Cover Story
Global headquarters
The COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, the war in Ukraine and other developments have brought into sharp focus the global relationships that reach into every part of our daily lives. What happens around the world affects our health and safety, what we can buy and how much we pay for it, and what the future…
Town and Country Shopping Center sells to Miami developer
An investment firm in Miami that promotes itself as focusing on “distressed residential and commercial projects” was the winning bidder to acquire Springfield’s Town & Country Shopping Center. Larkspur Properties is scheduled to close on the deal June 24 after its $5.77 million bid in a five-day online auction that concluded May 24. The auction…
Dream Center moves closer to reality
The pastor of Destiny Church hopes to raise “several hundred thousand dollars” so a nonprofit founded by the church can open a “Dream Center” this fall to provide free or low-cost vocational classes to young people in Springfield. “It’s something that needs to happen in our community,” Rev. Eric Hansen told Illinois Times. The Dream…
Maestro bids farewell with a spirited night of American music
This past Saturday, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra performed a program entitled “American Journey” at the UIS Performing Arts Center. The concert was the finale of an enjoyable, if somewhat disappointingly attended, 2021-2022 season, as in-person performance was cautiously reinstated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This concert will also be the last conducted by…
Grilling on a budget
Grilling season is finally upon us. Unfortunately, so is frequent sticker stock as prices continue to rise at the grocery and gas station. For those looking to celebrate the season on a budget I present three cookout menus just in time for Memorial Day. All are as delicious as they are wholesome while making good…
Mid-May music mayhem
As we roll the old chariot along through the merry month of May, the live music scene keeps rolling along as well. A delightful assortment of things is in store for you to experience if you’re willing to make a move to see what’s out there. We have a Thursday worth crowing about, so let’s…
Montana Story rewarding, New Era is familiar, Staircase is intriguing
Performances rescue Montana The physical wounds have healed, though some scars remain. However, it’s the emotional and psychological damage that have yet to be addressed in Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s Montana Story, a quiet, intimate tale of strained reconciliation set in Big Sky country. Corrupt lawyer and rancher Wade (Rob Story) is on his…
Changing lives with Girls on the Run
Everyone was a winner on Saturday, May 14, as 440 girls in 3rd-5th grades completed the Girls on the Run (GOTR) 5K at Lincoln Land Community College. Joining them were 150 coaches, 300 community and family members and 100 boys with YMCA STRIDE. The 5K race is a celebration and culmination of a 10-week program…
DCFS keeps teenager locked in psych ward
Leah is a 13-year-old girl under Department of Children and Family Services care who lives in a psychiatric ward in a Chicago hospital. Capitol News Illinois is using a pseudonym to protect her identity, but has confirmed she’s been held for months behind locked doors, despite a doctor saying she was well enough to leave…
Preserving abortion access
Gov. JB Pritzker and other prominent Democrats in Illinois have condemned a draft U.S. Supreme Court decision that would undo the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling issued almost 50 years ago. They pledged to preserve abortion access in Illinois while half of the states, including the five surrounding states, are poised to ban abortion in…
Editor’s note 05-19-22
Nothing said this week was better than Joe Biden in Buffalo. “Jill and I bring you this message from deep in our nation’s soul. In America, evil will not win. I promise you. Hate will not prevail and white supremacy will not have the last word.” He condemned the racism, violence and hate spread through…
A conservative community activist
Smart, ambitious, community-minded. Those are words those who know Regan Deering use to describe the candidate for the Republican nomination in the 13th Congressional District, an eel-shaped district that stretches from East St. Louis to Springfield to Decatur and ends in Champaign-Urbana. But as soon as her name comes up, something else is often whispered:…
Sam McCann says he may plead guilty
Former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann says he is considering pleading guilty as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors to resolve charges that he illegally spent more than $200,000 in campaign funds. McCann, 52, a former Republican senator from the Macoupin County community of Plainview, represented the 50th Senate District, which includes…
Boring Poem #2
Boring Poem #2 if you’re inattending a tedious speech class lecture have no electronic device try this quiet hand-and-finger game play: drum, drum, drum, drum, spider, spider, spider, spider tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap pan-cake, pan-cake, pan-cake, pan-cake stretch your arms way over your head and yaaawwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn repeat, repeat, pick up the…
Letters to the editor 05-19-22
CHABAD IS NEW The idea that Chabad is traditional worship in Judaism is flawed (“Teaching Jewish traditions,” May 12). Chabad as a movement is really young in terms of Judaism’s thousands of years of history. Not a great take on Judaism as a whole. Amichai Graves Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes GOOD WORK Thank you for the great…
Poll shows “undecided” leads GOP governor field
We’re little over a month from the June 28 primary, and “undecided” was the lead vote-getter last week in a new poll of 1,000 likely GOP primary voters, with 36.9 percent of respondents falling into that camp. For those polled who have picked a candidate, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin had the lead at 24.1 percent,…
Irvin and Bailey vie for Republican gubernatorial nomination
Gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin has spent tens of millions of billionaire Ken Griffin’s dollars introducing himself to Republican primary voters. Yet, a recent poll taken for WGN TV by Emerson College Polling shows he’s leading Sen. Darren Bailey by just 4 percentage points, 24-20, with 19% split between the other four candidates and undecideds “leading”…
A slippery slope of subsidies
Should the government subsidize nostalgia? I’ve been thinking about that a lot this past week. The Illinois State Fair was in danger of losing my favorite attraction. No, not the butter cow or Turasky’s thin-cut ribeye sandwiches or the annual steer show. We are talking about serious high-brow entertainment: the Giant Slide. Just about any…
