Bill passes to combat opioid epidemic
While the state legislature’s lame-duck session earlier this month was largely defined by criminal justice reform, a measure aimed at the opioid epidemic passed through both chambers more quietly. State Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, was a sponsor of the measure, meant to add teeth to the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program, a network that collects and…
Time for “repair work”
Kathy Johnson of Springfield knows a thing or two about diplomacy. She filled posts in countries including Poland, Austria, Mexico and Syria. She is a senior member of the U.S. Foreign Service after serving 31 years. Her last assignment was director of the National Museum of American Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., a post she held…
Reform or overreach?
Police and prosecutors are blasting a bill that eliminates cash bail and puts the state in charge of determining whether cops accused of misconduct can remain police officers. The bill, introduced on Jan. 5 and passed during the closing hours of the lame duck session – the Senate got a revised version at 3 a.m.…
Charting its own course
Micah Miller is one of the three District 186 school board members to consistently vote for schools to remain remote. Whichever position parents, teachers, administrators or board members take – it’s a controversial one. While just about any in-person activity comes with a risk to health these days, Springfield serves many low-income and at-risk students…
Small changes, big results
Years before having a family of my own, I had a conversation with my brother-in-law in which he admitted that his favorite time of day was in the morning, before his children had woken up. Not understanding how exhausting parenting can be, I was shocked by his admission and judged him harshly. I pegged him…
Evaluate your financial health
Typically, people make resolutions at the dawn of each new year to improve their health and physical fitness. Now that a global pandemic has caused many businesses to close their doors and cost more than a million Illinoisans their jobs, the list of resolutions for 2021 may include improving one’s financial health. Even those who…
Staying active during COVID
In December, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna rolled out COVID-19 vaccines that many hope will return us to a normal way of life. What they won’t do is address the other physical and emotional symptoms people have been dealing with in the wake of the pandemic. Some have suffered the worst loss imaginable: the death of a…
Bullet journaling
It’s the time of year when many people make goals to shed undesirable habits and encourage healthy behaviors, and meeting a buddy at the gym or a meditation class can provide accountability. However, a pandemic restricting indoor activities and social gatherings puts a damper on this time-honored method. A bullet journal can provide another means…
Managing mental health during a pandemic
With restrictions brought on by COVID-19, many people are working from home and unable to gather in-person with friends and family. This isolation can lead to mental health issues as people struggle to create new routines in the absence of normal human interactions. Brenda Protz, a Lincoln Land Community College communications professor, took a medical…
Sangamon County beginnings
Sangamon County’s humble beginnings seem so distant as we approach the bicentennial of the founding of the county on Jan. 30, 1821. Our founders owed their survival largely to the fertile soils created by glaciation, primarily during the Illinoian Period of 191,000 to 130,000 years ago. Native Americans introduced early settlers to corn and several…
Healthy, Wealthy and Wise
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Comfort food that’s good for you
In times of high anxiety my strong inclination is to retreat to the kitchen and turn on the stove. The practiced movements of my hands kneading dough or mincing onions helps me to process all the messy information floating around in my brain. As a bonus there’s usually something yummy produced as a result. It’s…
Cannabis conundrums
The cannabis industry has failed minorities. Just one percent of the state’s growing facilities are owned by African Americans. Blacks control only three percent of marijuana retail outlets. Such dismal figures have prompted legislation aimed at increasing the number of cannabis businesses owned by African Americans, who are said to have suffered disproportionately in the…
Preview by review
As a few larger venues are able to open up as we experience an orderly lessening of the pandemic protocols around the state, a return to a music scene as we know it is in our foreseeable future. While we’re waiting, how about checking out what we were doing a few years ago at this…
Springfield, home of wasted opportunities
The pending demolition of the old downtown YMCA to create yet another vacant lot will be the latest in a string of similar failures. The YWCA block, immediately north of the Governor’s Mansion, was the worst. The state of Illinois failed in a 40-year plan and Springfield cajoles the state into a city takeover to…
Movement and figure translated
“Duet” presents a new installation of video, print and sculptural works by Shir Ende and Max Guy. Ende is a Chicago-based artist and educator. She has screened videos at Nightingale, Comfort Station and Roman Susan, participated in the Center Program at the Hyde Park Art Center and was a 2018-2019 Hatch Resident at the Chicago…
Editors note 1/21/21
Democracy doesn’t need an apology. But we can stop blaming Trump, Twitter, Republicans and reporters. And get back to work on vaccination, immigration, education, discrimination and a peaceful nation. Ask what your country can do for other countries. Freedom is a project not halfway done. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO
Stewardship
Ready for some fresh air and exercise to help shake off those midwinter blues? Like the idea of practicing some stewardship at the same time? Friends of Sangamon Valley, a charitable membership organization dedicated to the preservation of our natural heritage by acquiring, restoring and protecting ecologically significant lands in the Sangamon River watershed, is…
Hard times ahead for Governor Pritzker
“The legislature is going to be a check on the executive branch,” newly elected House Speaker Chris Welch flatly declared to me during an interview the other day. Welch was responding to a question I posed to him about his Jan. 13 inaugural address, when he asked not-so-rhetorically, “Why is it difficult to ensure that…
Now streaming
Gabriela Cowperthwaite pulls off an impressive trick with Our Friend, a fact-based drama about a young mother (Dakota Johnson) stricken with cancer, her in-over-his-head husband (Casey Affleck) and their best friend (Jason Segel) who helps them in their darkest hour. In the wrong hands, this could have been a run-of-the-mill weeper, but the director employs…
calmness poem #1
perhaps the chaos has calmed but in any case here is something calming: on your device dial itzhak perlman playing the mendelssohn concerto see him thread his way through the orchestra on his crutches (polio when he was four) watch him rest the crutches beside his chair, lift his violin begin to play – you…
Letters to the editor 1/21/21
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to letters@illinoistimes.com. —- WHO GETS VACCINE FIRST? All large, bureaucratic programs quickly devolve into picking winners and losers. Our economy has been devastated because government at all levels chose those to survive and those that were expendable.…
