Cover Story
Best films and scenes of 2023
Last year, I complained that “very few films stood out as being exceptional.” I didn’t realize how good I had it. For me, 2023 was year of the almost-but-not-quite movies, works that approached greatness but couldn’t stick the landing with big-name directors coasting on their reputations for the most part. Is this truly the case,…
City-operated ambulance service to be considered
Springfield City Council members will consider spending $280,000 in the next fiscal year on what could be the first step toward a multimillion-dollar, city-operated ambulance service to supplement privately operated ambulances and shorten response times in medical emergencies. The money to buy a single ambulance appears on page 165 of the city’s 400-page budget proposal…
New year, new laws
More than 300 new laws took effect Jan. 1, ranging from a ban on book bans to the regulation of “deepfake porn” and prohibitions on videoconferencing while driving. Thanks to a law signed in 2019, workers at the lowest end of the pay scale will see a pay raise with the new year as the state…
Springfield Clinic, Blue Cross make a deal
After two years of financial and emotional stress for thousands of central Illinois patients, those covered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois regained in-network access to Springfield Clinic medical providers on Jan. 1. Chicago-based Blue Cross and the clinic issued statements Dec. 22 that they have reached a new five-year agreement allowing the…
Rail improvement project delayed
Completion of Springfield’s rail improvement project will be delayed beyond 2025 because the project failed to secure $138 million in funding from the federal government. Springfield and Sangamon County backers of the years-long project had hoped 2025 would be the last year of construction on the massive project to alleviate rail congestion in the city’s…
New year music news
Here’s hoping you’ve had a mighty fine time at the beginning of the new year. There are lots of doings in our burgeoning music scene on this first full weekend of 2024. First, how about some cleanup work from last year to acknowledge a couple of cool things done in our community? Extraordinary hand drummer…
Emma Stone is brilliant in Poor Things, Boys in the Boat a feel-good film, Aquaman is lighthearted
Stone soars in radical Things The Bride of Frankenstein with a feminist agenda, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things is a brilliantly unhinged, gloriously bizarre examination of one woman’s struggle towards independence. Dr. Goodwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) is a physician who’s convinced dead tissue can be rejuvenated. He has conducted an experiment in which he has taken…
New high-tech UIS labs and partnerships designed to spark innovation
Two new high-tech research laboratories are helping to turn students’ ideas into reality at the University of Illinois Springfield and downtown at Innovate Springfield—and the skills these students are acquiring will help them produce prototypes or new products that could revolutionize the marketplace. In early 2023, the UIS Computer Science Department opened the Orion Lab,…
Editor’s note 01-04-24
We spent much of our holiday break reading Adam Nagourney’s 2023 history of the last 40 years or so at the New York Times. It’s called The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism. Unlike Gay Talese’s 1969 history of one of the world’s great newspapers, The Kingdom…
Series returns to capital city for 32nd year
Molly Schlich Film Series Preview Party Wednesday, Jan. 10, 7 p.m. Springfield Art Association Main Campus 700 N. Fourth St. 217-523-2631 springfieldart.org FILM | Series returns to capital city for 32nd year For eight weeks each year, the Springfield Art Association plays host to eight critically acclaimed films from around the world. The series was…
Letters to the editor 01-04-24
KIDS NEED SOLID EDUCATION I read with sadness how poorly District 186 students performed on standardized tests (“District 186 report card was a ‘gut punch,'” Dec. 7). As was stated in a Dec. 14 letter to the editor, I agree that more money doesn’t seem to be the answer. Unfortunately, Illinois legislators have shown once again…
How Lincoln dealt with differences
There are many reasons why Steve Inskeep was poised to write a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Inskeep grew up in Indiana and attended college in Kentucky, both states where Lincoln lived. In his career as a journalist for National Public Radio, he has mastered the art of interviewing people with opposing viewpoints, just as Lincoln…
Focaccia. Easy.
There’s nothing more comforting than walking into a house and being greeted by the aroma of freshly baked bread wafting from the kitchen. It’s a smell that can bring you a sense of happiness and contentment. Some real estate brokers even contend that the comforting aroma can increase your chances of selling your house. I…
