Taxing thoughts
Tomorrow is tax deadline day, which is why the most recent edition of Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States makes such depressing reading. The left-of-center Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the Washington-based research organization that focuses on tax fairness, found that Illinois is among the Top Ten…
Apartments considered for downtown
A Quad Cities developer is considering an area on the northern edge of downtown, near the medical district, for a new apartment building that would be aimed at providing housing for students. The five-story building at the intersection of Fourth and Madison streets would have 70 units with room for 90 tenants. There would be…
Depends on the circumstances
Edmund Burke might forgive me for adapting the following passage from his “Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790) to make it more plainly relevant to the revolution that is, haltingly, underway in today’s Illinois. Circumstances . . . give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are…
Department of Injustice
In a piece in the April 7 Wall Street Journal, Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, drew attention to revelations in a new book that ought to interest Illinoisans. Judith Miller, you might recall, is the veteran New York Times reporter caught up in the trial of former Dick Cheney chief…
Slippery state workers
CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT
Furious 7’s only goal is to thrill
Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner in Furious 7. PHOTO COURTESY Universal Pictures There’s a great deal of anticipation surrounding James Wan’s Furious 7, the latest and posed to be the most lucrative installment in the greatest gearhead franchise in film history. Not only does the director have the unenviable task of trying to top the…
Ravioli
PHOTO BY METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION “What’s your favorite cuisine?” It’s a question I’m frequently asked – and one I’m never comfortable answering. Do I really have to choose? My answer at any given moment may depend on the season, a cookbook I’ve been reading, a restaurant at which I’ve recently eaten, recipes I’ve been developing,…
Arlin Peebles
Arlin Peebles has composed songs and played in bands (Cleanray, Young Loves) for nearly two decades and spent the last eight or so years working on songs that made it onto his first solo release, Some Big Mystery. Recorded “in rental homes, bedrooms and basements using everything from cassettes to computers,” while moving around the…
Letters to the editor 4/9/15
Maple Leaf Dairy is one of six factory farms, also known as CAFOs for concentrated animal feeding operations, in Manitowoc County. Local residents are worried about the amount of waste they produce. Manure is stored in the large blue tanks seen at far rig PHOTOS BY BENNY SIEU/TNS SAY NO TO CAFOsIt is with sadness…
Before the university we had Elizabeth Graham
“Frances Platt, whatever happened to that wonderful mind of yours?” That was Miss Elizabeth’s greeting to my mother after not seeing her for years. The question was asked in a booming voice heard all over the main floor of the old Lincoln Library. Typical Elizabeth Graham, no small talk, just going directly to what she…
Edwards Place comes alive
In photo, from left to right, are Ted and Dawn Henry in character as Elizabeth and Ninian Edwards, Pam Brown and Fritz Klein in character as Mary and Abraham Lincoln, Drs. Sandra Yeh and Greg Kane in character as Julia and Senator Lyman Trumbull, Laura an COVER PHOTO IS BY BILL STOKES, PUBLISHER OF SPRINGFIELD…
Opportunity knocks
Curses, foiled again• Joey Patterson, 22, eluded Idaho authorities for several months, but then he posted his whereabouts on Facebook. He invited friends to play softball at Armory Softball Field in Caldwell. That’s where police found him. Monitoring social media has led officers to suspects before, Sgt. Joey Hoadley noted, explaining, “Surprisingly, even fugitives can’t…
Spring fling things
Off the Wall celebrates Kip Nelson’s birthday bash with a celebrity roundup of Springfield rock musicians at Capital City Bar & Grill, Sat., April 11. PHOTO BY JUSTIN HARRIS PHOTOGRAPHY Welcome to a wonderful week of live music bursting out of the bars like blooms on a forsythia branch. All kinds of styles and sounds…
Abu Ghraib comes to Illinois
ILLUSTRATION BY RICK NEASE/TNS Mass strip searches. Humiliation and Taunts. Inmates in several central and southern Illinois prisons say that they have been subjected to this and more by Department of Corrections tactical teams dubbed Orange Crush for the color of their uniforms. And they have sued in federal court, seeking both financial compensation and…
Editor’s note 4/9/15
Jim Langfelder’s decisive win for mayor should give him the confidence to breathe energy into city hall. His first order of business is to recruit new leadership for City, Water, Light and Power, where his campaign emphasized not only transparency but a shift toward clean energy and renewable fuels. Next he’ll want to ask some…
Return of the mighty mustang
Two young mustangs take a break from frolicking in the mud at a federal wild horse facility recently reopened in southern Illinois. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE In a muddy corral on a hill in southern Illinois, dozens of horses chomp on hay and cautiously eye the cowboy-boot-clad visitors who walk past their pen. When a…
Fiddle virtuoso Jeremy Kittel
On Saturday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m., violin and fiddle virtuoso Jeremy Kittel joins the Illinois Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Evan Chambers’ “Concerto for Fiddle” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” featuring ISO’s concertmaster Violetta Todorova. The program will open with Brahms’ pastoral “Third Symphony,” as directed by ISO’s conductor laureate, Kenneth Kiesler. Kittel, widely recognized as one…
Flee Circus
My mom left when I was young, and my former husband left me too. Maybe because of this, I’ve noticed that I’m quick to assume that any man I’m seeing is ditching me. In the early stages of dating, if there’s a lag in calling or texting me back, I’ll lash out – block the…
Heating assistance wins reprieve
ILLUSTRATION BY METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION It was like a bad April Fools’ Day prank, only a few days early. Springfield resident Tara Lybarger, a 42-year-old cashier at a laundromat, had been waiting since December to get signed up for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). On March 24, a few days before the…
Learning with Legos
The second annual Central Illinois Junior First Lego League Expo will be Sunday, April 12, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., in Cass Gymnasium at Lincoln Land Community College. The expo showcases the work of 32 regional Junior First Lego League teams. The program, for children ages 6-9, states that their ultimate goal is to capture…
Imagine Cruz as president
And away we go – off on another crazy cruze with Ted. Cinch up your seatbelts, for Sen. Ted Cruz (fueled by his raw ambition and flaming jet-powered ego) has come screeching out of the GOP’s presidential staging area, getting a head start on all the other wannabes seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. And…
Watching the watchers
A patrol car equipped with a roof-mounted camera that constantly photographs passing license plates. PHOTO BY RICK LOOMIS/TNS Police departments across the nation are obtaining a device that takes a picture of your license plate, stamps the location, time and date on it, and sends it to a database. The devices could be in parking…
half-lincoln marathon poem #2
wow the biggest event of the spring I’vejust been watching 2000 runners streampast my door all colors ages sexes plumpskinny a few kids with parents a fewparents pushing babes in wheelies sawa runner on blades he was among theleaders going fast lots come from afar37 states even from overseas many wearvivid garb tutus over stripy…
Locally sourced, thoughtfully prepared
This spring, local foodies will enjoy the return of Slow Food Springfield’s annual morel mushroom dinners. The dinners will be served Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., at Maldaner’s Restaurant. A prepayment of $65 guarantees your place at the table plus a delicious, four-course dinner prepared by Slow Food…
Selling off a metaphor
The James R. Thompson Center located at 100 W. Randolph Street in the Loop, Chicago. PHOTO BY PRIMEROMUNDO VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG News came last week that the liberty-loving Mr. Rauner wants to free the people of Illinois from the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago. He took steps to establish its fair market value, thus taking…
Going to pot?
Amid the clamor to set up medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers in Illinois lies an inconvenient truth. Seven months after the state began accepting applications, just 2,000 people have been approved to legally purchase pot once it becomes available in 60 dispensaries statewide that are supposed to be supplied by 21 cultivation centers, 18…
