We are the East germans
I am taking a break from regular column-writing, but I might from time to time alert readers to columns of the sort I might have written or wished I could write on topics of moment. I ran across two such columns today. The topic is immigration, the social wisdom thereof. It is a drum I…
Something in the water?
Football fans have seen amazing things in recent weeks. Coach installs a freshman as quarterback in the second half and Alabama wins the national championship in overtime. With no time on the clock, the Minnesota Vikings score a go-ahead touchdown to advance in the NFL playoffs. The Vikings got clobbered the following week. What happens…
Inequality is feeding America
Last year, Good Jobs First tracked the 386 incentive deals since 1976 that gave at least $50 million to a corporation, and then it tallied the number of jobs created. The average cost per job was $658,427. Each. That’s likely far more than cities and states can recover through sales, property, income, and all other…
Donne Trotter’s legacy
Assistant Illinois Senate Majority Leader Donne Trotter (D-Chicago) has retired after almost 30 years in the General Assembly. Sen. Trotter has been talking about retiring for years, but he has repeatedly been convinced to stick around a while longer. This time, the entreaties fell on deaf ears. He’s done, and he told me he wants to…
Letters to the Editor
YOU, WHOEVER YOU ARE In January, the world’s media reported that the president had made horrible comments about the nations of Africa and elsewhere, including Haiti. As I absorbed all this, my thoughts turned to two 19th century Unitarians – firstly Abraham Lincoln and then to Walt Whitman. Lincoln was a friend of the immigrants…
Editor’s Note
This week Sen. Chuck Schumer said he is withdrawing his offer to fund President Donald Trump’s border wall as part of the upcoming deal on immigration and funding the government. But White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said he can’t do that. “Senator Schumer is trying to rescind an offer that he never made…
Why’s there so much focus on the presidency?
Because we live in such tumultuous political times, it’s easy to believe that today’s intense public focus on the Trump presidency is something new – an obsession like none we’ve ever seen before. Yet to one degree or another, the president has always been at the center of the public’s attention. This is because the…
Jokes and juggling
See Mark Nizer, one of the greatest entertainment comedians and jugglers of today, on Saturday, Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m., at Kirkland Fine Arts Center in Decatur. Mark’s one-man show has been astounding audiences around the world with feats such as juggling laser beams at 1,000 RPM, throwing ping-pong balls 20 feet in the air using…
Film buffs and foodies unite
If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about the people, places and history behind the food you eat, this film festival is for you. The 10th Annual Slow Food Springfield Film Festival will run from 5 through 9 p.m., on Saturday, Jan. 27, inside Foundation Hall at Springfield’s Old State Capitol State Historic Site. The…
Musings of Mr. Matheny
Hear a presentation by St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny on Saturday, Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m., inside the Sherman Gymnasium at Illinois College’s Bruner Fitness and Recreation Center. Matheny, who is about to enter his seventh season of management with the St. Louis Cardinals, will share stories from his career as a player and coach,…
Burden of ‘poof’
Out of the blue, my boyfriend of two years broke up with me. Not long afterward, I saw pix on Facebook of him with some other girl. It’s been two months since our breakup, and he wants to reconcile, so whatever he got into obviously tanked. We were planning on moving in together in the…
A program to prevent Alzheimer’s
Dale E. Bredesen’s 2017 book, The End of Alzheimer’s, provides a new perspective on this debilitating and dreaded disease. Subtitled The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline, the book includes stories of individuals with Alzheimer’s who have improved their cognitive function. The audience for this book includes those already suffering cognitive decline, individuals…
Healthy mouth, healthy body
The mouth serves as a gateway to the body. There is a connection between oral health and general health. Our mouth can tell us whether we’re at risk for developing chronic inflammatory health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. More than 300 different kinds of bacteria live in the mouth. While some bacteria are…
To prevent knee problems, get ‘hip’
Knee pain is common and may be caused by many things, including sports injury, trauma, repetitive strain or arthritis. Patellofemoral pain occurs when the kneecap does not track properly and causes anterior knee pain. If you have knee pain or other lower extremity problems, you must pay close attention to your hips and the strength…
A healthy dose of mindfulness
Our mental wellness is just as important as our physical wellness. Many of us are in shape physically but out of shape mentally. The benefits of being in shape mentally include regaining control of our mind and body. We can begin to a have a deeper concentration and joy for each of life’s moments when…
Deadly myth of ‘nonclinical’ heart disease
Test results from President Trump’s annual physical reveal he has atherosclerosis, a common type of heart disease, the leading killer of Americans, often from heart attacks or strokes. At a White House briefing, the president’s doctor, Ronny Jackson, M.D., initially denied that Trump has heart disease, then called the atherosclerosis “nonclinical,” meaning that the president…
Women march for resistance
On Saturday, Jan. 20, over 1,500 people gathered in front of the State Capitol for the second annual Women’s March, part of a worldwide protest in favor of legislation and policies supporting women’s rights, environmental preservation, health care reform, immigration reform, reproductive rights, LGBT rights and other progressive issues. The first Women’s March took place…
City faces budget hole
Barack Obama had been president for barely a year the last time the city of Springfield faced a budget crunch as serious as the one now facing the mayor and city council. With a $17 million gap to fill and no appetite for tax increases, the city council in 2010 slashed budgets for the police,…
Sexual harassment response continues into spring session
Sexual harassment allegations from last fall are still on legislators’ minds as the General Assembly prepares for its spring session. Sen. Christina Castro, D-Elgin, filed two bills in early January that would expand the jurisdiction of the Legislative Ethics Committee and the Legislative Inspector General (IG). One bill would allow former legislators and legislative employees…
Hostiles a wasted opportunity
There’s much to like about Scott Cooper’s Hostiles, making it all the more frustrating that it winds up being an incomplete picture. Sporting a $40 million budget and location shooting in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, the film has a naturalistic, epic feel to it that hearkens back to the glory days of the Western.…
There goes January
I think I blinked and missed it, as we are now in the last week of January 2018. Maybe we can blame the fancy flight of time on our ever-happening live music scene that doesn’t quit. It’s the last Thursday of the month, and that means its time for Americana Night at the Curve Inn,…
ZXO
This Saturday, ZXO comes strolling over from Champaign to the lower level Radon Lounge (contact info at radonlounge@gmail.com) with several other fine music acts from around the area. Bandmates Ryan Brewer, Garrick Nelson, Gabe Gerhardt and Teddy Lerch in ZXO call their music a “psychedelic slow jam,” placing it in the genre of “cosmic molasses,”…
My face-off with Instant Pot
I’m not one for single-use kitchen appliances or gadgets. Bread makers take up too much space, and generally I’m not a fan of slow cookers. They’re fine for making broth or reheating soup, but the inability to sear or brown foods before they settle in for the long braise was a deal breaker. I’d rather…
women’s rall #2
womens’ rally #2, 1/20/2018at Lincoln’s statue, state capital a toddler’s banner read: I’M AGAINST XENOPHOBIA RACISM – MISOGYNY –HOMOPHOBIA – NAPS! at the inaugural anniversary first day of gop-govt-ga(s)p a thousand of us all ages sexes colors our pink pussycaps punctuating the crowd full of fun flame fury inspiration: all the fem candidates! What the…
