Robbie Skates for Gold in “I, Tonya”
The saga of Tonya Harding was reality television before the term even existed. As a college student, I remember turning on the news each night as the attack of her rival Nancy Kerrigan was investigated. For a while it seemed as though there was a new revelation each night and as more of Harding’s life…
A pause to reflect
This week’s column is the 1,000th to appear under my name in this paper, and I’ve decided it’s time to take a break from weekly opinion-mongering. After so many essays, even I am getting tired of hearing myself talk. Besides, I have been working on what I believe will be a very interesting book about…
Inequality is feeding America
Inequality doesn’t just come out of the blue, it’s intentionally created by decisions that elites make – usually behind closed doors, so those knocked down don’t know what (or who) hit them. Take America’s 4 million fast-food workers, whose average pay hovers around a miserly $300 a week before taxes. With the labor market tightening,…
To use the chief of police for political motives
Just days before the 2010 general election, then-Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) introduced then-Gov. Pat Quinn at a Chicago rally by calling Quinn’s Republican opponent a “racist,” among other things. The resulting uproar was quite something to behold, but Hendon refused to apologize to Sen. Bill Brady and so did Quinn. Everyone, including me, thought that…
Letters to the Editor 1/11/18
APPROVE THE DOWNTOWN DEAL Bright New Day Investments, LLC, Rick Lawrence’s downtown project on the corner of Sixth Street and Monroe, is before the City Council with a TIF request. Mistakes have been made in the initial phase of this project, and Mr. Lawrence has admitted this. He’s working to satisfy payment issues and welcomes…
Editor’s note 1/11/18
This week we welcome our new journalism intern, Megan Swett, a student in University of Illinois Springfield’s Public Affairs Reporting master’s degree program. Megan, from O’Fallon, received her undergraduate degree from UIS, where she was editor-in-chief of The Journal, the student newspaper. For the next six months Megan will be reporting for IT from the…
King’s speech in Springfield
While Martin Luther King, Jr. is best known for his “I have a dream” speech, the civil rights icon delivered a major speech in Springfield on labor, economics and civil rights on Oct. 7, 1965. Speaking to the 4,000-plus delegates at the Illinois AFL-CIO’s annual convention in the State Armory at Second and Monroe, King…
Honoring MLK
The keynote speaker for the 43rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast, hosted by Frontiers International of Springfield, is W.J. Michael Cody, a practicing attorney in Memphis, Tennessee, with Burch, Porter & Johnson PLLC. During the Memphis sanitation worker strike of 1968, Mr. Cody was part of a small group of lawyers who…
A comedic thriller
This weekend, take in a performance of Deathtrap, a nerve-wracking thriller by Ira Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby. The play is a joint production between Hoogland Productions and Playhouse on the Square. The story centers on Sidney, a playwright who hasn’t penned a hit in years. When a young author introduces Sidney to a new…
Sleep actually
My husband and I have been married for eight years. We have a 5-year-old son, and we both work full time. We used to have these amazing, crazy sex marathons, but now we’re too tired from our jobs and parenthood. We have sex about once a month, if that. I’m worried that this isn’t healthy…
A building for belonging
“The coolest thing is that so many students participated in big and small ways,” says John Tienken, a former University of Illinois Springfield student trustee who is now a law student at the University of Chicago. Tienken is one of those students who contributed in a big way and was a driving force behind development…
MLK’s legacy honored at museum
When a single rifle shot in Memphis, Tennessee, cut short the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King at age 39 on April 4, 1968, it cemented the iconic status of the civil rights leader and towering orator. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the assassination, the Springfield and Central Illinois African American…
Hybrid vigor
This past weekend, two of Springfield’s most vibrant creative organizations joined forces for a unique two-day show. The Pharmacy Gallery and Art Space – which for seven years has hosted seasonal exhibits featuring new work by its member artists in a variety of media – and the Southtown neighborhood’s Black Sheep Café – which for…
Grim numbers, real people
They range, these Sangamon County drug overdose victims, from retirees to folks who fit squarely within the stereotype of hopeless drug addict. Consider the 63-year-old man found dead last March in his basement apartment on South Fifth Street. An experienced junkie, he recently had declined an offer of a meal from a neighbor, explaining that…
The best-laid plans
Developers have made peace over a comprehensive land-use plan for Springfield, but a larger battle may lie ahead. Concerned that the draft plan would curb development, particularly on the city’s west side, developers convinced the city to postpone a vote on the plan that had been expected in December. The move to stall a vote…
HIGH SCHOOL PEEK
Families with current eighth-grade students are encouraged to attend high school preview night events being held at 6 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 11, at Lanphier, Southeast and Springfield high schools. Visitors will learn about courses, tour the applicable school and meet teachers and administrators. The event is open to any families with incoming freshmen, including those…
RAUNER THE TRANSPARENT
Jump into the Wayback Machine and you can hear Gov. Bruce Rauner, then a candidate, make his point loud and clear: “I want to make Illinois government the most efficient, transparent (state government) in America,” Rauner said in 2014. After winning office, Rauner doubled down. “We’ve got to change that culture and be more responsive,”…
The Post a timely tale of power of the press
The timing couldn’t be better for the release of Steven Spielberg’s The Post, and the director is well-aware of its importance. The script by first-time screenwriter Liz Hannah crossed the filmmaker’s desk in early 2017 and went into production in May. A sprint to get the film released by the end of the year ensued…
Warm up to live music
Hardly anything (other than maybe a friendly animal, or a pile of quilts, or a blazing fire) can warm the bones like a good musical performance. Since hauling any of the aforementioned things around could be considered cumbersome, silly or dangerous, go see some live music to heat things up and beat the winter blahs.…
Jared Grabb
This Peoria native is making a splash in the folk-indie-Americana mold by breaking the mold and simply playing good, original music in a sensible and poetic way. Not much on hype and hyperbole, Grabb gets you where it counts (right in the artistic solar plexus) and describes his take on things as “an indie/punk interpretation…
A date to change your life
Growing up, I had a wealthy, eccentric great-aunt whom I’d never met. She was a widow who lived with her eight Yorkshire Terriers in a pink mansion on the beach in Malibu. According to my grandmother, the Yorkies each had their own room and were visited regularly by a pet psychic who would convey their…
dark and stormy night poem
dark and stormy night poem it was a dark and stormynight and all the mutantswere sitting around thecampfire then No-Nosespoke up and said No-Toestell us The Story and thisis The Story he told: it wasa dark and stormy nightwhen our dark and stormyTop-Tweet who took umbrageat anyone and anything andhad The Button on his deskand…
