Cover Story
Destination Petersburg
Could Petersburg become the next Illinois destination community, like Galena or Grafton? A $3 million project funded by a local investor aims to take the Menard County seat a major step in that direction. A home-grown design and construction team is busily transforming the northwest corner of the town square into a multi-use showpiece with…
mental illness poem #1
during this covid time we were warned that violence, depression, suicide, would increase; statistics have proved this to be the case story: my sister a year older than I suffered sudden clinical depression in college she was hospitalized given shock treatments the then therapy returned home with blotto memory I was living at the farm…
CERTIFIED INNOCENT
On April 15, Charles Palmer won his petition for a certificate of innocence from the state’s highest court. Palmer, a Decatur man, had been wrongfully convicted of murder for a 1998 Macon County homicide. “This has been a long time coming and I’ve been fighting for so long,” Palmer told Illinois Times via email. “A…
Letters to the editor 4/22/21
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to letters@illinoistimes.com. —- SYBC WAS OVERLOOKED Imagine my surprise when I read in Illinois Times that the Springfield Youth Ballet Company was given a passing mention in your article about local arts and COVID, yet no one…
ON MY OWN TIME
The Springfield Area Arts Council (SAAC) announced April 20 the return of a biennial art exhibit that encourages workers to showcase their creativity. Participating businesses, government agencies, educational and medical entities will encourage their employees to showcase their artwork. “On My Own Time is one of the best ways to bring employees together. They learn…
Cooking up community
One year ago, Springfield received support from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to plan a downtown food space focused on local foods. “The goal is to build on the success of the downtown farmers market and locally sourced food movement to develop local entrepreneurial food resources such as a grocery store and a commercial…
Un-Civil War
Legislators gathered on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death to hear arguments over the Abraham Presidential Library and Museum and a private fundraising foundation that the ALPLM says is overly secretive about finances. The foundation says that it has given millions of dollars to help the ALPLM, including $1.8 million during the most recent fiscal…
Healing through film
Naomi Getachew, a 13-year-old from Normal, recently made a short film inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. “To bring change you must not be afraid,” Getachew told Illinois Times about her efforts. While considering racism and protests that have happened in the last year, Getachew entered the “No Malice” film contest to show that…
The “Living Room” provides free crisis care
Mental health care should not be a luxury. And those in crisis don’t always need to be hospitalized. That’s part of the philosophy behind a state-funded program that brings free crisis care to people regardless of whether they have medical insurance. The pandemic has increased the need for mental health care. According to the Kaiser…
Brush up on baseball history
In February 2021 Major League Baseball returned to a semblance of normalcy as players once again traveled to spring training locations in Arizona and Florida. Players and fans returned to baseball as we remembered it before COVID swept the world. This year marks a complete 162-game season, the normal playoff and World Series format and…
Stowaway has drama, while Together and Easttown are bland
Flawed Stowaway still manages to impress Moral dilemmas abound in Joe Penna’s Stowaway, a space adventure that’s less about cosmic spectacle and more about various crises of conscience the crew of Hyperion experience as they embark on a two-year mission to Mars. Marina (Toni Collette), Zoe (Anna Kendrick) and David (Daniel Dae Kim) are the…
Why eat fermented foods?
The COVID-19 has been a major wake-up call. It’s made us realize how vulnerable we are. The Spanish Flu pandemic was a hundred years ago. In all the years hence, the advances in modern medicine and pharmacology haven’t been able to prevent over 3 million COVID deaths worldwide. This pandemic should be motivating us to…
Keep the music coming
Greetings fellow travelers, as we’re coming ’round the bend, heading out of the pandemic parking lot and back onto the highway of how it used to be. Please continue to be diligent in being careful and staying safe so that our adventure may continue, working through the muck and back to solid ground. As more…
An example of fortitude
From its emergence in early American history to its present-day relevance, the Black church has always served as a safe haven for African Americans – a place to worship together and a place to get motivated to rebuild communities and strive for more enriched lives. To honor the influence African American churches have had in…
Tragedy in Chicago
Thirty years after Rodney King, videos documenting police misconduct and mistakes have become ubiquitous. Thanks to a smartphone, the cop who killed Walter Scott is serving time, but not enough. Jason Van Dyke is in prison and Rahm Emanuel isn’t in politics, efforts to hide footage having failed. The officer who shot John Crawford III…
When police kill a child, all of us bear the shame
CHICAGO – We have seen police needlessly kill people before – but rarely a child. I don’t know what anyone else sees when they watch the video of a Chicago police officer shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo in the chest. But when I look at it, I see a brown baby who will never have the…
Editor’s Note 4/22/21
On Earth Day 2021 we are reminded that thorny environmental problems remain. What are we going to do about nuclear power? It has become a darling of many nearsighted earthlovers for not putting carbon into the atmosphere, while potentially deadly nuclear waste piles up with no safe place to store it for thousands of years.…
Changes proposed for Chicago school board
Illinois Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford really has her work cut out for her if she wants to forge a compromise on an elected Chicago school board. Lightford agreed to become the sponsor of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s alternative school board proposal last week. Sen. Rob Martwick (D-Chicago) has been pushing a bill for years…
