Farmer Jim
Last week I remarked on a pretty good new book about corn and the Midwest from the U of I Press. (See “Where corn is god.”) I didn’t know it then, but when I became a magazine journalist my Springfield address doomed me to writing about corn. My first cover story for a national magazine…
Gaming board nomination on hold
The nomination of Springfield attorney Don Tracy as chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board has been put on hold. The reasons aren’t clear. Tracy, who was named to the board by Gov. Bruce Rauner in February of last year, was attending a meeting of the board and could not be reached for comment. He is…
Money for nothing
As a state representative, Illinois auditor general Frank Mautino took no chances come election time, judging from his campaign finance disclosure forms filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. In the weeks leading up to the general election of 2010, Mautino spent $8,000 on poll watchers, plus $2,750 for precinct walkers plus an additional…
The 1.4 percent solution
Back in June of 2015, in “The Razor blade in the apple,” I speculated about the likely effects if passed of Mr. Rauner’s ballyhooed property tax freeze. Among its provisions, the Rauner tax freeze would exempt local governments from the Prevailing Wage Act and allow those governments to limit what is on the table when…
Questionable campaign spending
While a state representative, Illinois auditor general Frank Mautino spent more than $213,000 from his campaign fund at a Spring Valley service station in less than 11 years, according to reports filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. It works out to more than $54 a day each day between March, 2005 and December…
Visitors Guide Cover Art Contest Winners
Illinois Times was gratified by the number of entries that we received for the Visitors Guide Cover Art Contest. We would like to thank all of the 56 participants who submitted entries. Your effort and dedication to your works of art made it very difficult to select only three, but as this was a contest…
“Ride Along 2” Fires Nothing but Blanks
There’s a moment in the needless but seemingly obligatory Ride Along 2 in which everything clicks. Reluctant partners and pending brothers-in-law James (Ice Cube) and Ben (Kevin Hart) are interrogating a beautiful young woman, trying to find out where her ne’er-do-well boyfriend might be. With the suspected perp’s cellphone in hand, Ben goes through the…
Where corn is god
I grew up within a block of a corn field on the east end of Springfield. Nearly every weekend of those years we’d visit the relatives on their farm outside Beardstown; over the potholes and through the corn, to grandmother’s house we’d go, with me entranced by the corn rows, like the spokes of a…
Shameless in, shameless out: Running for president in 2016
Editor’s note: Roger Simon’s column substitutes this week for Jim Hightower’s column, which was not available at press time. “We live at a time of great events and little men.” No, this was not said after the last Republican presidential debate. It was said more than two centuries ago by Honore Gabriel Riqueti, comte de…
‘Governor 1.4 Percent’
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS A lot of folks have taken to calling Bruce Rauner “Governor 1 Percent” because of his immense personal wealth. Gov. Rauner himself told the Chicago Sun-Times during the 2014 campaign that he was in the top one-tenth of one percent of income earners. But right now he ought to be referred…
Letters to the Editor 1/21/16
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. PHOTO BY Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS INCOME TAX PROPOSALS Any tax proposal that includes a value-added tax or national sales tax has the potential to harm a consumer driven economy, which ours is. The tax calculation and enforcement would probably be very cumbersome. Sales taxes, by their nature, are…
Editor’s note 1/21/16
This week’s “Statehouse preview” cover story by Amanda Vinicky comes to you by way of Illinois Issues, the 40-year-old public affairs magazine published by University of Illinois Springfield. Since the magazine ceased print publication last summer, Issues has continued publication online, strengthened by its merger with WUIS-NPR Illinois. Together the magazine writers and radio reporters…
Government needs to work better
Whoever wins next November’s presidential election, it’s a sure bet that at some point he or she will vow to set the federal government on the straight and narrow. Maybe the new president will even resort to the time-honored pledge to create a government “as good as the people.” It’s a bracing sentiment. But you’ll…
Details of Blagojevich’s impeachment
Author Bernard Sieracki In 2008 the FBI arrested Rod Blagojevich, the then-governor of Illinois, and charged him with trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. In A Just Cause: The Impeachment and Removal of Governor Rod Blagojevich, author Bernard Sieracki provides a detailed outline of post-arrest actions taken by Illinois legislators…
Central Illinois’ biggest stair climb
Fight for Air Climb Help the American Lung Association raise funds to help those affected by lung disease while participating in central Illinois’ biggest stair climb on Sunday, Feb. 21, at 9 a.m. Participants are invited to climb all 32 floors of the Wyndham Springfield City Centre once or as many times as possible in…
Washington teens who overcame adversity
Paper Tigers Showing Enjoy a complimentary screening of Paper Tigers, a film about the pain, danger and hopes of troubled, struggling teens and how one Washington high school was able to increase significantly their graduation rate by considering new sciences and a fresh approach to teaching. Jim Sporleder, principal of Lincoln High School in Walla…
Ben Hurry
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon I’m a woman in my 40s, and I’ve been happily married for 22 years. Unfortunately, my husband and I have never been very compatible sexually. I had read so much Cosmopolitan magazine in college that I believed sex was something we could work on. Well, he is quick in…
What’s ahead in 2016?
Illinois Issues is in-depth reporting and analysis that takes you beyond the headlines to provide a deeper understanding of our state. Illinois Issues is produced by NPR Illinois 91.9 UIS in Springfield. House Speaker Michael Madigan, right, takes the brunt of Rauner’s criticism, but Madigan insists he’s compromised with Rauner. PHOTOSHOP ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOSEPH COPLEY…
Illinois’ first Raunerversary
Gov. Bruce Rauner PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE When Gov. Bruce Rauner took office on Jan. 12, 2015, he pledged to “make Illinois the most competitive and compassionate state in America.” The governor also pledged to “let the people control their own economic destinies.” That economic destiny is uncertain, with Illinois in its seventh month without…
Rauner releases calendar
Last fall, I got a tip. Gov. Bruce Rauner, my tipster said, doesn’t appear to have a state email account. The issue was germane. Besides Hillary Clinton’s infamous failure to do business on a State Department email account and her ensuing apology, Rauner has said that state employees shouldn’t conduct public business on private email…
Rail funding optimism
A federal transportation funding bill passed in December gives Springfield’s rail relocation project a more certain future. Although funding for the rail project isn’t secured yet, the federal bill means more money for rail-specific programs and for Illinois transportation overall. “This gives us a pot of money to draw from that we didn’t have before,”…
Pay up, please
The Springfield City Council has approved a resolution aimed at convincing the state to pay delinquent utility bills. But city officials say it’s unlikely that the city will shut off service to state facilities. “At this point, I don’t see it happening,” said Mayor Jim Langfelder after Tuesday’s council vote. The state is City Water,…
MUSEUM MOVE
The Springfield & Central Illinois African-American History Museum has a new home. Focused on chronicling the history and legacy of African-Americans in Springfield and central Illinois, the museum started out at 521 East Washington St., the former home of Robert’s Brothers Clothing Store. (The museum’s website says that when the store was open, African-Americans could…
CONGRATS FOR CAHOKIA
December was full of accomplishments for the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, a research office which concentrates on the archaeological heritage of Illinois. In early December, ISAS got coverage in National Geographic and Archaeology Magazine for uncovering a bobcat kitten or “bobkitten” buried around 2,000 years ago at the prehistoric city and archaeological site known as…
Carol: A modern take on yesterday’s oppression
Rooney Mara as Therese Belivet and Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird in Carol. In adapting Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, director Todd Haynes takes the refreshing approach of looking at the era of repression that was the 1950s through a modern lens. Rather than give us a Douglas Sirk-like exercise, much as he…
Musings on music
Jackson Taylor and the Sinners get down and dirty at Guitars & Cadillacs on Saturday night. As the good, old cold settles in on January wintertime, let’s take a moment to cover a couple of things and hopefully discover a few, too. First, here are a couple reminders of upcoming concert and festival events that…
Hipbone Sam
Hipbone Sam Together for over six years now, it’s hard to imagine a time when Hipbone Sam wasn’t on the scene. Bandmates Kevin Hawkins as Hipbone Sam (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Rick Mari (lead guitar, keyboards, vocals), Rob Ross (drums, vocals), Mark Riefler (bass guitar, vocals) and newest member Zack Fedor (harmonica, guitar, vocals) put…
Oatmeal
PHOTO BY PETER GLATZ I’ve written more than once about my long-term dislike of cold cereals. Well, not actually (some) cereals as such, but the concept of putting it into a bowl with milk. The first bites aren’t so bad, the ones wherein the cereal retains at least some of its crunch. For me, it…
tintin poem #2
tintin poem #2 WILL has opera on saturdayalso classics by request not surewhich this was on but I’ve alwaysliked the announcer john frayne Ilisten in the car didn’t get in on thefirst bars of a soprano singing aflorid aria lots of high notes trillsvolume john frayne at its finish saidthat was the jewel song from faustby…
