Former Springfield cop guilty in 2017 altercation
Body camera footage proved enough to convict Samuel Rosario, a former Springfield police office, in a Sangamon County courtroom on Wednesday. The jury convicted Samuel Rosario of official misconduct, a felony, and misdemeanor battery involving insulting or provoking behavior. The jury acquitted Rosario of a second count of battery that required proof of bodily harm,…
A mother like no other
Not long after learning to walk, I learned to wander. Once, I made it to one of the busiest streets in town, right off the freeway. Another time, while exploring a demolished laundromat, I stuck a foot down a concrete drainpipe. My mother summoned firefighters who summoned a jackhammer. I was freed only after a…
New leadership for AFL-CIO
The Illinois AFL-CIO hosted its annual State Fair reception last week. The highlight was probably a speech by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who thanked his audience of union leaders for their support in the 2018 campaign and for their help passing an enormous amount of legislation during his first session of the General Assembly. But there…
Report: ‘Bullying’ rife in House Speaker’s office
An investigation into the “workplace culture” of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office found his former chief of staff contributed to a culture of bullying pervasive throughout the Capitol system. The review, conducted by former federal prosecutor and former executive inspector general Maggie Hickey, was called for in response to allegations of harassment. She currently…
Bills signed into law
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed more than 50 bills last week and has this week remaining to sign the final 167 of the 599 total bills sent to him by the General Assembly this year. The most recently signed bills include a package of legislation affecting first responders, a bill striking down a 1998 state law…
AVOID WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
The best thing to do about wrongful convictions is avoid them. Over and over, the Illinois Innocence Project has learned that bad convictions result from bad police work, whether from jumping to conclusions about a suspect, sloppy gathering of evidence or eliciting a false confession. So the IIP has partnered with the Police Training Institute…
DANCE, DANCE, DANCE
It’s not too early to start thinking about Christmas, when chestnuts roast and sleigh bells jingle and The Nutcracker becomes a mainstay throughout the land. But there can be no Nutcracker without dancers, and so the Springfield Ballet Company is looking for a few good kids to perform in its annual production of the Christmas…
Letters to the Editor 8/22/19
NOT THEIR COUNTRY In his recent opinion column (“Guns, guns, guns, guns,” Aug. 15) Bruce Rushton correctly wrote, “The Second Amendment needs to go.” It shouldn’t have come to that, however. It should have been enough to have more correctly applied the amendment and not to have allowed what retired Chief Justice Warren Burger described…
Editor’s note 8/22/19
We knew this, but it is worth reminding ourselves, that national Republicans weren’t always so anti-immigrant as they are today. It was presidential candidate Ronald Reagan who hailed “millions of immigrants from every corner of the earth” as a sign that God made America a “city on a hill.” President George W. Bush championed comprehensive…
Concerts brought Springfield together
It would seem as if Springfield’s new favorite night this summer was Thursday. If you weren’t at the weekly Knights of Columbus Mega Jackpot drawing, you were likely out with family and friends trying out the downtown Y Block as a venue for live music – all for free, as part of the Levitt AMP…
Celebrating local cuisine, one week at a time
We have not had a burger week since clear back in February and we think it is definitely about time to give it another run. The restaurants seem ready for another go at it, too. No less than 20 of them have signed up to try their hand at creating the most enticing of burger…
An annual evening garden party
The courtyard of the Dana-Thomas House will once again be alive with jazz, food and drinks for the annual evening garden party. Music by Sharpen Up with Damien Kaplan (piano and vocals), Tim Niemeyer (guitar) and Brandt Sitze (percussion) will entertain guests. This is the second event of three hosted by the Dana-Thomas House Foundation. …
Fall Guide Calendar
Reception for “elemental” Aug 22, 5:30-7:30pm Thu. Mixed media artist Laura Anderson. Free. llcc.edu. LLCC James S. Murray Gallery, 5250 Shepherd Road, 786-4967. Women in the Civil War Aug 22, 6:30-7:45pm Thu. Kathleen Heyworth will present stories and information about the multiple roles women played in the Civil War. Free. booksonthesquare.com. Books on the Square…
Autumn onstage
The cicadas are singing their late summer serenade and that means things are just starting to heat up again on the theater scene. This autumn’s stage offerings are delivered through new and classic tales, personal stories and dance, then peppered with a little comedy. At UIS Performing Arts Center, the Springfield Ballet Company will be…
Enjoy an unusual boat ride in LaSalle
Larry may be semi-retired, but he still has to pull a boatload of tourists along the Illinois and Michigan Canal nearly daily from April to October. He doesn’t seem to mind. The 26-year-old mule formerly worked much harder in the fields of Amish farmers, says boat captain Jake Krancic. “This is a vacation for him.”…
Music for the fall
If there’s one thing central Illinois does well, it is to have on the horizon a lineup of music events to satisfy the fan of any genre. This season’s lineup proves no different. Pop, bluegrass and classical music alike will fill the venues with just the right notes, at just the right tempos and just…
Haunted happenings
Ranked as one of the top 10 haunted houses in Illinois, the Boo Crew Haunted House in Mechanicsburg is open every Friday and Saturday in October, plus the first Friday and Saturday in November. The Trail of Lost Souls is a short outdoor walk through the woods where scary attractions are set up, and numerous…
Big attractions in the small town of Casey
“Big Things/Small Town” is a no-brainer marketing slogan for Casey. The southeastern Illinois town of fewer than 3,000 people offers eight world-record attractions with more to come in late September. Want to make a 54-foot-tall wind chime gong? How about craning your neck to see a 46,200-pound rocking chair? Climb a set of stairs to…
Safety in numbers
I eyed the sleek cycling shoes worn by the person standing next to me, then glanced down at my own clunky sneakers and wondered what I’d gotten myself into. It was a pleasantly balmy afternoon, and I was about to embark on my first ride with the Springfield Bicycle Club (SBC). About 35 riders decked…
Sweet tone buoys Boys
There’s much of what you’d expect in Good Boys and a bit of what you wouldn’t. Produced by the same crew that brought us Superbad (2007) and concerning three middle schoolers, you know there will plenty of raunchy jokes, physical gags and questionable humor throughout. The screenplay by Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy certainly doesn’t…
Au-gusting music
I think we can safely state the Illinois State Fair was more than fairly good this year. It’s fair enough to say, it’s time to move on to other happenings around town, and they are bountiful. First, let us give our sad goodbyes to another member of our music community as Gary “Walnuts” Swaggerty passed…
Tyler Daniel
This independent singer-songwriter in the rock and Americana field hails from some crazy, faraway place called Springfield, Illinois. Tyler has amassed a regular area following, commonly known as the Tyler Daniel Army, and they show up to support the fledgling entertainer with verve and gusto. Attend one of his shows and you will be converted…
Cool food after a hot run
“It’s too darn hot! It’s too darn hot!” These lyrics from Cole Porter’s musical Kiss Me Kate have been going through my head these past few weeks. The temperature around the stove at Nonesuch, the restaurant where I work, consistently hovers around 96 degrees F, even with the air conditioner going full blast. The temperatures…
literary tour poem #1
literary tour poem #1 24 students our coachman myself had left whitby where dracula came ashore bent on blood from virgin veins we were wending our way across cumberland when we realized we were passing near the clinic of james herriot (all creatures great and small) though retired we knew he came in frequently…
