Listen to the President — he’s your leader
Reporter Claire Cain Miller recalled Pres. Obama’s wish, expressed during the State of the Union Address, that Internet service that is fast enough to be useful and affordable enough to be used be extended to every American city. Right now, lack of competition among the big providers means that most Americans have both slower and…
On the roads again?
In “Topping off the tank” in 2012, I noted about the federal gas tax that it had not been adjusted for inflation since 1993, Merely raising the federal gas tax enough to restore the purchasing power it had in 1993 would put the bulldozers back to work improving the nation’s road network. Such an increase wouldn’t be a…
Art Beat: Paper Dolls, A Doc About A Street Photog & More
This week, we take a look at an art exhibit currently on display at the Prairie Art Alliance’s H.D. Smith Gallery at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in Springfield. We talk to Carolyn Owen Sommer about her work that came from a challenge to create 30 pieces of art in 30 days. The result…
2015 Oscar Nominations: Snubs and Surprises Aplenty
It’s an annual rite in Hollywood. If you’re part of the film industry, you wait by the phone in the wee morning hours on the second Thursday in January as Oscar nominations are announced at 5:30 am PST. While those with the slightest chance might say they were sound asleep when the announcements were made…
Corporate clog turned comedy cash cow
The outrageous, fun and ridiculous Greg Hahn draws comedic inspiration from his varied life experiences. Lucky for his audiences, Greg’s life is fascinating. Hailing from South Florida, Greg served as a captain in the Marine Corps and worked as a buyer for Lockheed Corporation before deciding to forgo the corporate world for the entertainment world.…
Lessons from the comptroller battle
We have likely received an early lesson in how the upcoming spring state legislative session will play itself out with new Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and a Democratic General Assembly. The Democrats on Jan. 8 jammed through their plan to limit the term of incoming Republican comptroller Leslie Munger to two years with a special…
My duty to make you uncomfortable
CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT Last week, four of my brothers in ink were brutally assassinated as they sat down for an editorial meeting in the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine. Their crime? Drawing cartoons and waging a visual war against religious and political hypocrisy. They were fearless defenders of freedom of expression,…
Alan Dixon’s record of public service
I am writing in response to James Krohe, Jr.’s inane and sophomoric diatribe regarding U.S. Sen. Alan J. Dixon [see “Official graffiti,” Dec. 18]. I had the honor of working with Alan Dixon in the offices of the Illinois State Treasurer, Illinois Secretary of State, and U.S. Senate. (I use the word “with” because Dixon…
Rauner taps Blago retread
A lawyer once at the center of disputes between Attorney General Lisa Madigan and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is now Gov. Bruce Rauner’s top adviser on environmental issues. “Oh my God,” exclaimed former assistant attorney general Thomas Davis when told that Robert Alec Messina has been tapped by Rauner to be the governor’s policy adviser…
Insult with wit
Left, Former Vice President Spiro Agnew and right, Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, Ill Spiro T. Agnew came to Springfield in September of 1970 to make a speech. To that approximately half of the public not yet born in 1970, I must explain that Mr. Agnew was a vice president of the United States, meaning he…
ALPLM adrift
Brent D. Glass PHOTO BY KEN RAHAIM, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION What do you get if you promise to raise money to build a museum but don’t deliver, then borrow millions of dollars to buy artifacts of questionable authenticity once the museum opens and then falter at fundraising to repay the loan? If you’re the Abraham Lincoln…
Editor’s note
For the past 10 years the Dominican Sisters of Springfield have been both learning and teaching that there’s a lot more to racism than some people not liking other people. See our cover story, “Rooting out systemic racism,” by Patrick Yeagle. By exploring the conjunction of race and power, the sisters have started a movement…
Sniper’s aim is true
Kyle Gallner as Winston and Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in American Sniper. PHOTOS COURTESY WARNER BROS. PICTURES His best and most-assured film since Invictus, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper covers many themes the filmmaker has touched on over the course of his career. The devastating impact of violence, the importance of community and the irony…
Champion of justice
JAMES C. CRAVEN Even as he tilted at windmills, James C. Craven, who died on Monday at 89, made a difference. As a state appellate court judge and proud liberal, he wrote a lot of dissents during his years on the bench that began in 1964. As a lawyer in private practice, he transformed Springfield,…
Trial nears in drowning case
Shortly before Eric M. Jones drowned in Lake Springfield in 2007, the mayor’s office received a complaint. A woman called the city to complain that just one lifeguard was on post while 52 children swam and frolicked in the water. The woman, whose name doesn’t appear on an email that the mayor’s office sent to…
Rooting out systemic racism
SCODR co-chairman Kenley Wade. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE The Dominican Sisters of Springfield have a long history. Their congregation was founded in Jacksonville in 1873 and moved to Springfield in 1893. However, some of the women who founded the congregation came from the much older Convent of St. Catherine in Kentucky. That group formed well…
Let the music speak
April Verch truly loves the music she’s making and the people she’s making it with. This shines through in all aspects of her being. April cites her father, an avid guitar player and singer from Canada’s Ottawa Valley, as instrumental in sparking in her love of music from an early age. In a five-minute documentary…
College bowl games become corporate money games
Growing up in Texas, I learned that God and guns were important, but football – well, football was the real religion, the essence of life itself. So I can understand the hyperbolic exuberance of a radio hypester in Montgomery, Alabama, who declared that the Dec. 20 Camellia Bowl was “going to be the biggest event…
Slightest provocation
Curses, foiled again• Fugitive Jacob Moore, 25, tried to divert police attention from his home where officers were preparing to execute a warrant by calling in a bomb threat to an elementary school in Hayden, Idaho. Moore forgot to turn off his caller ID, however, allowing authorities to trace the call to his phone and…
Hidden treasures
Here’s a fun secret from the museum and gallery world: When it comes to planning and installing exhibits, often the most unique and most interesting artifacts and works of art never see the light of a gallery. For every piece on public display, there are dozens of other objects carefully stored and packed away in…
Custom Cup Coffee
Kendra Boesdorfer, co-owner of Custom Cup Coffee located at 321 E. Monroe St. PHOTOS BY DAVID HINE Brent and Kendra Boesdorfer are passionate about coffee: its endless nuances of flavor that depend on location, terroir (soil), altitude; as well as growing, harvesting, processing and roasting methods. And they want you to become passionate about coffee,…
Letter to the Editor 1/15/15
PHOTO BY DAVID HINE DESIGNING DOWNTOWNSpringfield’s history and its future are intertwined. In that sense, urban planning has become a key issue for this city. We are finally taking a hard look at changing what we have done in the past, what other cities are implementing and how to use their experiences to our advantage.…
Leave story
I had an amazing first date with this guy: dinner, a movie, a stroll around the park and a passionate good-night kiss. That was two weeks ago. Since then, I haven’t heard a peep. How was it awesome for me but not for him? Were we, unbeknownst to me, on two different dates? –Disturbed When a…
january 15, 2015
today’s her birthday or wasit’s not that I loved her morethan I loved—love—you threeI loved her different just asI love each of you differentand now that particular muchloved much valued differenceis gone except it surrounds mein the very air I breathe andso I play the stupid word gamesthat absorb my errant thoughtsjust as she did…
Big Smo
Call it “hick hop” or “country rap,” but whatever you aim to name this style of combining country lyric themes with rap production and attitudes, John Lee Smith, better known as Big Smo, does it like no other. Born in San Diego, Big Smo put out his first recordings in 2002. Not long after a…
Tennessee connection
Lyman Ellerman plays Guitars & Cadilllacs on Sat., Jan 17, joined by Chuck Werner, Jimmy Bonefeste, David Leach and Jessi James. Prepare yourself for plenty of local action as clubs are filled with area bands this weekend. But a deeper look shows a Tennessee tie to the local scene now and in recent weeks. Nashville…
