Can CWLP go green?
City Water, Light, and Power wants to build a new coal-fired power plant to replace two aging electric-generating units. Over the past year, the Springfield City Council’s utilities committee has convened meetings to evaluate the overall scope of the project. So far, much of the discussion has centered the size of the plant, the location…
letters 8-5-04
Letters policy We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length and clarity. Send letters to: Letters, Illinois Times. P.O. Box 5256. Springfield, Illinois 62705. Fax: (217) 753-3958. E-mail: editor@illinoistimes.com CLUB 10 OWNERS APPLAUDED Thank you, Illinois Times, and Todd Spivak for…
sound patrol 8-5-04
The Roots are, among other things, exhibit A when earnest white National Public Radio members try to argue that not all contemporary rap is crass consumerist crap: “They rail against the system! They make with the uplifting messages! They’ve got a real live drummer and everything!” But, unfortunately for the Roots — six records in…
Man with a plan
Ward 5 Alderman Joe Bartolomucci is talking trash again. This time, though, it’s not some notion to use buoys to prevent terrorists from entering everybody’s favorite fishing hole on Lake Springfield or refusing to pay the city’s phone bill because of one sagging line on North Grand. This time, it’s literal trash — downtown litter.…
The people’s poetry
The Tapper It took them three years to drain the maple tree to death. Fifty holes drilled in rings upon rings to count a year of dying; fifty taps driven, fifty buckets hung mocking armor, into which the sweet water relentlessly dripped. Through cold nights and warm days, a steady patter; each bucket filled, removed,…
movie review
Beware the sharp-dressed man To say that Max (Jamie Foxx) is having a bad night is like saying that the Titanic ran into a little trouble at sea. It’s bad enough that the LA cab driver has let a beautiful woman slip through his fingers; now he’s got a fare he can’t shake, a sharp-dressed…
Is this America?
What do Kalamazoo, Evansville, Albuquerque, Stockton, Trenton, Phoenix, Columbia, St. Louis, Knoxville, and Charleston have in common? All are cities where people have been jailed for displaying anti-Bush signs during public appearances by King George the W. Is this America, the land of the free? That’s what Nicole and Jeff Rank asked this July 4th…
Now playing 8-5-04
As the brave and belligerent Captain Beefheart once said, “It’s hot, it’s so hot.” But — and the good Captain did not say this — “That’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, we like it, uh-huh, uh-huh.” Or at least that’s the way it is and just in time for the Decatur Celebration (this weekend) and the…
The big show
As I prepare to leave my hometown of Urbana for the Democratic National Convention, I notice that many, many people in our fair town seem to want George W. Bush out of office. A couple of streets are awash in yellow-and-black signs stating, “Regime Change Begins at Home.” And as far as I can tell,…
“Their worst nightmare”
Sister Beth Murphy remembers well the Chaldean cathedral in Baghdad. It was modest in both size and architecture, she says, void of the garish ornamentation usually associated with Christian cathedrals. Murphy, who is communication coordinator for the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, a Roman Catholic religious order, attended a service there last December. L. Paul Bremer…
Knoepfle 8-5-04
sandalwood poem #13 this house is old it has known kindred and at the suppers candles and some who spoke in those lights far away in their truth it has known many children I think with their soft lazy friends the windowsill cats a few dogs good for nothing but a journey with tobias…
The commitments
No governor ever gets everything he wants in a budget. But this year’s budget agreement reflects what appears to be the greatest expansion of legislative power in decades. Gov. Rod Blagojevich had to give up a lot during the two-month overtime session, and he didn’t get much in return. Governors are usually given plenty of…
Nader’s challenge
In a last-ditch attempt to appear on the Illinois presidential ballot in November, independent candidate Ralph Nader is challenging the constitutionality of Illinois election law in federal court. Nader’s lawsuit, filed July 27 in U.S. District Court in Chicago, assails the state’s early deadline to file petition nominations, and contends that Illinois’ definition of a…
quick takes 8-5-04
THE FARMER’S DAUGHTER Missouri Democrats on Tuesday nominated a central Illinois native as their candidate for U.S. Senate. Nancy Farmer, who grew up in Jacksonville, will challenge Republican incumbent Christopher ‘Kit’ Bond on Nov 2. Farmer comes from a working-class family: her father was a farmer and worked at a grain elevator, her mother cleaned…
