Motorola revisited
A drearily familiar story came briefly back to mind in today’s Trib. The campus in Harvard in northern Illinois that Motorola opened in 1997 to make cellphones. and which had been closed since 2003, was sold to a Chinese investor. Motorola played Illinois against Wisconsin against each other to bid up the subsidies it demanded…
Booby-trapping the tax system
This week I take up, and just as quickly put down, the question of a graduated income tax for Illinois. Not many states have a flat rate tax on incomes. Illinois does so for reasons that have nothing to do with economic efficiency or philosophical principle. The flat rate was a constraint of 1870 constitution.…
From the Credit Where Credit Is Due Dept.
The article on Illinois Indian language by Michael McCafferty that I referred to in “Mis-say it loud, mis-say it proud” appears in Protohistory at the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia: The Illinois Country on the Eve of Colony (Illinois State Archeological Survey, Studies in Archeology No. 10, Urbana, 2015), a collection of articles edited by…
“Criminal” Great B-Movie Fun
It would be hard to defend Ariel Vromen’s Criminal so I’m not going to try. Right off the bat I will admit the film’s premise is something akin to what you’d find in a sci-fi comic book and the movie’s logic is so riddled with holes it makes Swiss Cheese look like a diary product…
Next!
Clarissa Williams is no longer publisher of the State Journal-Register.Illinois Times has confirmed that Williams was let go today. Her replacement will be Rosanne Cheeseman, former publisher of the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pennsylvania, which, like the SJ-R, is owned by GateHouse Media. GateHouse acquired the Pennslvania paper in January. Williams became publisher of the…
Most depressing news of the week– so far
The Chicago Tribune, summarizing the day’s events in the General Assembly: A Senate committee advanced several measures that would overhaul the Illinois Constitution to eliminate the lieutenant governor’s office, replace the flat income tax rate with a graduated system based on income and overhaul how legislative districts are drawn. . . . All of those…
Mis-say it loud, mis-say it proud
The French misheard the Indians and the Americans misread the French. I was in the waiting room at the doctor’s office the other day. I’d already read that week’s OK! magazine at home, so instead I picked up a copy of “Illinois Voices: Observations on the Illinois-Miami Language,” by Michael McCafferty, an Algonquian and Uto-Aztecan…
How do you make change happen? Show up
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE In my travels and conversations this year, I’ve been encouraged that grassroots people of all progressive stripes (populist, labor, liberal, environmental, women, civil libertarian, et al.) are well aware of the slipperiness of “victory” and want Washington to get it right this time. So over and over, question…
An immoral threat with a big impact
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS “The governor has linked things together,” Senate President John Cullerton said at a speech to the City Club of Chicago back in January. “We don’t have a budget because he’s got his ‘Turnaround Agenda.’ So I can link things together, too.” Cullerton was referring to his threat to not pass any…
Letters to the Editor 4/21/16
WHY GENES MUTATEA few remarks from left field on Jim Krohe’s April 7 column, “Being all you can be.” The instant I came upon “…accumulating scientific evidence suggests gayness is genetic in origin,” I was transported back to an intro course I’d taken in anthropology many years back. The following is verbatim from the…
Editor’s note 4/21/16
Before there was Earth Day our own Adlai Stevenson, as U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, in what would become his last major speech, addressed the Economic and Security Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 9, 1965: “We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil;…
No sidelines in fight against climate change
On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans hit the streets to protest the environmental effects of more than 100 years of uncontrolled fossil-fueled industrial development. It was the first Earth Day. What was intended to be a college campus teach-in soon spread to every community and city across the United States. It was and remains…
More trees, please
Protecting a city’s tree canopy is important for three key reasons: reducing climate temperature, reducing flooding and setting a standard of beauty and sustainability. Join Sustainable Springfield and Urban Sassafras in their efforts to protect and add trees to Springfield’s tree canopy by attending a kickoff reception on Thursday, April 21, at Urban Sassafras. In…
Food that fuels fitness and fun
Since 1901, Junior League organizations have helped women develop as civic leaders and make positive, measurable impacts on their communities through various events, programs and services. On Saturday, April 23, from 2-3 p.m., children in kindergarten through fifth grade are invited to join the Junior League of Springfield for its annual “Kids in the Kitchen”…
Dedicated young vocalists
PHOTO COURTESY AMERICAN BOYCHOIR One of the finest musical ensembles in the country performs Sunday, April 24, at 2 p.m., in Illinois College’s Rammelkamp Chapel. The American Boychoir is comprised of a diverse mix of boys in grades 4-8 from the American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey. The choir performs regularly with world-class orchestras…
Righting wrongs
Teshome Campbel PHOTO BY PAT YEAGLE Teshome Campbell doesn’t hold any grudges. Not against the public defender who failed to call crucial witnesses on his behalf. Not against the many judges who dismissed his claims of injustice. Not even against the people who lied about him in court and caused him to spend 18 years…
Age-old question: Time for a state retirement tax?
Illinois is one of three states with an income tax that doesn’t tax retirement income. ILLUSTRATION BY RICK NEASE/TNS Illinois is one of only three states that has an income tax but exempts all retirement income. Politicians, along with advocacy groups, have long pushed to keep it that way. But amid the spiraling state budget…
Back in the fight
Kevin Mac trains on the punching bag at the Springfield Boxing Club. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Although he’s only 16, Kevin Mac of Springfield has the discipline of a much older man. All the members of the Springfield Boxing Club do. They wake up early, eat healthy, run and train almost every day. The penalty…
Sharks don’t like shark cages
A bill to regulate online lenders that target small businesses with loans that can carry more than 100-percent annual interest rates is moving, albeit slowly, through the Illinois General Assembly. While not capping interest rates, the bill would require lenders to disclose interest rates upfront and bar giving loans to businesses with repayment schedules that…
Leafing Springfield
A long shot of Clear Lake Avenue where the Urban Tree Canopy Project may start in the fall. PHOTO BY BRITTANY HILDERBRAND In efforts to enhance the city’s beauty, one Springfield organization will take the green movement one step further, offering residents a chance to get involved through a program that is focused on planting…
From a different perspective
Members of the Rotary Club of Midtown Springfield and international delegates mingle prior to Dr. Nizamuddin’s presentation. PHOTO COURTESY ROTARY CLUB OF MIDTOWN SPRINGFIELD Dr. Ali Nizamuddin says you may someday face a Muslim with a mask and a blade, but it’s much more likely to be your doctor than a terrorist. On April 12,…
FAREWELL, WE HARDLY KNEW YE
The State Journal-Register’s newsroom is being hit with two departures as longtime metro columnist Dave Bakke is scheduled to retire (with May 13 – a Friday, no less – reportedly being pegged as his last day) and Springfield city hall reporter Jamie Munks set to take over the city hall beat at the Las Vegas…
MACARTHUR STUDY
For years, the MacArthur Boulevard Association has called for better infrastructure along one of Springfield’s primary business corridors. From the crumbling sidewalks (or lack thereof) to the lack of landscaping, MacArthur needs a makeover, the group says. That persistence may pay off soon, as the Illinois Department of Transportation and the City of Springfield prepare…
Vibrant Jungle Book a visual delight
Neel Sethi stars as Mowgli in The Jungle Book. PHOTO COURTESY Walt Disney Pictures A visual knockout from the first frame to the last, Jon Favreau’s re-imagining of The Jungle Book owes as much to Rudyard Kipling’s original stories as it does to the 1967 Disney animated adaptation. While I’d hoped the song “The Bare…
Earth Day music
Curtis and Loretta play the Paris-Belle House Concerts this Saturday night. Though it is celebrated on April 22, every day is Earth Day to me. Of all the holidays celebrated in all the civilizations, societies and cultures on our planet, Earth Day is the one that really counts. A visit to Robbie’s on the south…
2 Tenutos as The Joey Tenuto Band
Many of us blues-rock fans and fans of other music will remember a fiery guitarist and singer from the Springfield area named Joe Tenuto who played the scene back in the day. Big, blonde Joe moved to Florida, kept playing blistering blues-rock and started a family. Now Joe and Joe Jr. are coming back to…
A delicious life
When my mother started doing cooking classes in the early 2000s, we had no idea how it was going to turn out. I remember doing a trial run a week before the first class. A few close friends – some experienced cooks, some not – made lobster risotto and shrimp with lemon something. That first…
manzanar
the name means apples lingers on your lipslike honey yet the place it names is sandydry with ice-cold winters baking summersrows of drafty barracks barbed wirearmed towers soldiers all these to guardthe many thousands (half are children)sent on shrouded trains they carried onlywhat they could homes shops taken overpets left behind some given a week…
Roid rage cops
CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT
