Judge sides with Illinois Times reporter on Open Meetings question
Decision (PDF): http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/file-118-.pdf A Sangamon County judge today ordered a Springfield city government committee to abide by the Illinois Open Meetings Act following a lawsuit by an Illinois Times reporter. Bruce Rushton, a staff writer for Illinois Times, filed a lawsuit against the city’s Joint Labor Management Health Committee after a closed-doors meeting on Jan.…
Families and legislators left in the dark
Illinois lawmakers left a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7, with few financial details on how the state plans to close the Jacksonville Developmental Center. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability held the meeting at the Capitol to hear the Quinn administration’s plan for potentially closing the center. Rep. Jim Watson, R-Jacksonville, said…
HISTORY OF THE FUTURE
SIU Medical School is going all out for African-American History Month, hosting a plethora of history- and diversity-themed events throughout February at 801 N. Rutledge St. Check out a handful of historical movies like Birth of a Nation (12 p.m. Feb. 15 in South Auditorium), Miss Evers’ Boys (12 p.m. Feb. 22 in Lincoln Conference…
Sausages with grape sauce
This recipe is wonderful for an intimate dinner deux, but it’s equally appropriate for parties – just cut the cooked sausages into bite-sized pieces. It’s much more sophisticated – and much more delicious – than that tired old party standby of mini-wieners in grape jelly. The Intercourses recipe calls for Italian sausages; I prefer good…
Winning number
Get ready for some bingo! Professional actors Shane Partlow and Rowan Joseph play two guys playing two crazy elderly sisters in the hit comedy, The Queen of Bingo. Think of the Harvey Korman and Tim Conway sketches from the Carol Burnett Show and you have Sis and Babe who will make you scream with laughter.…
Does minimum wage boost help or hurt?
Increasing the minimum wage doesn’t cause job loss as commonly thought, according to researchers pushing for a higher minimum wage in Illinois. State lawmakers will likely consider a bill this month that could mean higher pay for 1.1 million low-wage Illinois workers. The report, released Jan. 30 by the Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, touts…
iceman poem #3
there must be many an iceman onelies in his tent near thesouth pole a hundred years nowthey left him there with two othersbrought back the sleeping bag ofone who said he was going outand disappeared into the blizzardits seam is slit at the bottom for hisgangrenous foot you can see itin cambridge also on display…
Oil industry profits are good
The world’s largest energy companies just released their fourth-quarter earnings. Though slightly less than the previous quarter’s gains, the figures were, nonetheless, headline-grabbing. Chevron generated $5.1 billion. Shell earned $6.5 billion. ExxonMobil, the leading U.S. oil company, earned a whopping $9.4 billion. On cue, left-leaning pundits and activists rose to condemn the industry for excess.…
The war on weed
As marijuana traffickers go, Jason Alan Spyres was far from the best. He was just 19 when police in Woodford County found a bag of pot in Spyres’ car and arrested him for possession. Less than a year later, he was arrested again and charged with cannabis trafficking in Macon County – his mother had…
Fantastic folk
The UIS Kitchen Sink Series continues Saturday, Feb. 11, with the impressive talent of soloist and multi-instrumentalist Ruth Moody in UIS Studio Theatre. Although best known for her role as a founding member of the internationally renowned, Billboard-charting trio, The Wailin’ Jennys, Ruth Moody is an exceptional solo artist full of depth and grace. Critics…
Black marshals get their due
Bass Reeves once single-handedly arrested 19 horse thieves. A deputy U.S. Marshal from 1875 to 1907, Reeves made more than 3,000 arrests and even once arrested his own son who was wanted for murder. But despite his reputation as a fearless and skilled officer, Reeves wasn’t mentioned in the U.S. Marshals Service’s official history book.…
Black bean salsa
Much as I love them, I’d never thought of black beans as aphrodisiacal. But as long ago as circa 400 A.D., St. Jerome instructed his nuns to eschew black beans, because he believed black beans would seduce them to break their celibacy vows. Black beans are associated with fertility, a cycle that begins with the…
Spicy gingered shrimp
The following recipe contains a trifecta of aphrodisiac ingredients: shrimp, honey, and ginger. And if those aren’t enough to get you in the mood, the recipe testers’ testimonial should do the trick. “I’ll remember feeding him the spicy flavored shrimp – his tongue trailing my saucy fingers so slowly that I’m positive time stopped. I’ll…
World Wide Web of lies
Why do men OFFER (as in, announce unasked) that they aren’t dating anyone when that’s a lie? I’m a busy 30-something woman, meeting men almost exclusively online. A guy will often tell me right away (on the first date) that he isn’t seeing anyone. I stumble on the truth by accident on Facebook and what-have-you,…
Consolidating townships may not save money
According to a report released this month for the Township Officials of Illinois, consolidating local governments such as townships could lead to more financial problems than it would solve. Bryan Smith, executive director of the Township Officials of Illinois, with offices at 3217 Northfield Drive in Springfield, said that the common misconception about consolidating townships…
The selling of the 16th president
If you had to make a Lincoln from scratch, what would you toss in? You got your Basic Honesty, the Law and Politics, the Great Emancipator Business, Fighter of the War, and so forth. You would likely add his Frontier Humor and his Humble Origins – the whole Horatio Alger stuff. Voila! Lincoln! Our Lincoln…
Big Miracle: Feel good for a change
Ken Kwapis’ Big Miracle is the sort of film you need to see every once in a while. I wouldn’t recommend a steady diet of movies like this because a certain balance must be maintained between hokum and serious drama. But there’s nothing wrong with a feel-good movie, especially if it’s as well done as…
Dog Of Panic
In a Macomb dorm room circa 2008, a struggling college student dreamed of leaving the academic world behind to write and play music. Dog of Panic began when Dan Rohde wrote 15 songs in that lonely room, left school, moved to Springfield, found a job and began the tedious process of forming a band. Through…
The dirt on soil
The Central Illinois Composting Symposium takes place Wednesday, Feb. 15, beginning at noon in the Trutter Center. “Composting for a Sustainable Community: From Backyards to Farms” is this year’s theme. Presenters include educators and professionals from PrairiErth Farm, City of Springfield, Urban Worm Girls, Illinois Department of Agriculture, University of Illinois Extension, Midwest Permaculture and more. The…
Newt Gingrich: The spawn of Citizens United
Wow, January’s gone already – time really flies when you’re having Republican presidential primaries! And what better time than Presidents Month to poke into that warren of feral Republican ideologues and see what the heck is going on. Already, four of the GOP contenders have had to drop out – Michele Bachmann because she was…
Chronicle: The Superhero Film as Cautionary Tale
DC and Marvel Comics have never had a problem putting their stable of characters in “imaginary” stories in which the particulars of their origins are tweaked a tiny bit. While this is often done to boost lagging sales, some these stories proved intriguing in the way they would present well-known heroes in a different light.…
Quinn made a good speech, despite the grumbling
After more than a decade of extreme scandal and gross government mismanagement, far too many Illinoisans seem to be wallowing or even perversely reveling in our state’s embarrassing failures. Just try to point out a positive aspect of this state and you’ll be shouted down by all sides as a naive homer. But accentuating the…
Heigl Fresh in Sour Plum Adventure One for the Money (2 Stars)
There’s nothing wrong with One for the Money that a firm hand behind the camera couldn’t fix. While this adaptation of Janet Evanovich’s first Stephanie Plum adventure lacks a distinctive air that would help make it an unique adventure with a female protagonist, movies with less talent and thinner stories have succeeded on the screen…
Food for love 2012
The association of food with love and making love is as old as, well, food and love themselves. From Marc Anthony feeding grapes to Cleopatra, to the Aztec Emperor Montezuma drinking 50 cups of chile-spiked chocolate each day to keep his 200 wives satisfied, to the 18th century Italian, Casanova, who consumed 50-plus oysters daily…
Letter to the Editor 02/09/12
THANKS, CHRIS BRITTThanks Illinois Times for an informative story about Chris Britt’s tenure as a cartoonist with the local newspaper over the past 12 years [see “That’s all, folks: Chris Britt leaves the State Journal-Register,” by Bruce Rushton, Feb. 2]. Now I didn’t always agree with Chris’s slant on some issues but usually took sides…
Radcliffe Effective in Woman in Black
Now comes the hard part for Daniel Radcliffe. With the Harry Potter series at the end, the young man is now faced with making the transition to successful adult actor. Choosing smart scripts that will help allow him to expand his talents while not alienating his fans is the key. Otherwise, signing autographs at Potter…
PINK BLUES
Hockey has a reputation as a pretty tough game. Any sport in which referees let the players fight until someone ends up on the ice isn’t for the weak. (At one Boston Bruins game in 1979, Bruins players climbed over the glass at Madison Square Garden and fought several New York Rangers fans.) And while…
Weekend news for you
I’m writing from the road over the next few weeks, sending you this missive from the home of New Mexico scholar and poet Kendall McCook, now located in Fort Worth, Texas. From Kansas last week to Texas now, I’m off to Albuquerque and Santa Fe for shows there culminating in a tribute to beat poet,…
Thrilling tumblers
The international sensation Cirque Du Soleil brings its acrobatic and dramatic magic to the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield for the first time ever in eight spell-binding shows for the entire family. The production is about a young girl escaping boredom into the world of Quidam (also the show’s title name) where she meets…
Wanderings and doings
Yes, kids, I really did used to walk two miles to school. For the whole of my ninth grade year in 1962-63, I often walked from Washington Junior High at 21st and Jackson to our house near the Statehouse. I was not moved by any of the current faddish arguments for walking. Nor was I…
Baby, I need your oven
I love good food and wine, but I hate cooking and I’m bad at it. When you’re dating, it seems like you’re supposed to cook your partner dinner at a certain point, especially if you’re a woman. I think I’m at that point now, and I’m considering setting a nice table and ordering takeout. Will…
