State’s slow aid payments squeeze Springfield agencies
The trickle-down effect of the gridlock gripping the state government’s budget is approaching crisis level for some local social service agencies. Last week, the board of directors at the Phoenix Center sent an e-mail to about 200 friends and potential donors saying that the Illinois Department of Public Health has yet to make a single…
YES WE CAN! YES! YES! YES!
If you’re still moping about not getting tix to the presidential festivities next week, the Illinois Historical Society has something that’ll perk you right up. Kansas City artist Rick Lynn has created two limited-edition sets of bobblehead dolls depicting the incoming POTUS Barack Obama and VP Joe Biden. Another bobble features Obama solo brandishing a…
Letters to the Editor
First Night thanks On behalf of the Springfield Area Arts Council and the First Night committee, I wish to offer our sincere appreciation to the thousands of people who supported and participated in this year’s celebration of the arts and the new year. We recognize that there are countless ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve,…
Keep the weight off
Are you tired of even reading about weight loss and fitness, let alone trying to achieve it? So am I. But here I am writing about it! Even the word ‘exercise’ annoys me now. Yet, somehow I managed to keep all my excess weight off for at least 17 years. How, you ask, have I…
Will gravel pits do the job?
Allen Wehrmann, the head of the Center for Groundwater Science at the Illinois State Water Survey in Champaign, recently told Illinois Times that he’s not convinced that gravel pits, including the $875,000 Clear Lake Township gravel pit that the city council voted to purchase last week, could provide Springfield with its backup water supply. “There’s…
Racewalking
If you are a baby boomer, you probably remember when joggers first appeared in the 1960s. They looked strange, bouncing down the street not going anywhere fast. But in a few years joggers were everywhere. The “tipping point” had been reached, and joggers no longer seemed odd. Racewalking, which may look a bit strange to…
People’s Poetry
kidquote poem #8 (scrap found written bydaughter #4, age 10 years,counting her blessings) 1. I am alive 2. I am here 3. I have friends 4. I am not an orphan 5. I have sisters 6. I am skilled 7. I am clothed 8. I have a kitten 9. I have camp10. I am not…
Too many payday loan shops drive businesses away
Alderman Debbie Cimarossa, working in conjunction with the MacArthur Boulevard Business Association (MBBA), last fall introduced an ordinance to the city council that would have required payday lenders to be located at least 1,500 feet (approximately three blocks) apart. It grandfathered existing businesses, but the MBBA felt that the ordinance would have been one means…
LOCAL BOOK BEST
Springfield writer Carol Manley got to see her name listed alongside legendary authors like Toni Morrison, John Updike and Ken Follett when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch chose her book Church Booty as one of the 32 best works of fiction for 2008. “It was amazing,” Manley says. “It felt kind of like a fluke thing.”…
Governor’s healthcare record a mixed Blag
Gov. Rod Blagojevich responded to the Illinois House of Representatives’ decision to impeach him last week in Chicago, flanked by eight individuals that the governor said have been helped by his administration’s healthcare policies. Except for one young man identified by the governor as Omar Castillo, Blagojevich didn’t name any of the other people standing…
IT Picks
CONCERT | Elvis tribute More than 1,500 Elvis fans from all over Illinois are expected to attend the 13th annual Midwest Tribute to the King Competition. The two-day show, presented by COOL Radio 101.9, features Elvis impersonators competing to take home the king’s crown. Most of the performers involved tour the country on a regular…
So governor, here’s what you should do next
Governor Rod Blagojevich was pure defiance last week after the House voted 114-1 to impeach him. Blagojevich said he expected the impeachment because the House has been fighting him tooth and nail ever since he was reelected in 2006. A statement his office released a day earlier predicted smoother sailing in the Senate. “It was…
Music ‘repairing the world’
Love your neighbor as you love yourself. It’s a commandment familiar to both Jews and Christians, but it takes a person of strong faith to both talk the talk and walk the walk. Rick Recht, the top touring artist in Jewish rock, is one such person. He’s making it his business to tear down the…
Gifts of life from Springfield to the world
So seemingly humdrum are the operations of Mission Outreach that one of the most difficult tasks for chief executive officer Bruce Compton is creating promotional materials. “Beyond taking a picture of some guy’s back while he’s loading a truck,” little can really capture the significance of the work going on at the facility, he says.…
Bringing fairness to the workplace
Unions. Who needs ’em? They’re so 1930s. This is the frantic argument being pushed by corporate lobbyists who’re worried by the recent resurgence in union organizing, political punch and public support. Sure, say these corporatists, unions were needed back in the bad ol’ Depression days, when executives treated workers with all the respect that a…
Life has gotten bleeping crazy
Years ago, when I was new in town and causing trouble, Rich Miller phoned me, out of the blue, and invited me to lunch. As I recall, he gave me something like 15 minutes notice to show up at a downtown restaurant. I figured his real lunch appointment must have canceled and I was a…
Don’t bother to RSVP to Bride Wars
One of the basic elements needed to make a successful movie is to have characters who are likable or dynamic in some way. I know this sounds like an elementary thing but those involved in the making of Bride Wars must have been absent for that lesson on the day they covered it in Movies…
Outfoxin’ those toxins
Still feeling sluggish and a bit bloated after all those holiday indulgences? Are you lacking energy and having trouble getting back to your regular routine? Perhaps the biggest New Year’s resolution cliché is going on a diet. Almost as big a cliché is that most folks “fall off the wagon” in very short order. This…
The weekly shows, always good and ever faithful
No doubt about it, with Y’allapalooza at the Prairie Capital Convention Center bringing in several country music stars (watch for touring bus traffic jams) and the Hilton hosting the annual Midwest Tribute to the King Competition (want to ride in an elevator with an Elvis imitator?) the area around the mighty Hiltonian and the PC-3…
Country festival at the Prairie Capital
efore deciding to take the plunge and go to a Y’allapalooza, informed readers may be wondering, “What exactly is a Y’allapalooza?” Those up on the contemporary country music scene could likely recognize the moniker from outdoor concerts mostly happening around the Midwest during the last several years. Rockers will get the “palooza” part as a…
