after the Democratic National Convention, including its director, Sydney Holman. That happened last week. Holman quit and two others were forced out of the IGA office, which liaisons with both the city…
Whistling in church: Finding the joy in religion
As I (slowly) make progress in writing a memoir, I find that one of the perks is that little nuggets of writer’s gold sometimes bob to the surface as I sift through the stream of memory. Recently, I found one that speaks to joy: I was raised in the Protestant Christian tradition and, as in…
Speak No Evil and Front Room effective horror films, Winner questions patriotism
Speak effectively pushes viewers’ buttons While I’m often weary of American remakes of foreign films, on rare occasion this approach produces a worthy feature that can stand on its own. Such is the case with James Watkins’ Speak No Evil, a redux that borrows its premise from Christian and Mads Tafdrup’s 2022 Dutch horror feature. American…
Seven finalists for Sangamon County Sheriff
Seven finalists, all of whom are or have been police officers, are in the running to serve as the next Sangamon County Sheriff. A bipartisan committee chaired by retired Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley is interviewing finalists for the position and is expected to make a recommendation to Sangamon County Board Chair Andy Van Meter by…
Police, protesters clash at demonstration
The sister of a woman critically injured in a Sept. 5 collision between a motorcycle and a car driven by a retired Springfield police officer says she appreciated the public apology of the city’s police chief but was disappointed by the mayor’s video response to the incident. Chief Kenneth Scarlette and one of the deputy…
Schools strictly implementing new phone policy
The new school phone policy for Springfield District 186 may already be tightening, two weeks into the Aug. 26 start of school. The policy hasn’t changed, but school personnel are becoming more strict about how it’s being implemented. “We’re finding that we had to go stricter quicker because there’s all types of shades of this…
Saving school libraries
The recent “Lobbying for libraries” article started with this statement: “Two numbers that concern Melissa Hostetter are 76% and zero. The first is the percentage of fourth-graders in Springfield School District 186 who aren’t proficient in reading. The second is the number of librarians in the district’s elementary schools” (Sept. 5). Related I disagree with…
Taste + Smell = Flavor
I started cooking at an early age and one of my first cookbooks was the Bantam paperback edition of Craig Claiborne’s An Herb and Spice Cookbook (which sold for only 95 cents in 1965). Claiborne was the food editor of the New York Times and is credited, along with Julia Child, with making ethnic cuisines…
A September to remember
As we enter the second full weekend of September, the live music looks, sounds and maybe even smells good for what, where and who is playing right now. Shall we dispense with further ado and leap headlong into the scene before us? Heck, yeah! Thursdays continue rocking the room with Thursday Night Live at Motorheads…
Illinois Symphony Orchestra musicians to play at abandoned mill
Beyond the Stage Saturday, Sept. 14, 7 p.m. Pillsbury Mills 1525 E. Phillips St. 217-899-2749 In this new kind of concert performance, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra percussion ensemble and piano trio will perform in the C-Mill as one of the Beyond the Stage concert series experiences. “The musicians will be surrounded by the spray-painted murals…
Letters to the editor 09-12-24
VOICE OF EXPERIENCE As someone who experienced homelessness firsthand, the ordinance to “ban public camping” hits close to home for me (“City council delays vote on prohibiting public camping,” Sept. 5). I’ve been fortunate enough to rise from poverty and become a successful community member and homeowner. However, when I was a child, my family…
Sound the ram’s horn on our feast day
On the religious calendar used in the Jewish community to determine when holidays are to be celebrated or observed, we are currently in the month of Elul, the last month of the calendar year. Rosh Hashanah, the New Year holiday, will be observed this year on Wednesday evening, Oct. 2, and Thursday and Friday, Oct.…
