Cover Story
Janitors vs. germs
You touch it, they clean it. Possibly the most under-appreciated workers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are the men and women who scrub, wipe, spray, mist and disinfect the buildings used by students, travelers, businesses and diners. Springfield’s custodians and cleaning service employees are just as much on the pandemic front lines as health care…
Open for business
Some local restaurants are reopening what looks like indoor dining, with the blessing of the Sangamon County Department of Public Health. “We just got updated from the Health Dept. that since we can open 50% or more of our front windows, like the last outdoor dining sanction months ago, we are able once again to…
Hybrid option tentatively offered
School officials are robocalling and emailing parents of Springfield Public Schools students to let them know they can once again choose whether they would like their children to attend class either remotely or under a hybrid option. The hybrid option would have students report to school in-person on certain days of the week and learn…
Hitler posting draws judicial attention
On Tuesday, Nov. 17, Tim Timoney, a Springfield lawyer who runs a west side tavern, posted a doctored photo of Gov. JB Pritzker on his Facebook page that included a toothbrush mustache, a Hitler-style haircut and a reference to “der Fuhrer.” Within a day, judges in the 11th Judicial Circuit, where Timoney is employed as…
The park formerly known as Douglas
What was known as Douglas Park in Springfield has a new name. On Wednesday night, the Springfield Park District board voted 6-1 to rename the park in honor of Otis B. Duncan. He was a Springfield resident who served in World War I and was the highest-ranking Black member of his division. The proposal began…
Reyne to give up reins
Coronavirus has claimed a victim on the Springfield Fire Department. Fire chief Allen Reyne, who has coordinated the city’s response to coronavirus since last spring, says that his retirement, announced at Tuesday’s city council meeting, was hastened by the burden of a pandemic that has claimed at least 76 lives in Sangamon County since last…
Making Springfield attractive to wildlife
The osprey is a large black and white raptor that feeds on fish. From early spring through late summer, osprey are seen occasionally at Lake Springfield gliding through the air and plunging into the water to catch fish in their talons. Lincoln Memorial Garden director Joel Horwedel is hoping that a pair will decide to…
To teach or not to teach?
One-third of teachers throughout the state have considered leaving the profession this year, according to a survey done by one of the state’s largest unions for school staff, the Illinois Education Association (IEA). The scientific survey polled more than 1,300 union members from across Illinois during the week of Oct. 19. Among other questions, members…
A Thanksgiving like no other
There’s no getting around the fact that the 2020 holiday season is going to be weird. Norms and traditions are completely up in the air. For the first time my Thanksgiving menu planning is as much or more about creating connection and gratitude as it is about pulling off a spectacular feast. Like Marie Kondo…
Carnage kills Fatman
There’s a timely message or two to be found amidst the carnage that is Eshom and Ian Nelms’ Fatman, a would-be dark comedy that attempts to skewer the commercialization of Christmas as well as the uptick in violence seen in our youth. Obvious targets but, what with our society’s 20-second attention span, it wouldn’t hurt…
Alternatives playing now
Hello, and welcome to the wonderful, and sometimes woeful, world of live music during a global pandemic. While there are a few live shows still happening – all listed in what’s left of our listings for you to peruse, pursue and possibly patronize – please check out the online Facebook Live performances available for your…
Hickory Ridge Concert Series
Originally from Munich, Germany, Mark Stoffel spent decades traversing between there and the U.S. before finally settling down in southern Illinois in 2001 and becoming a citizen in 2016. A self-described bluegrass music addict, he was introduced to the music genre as a teenager in 1979, when he wanted a ukulele for Christmas and was…
Good riddance
That horrid statue of Lincoln and whozits, removed from the entrance of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum this week, is headed next for Washington, Illinois, where it is scheduled to be displayed for a year at some sort of gathering spot. But after years of floating from one town to the next, the…
Editor’s note 11/19/20
On a grey day in November I learned Jim Herron, Ltd. is moving out of downtown to The Gables out west. The first time I wear something new my daughter says, “Let me guess. . . Jim Herron’s?,” knowing I never shop anywhere else. The sign in the window at Wyndham City Centre says the…
What we don’t know about domestic violence can kill us
Domestic violence is engrained in American culture. Can anyone doubt this assertion in a country with a T-shirt called the “Wife-Beater”? While the T-shirt may be in jest, domestic violence is a fact of life for too many American women. Domestic violence homicides from guns alone claim 50 American women each month, 100 a month…
One U.S. Rep. is critical to Madigan’s future
With the announcement by Rep. Bob Morgan (D-Deerfield) earlier this month that he will not vote to reelect Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in January, the opposition numbered eight House Democrats, with at least a few more privately leaning their way. They’ll need 13 or 14 Democrats, depending on final general election results, to deprive…
previous pandemic poem #2
during the 1918 spanish flu pandemic a friend tells me her grandparents owned a chicago butcher shop across from a catholic church – there were so many parish deaths the priests couldn’t keep up with masses for the dead instead hearses drove slowly by the church while a priest on the walk sprinkled holy water…
Letters to the editor 11/19/20
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to letters@illinoistimes.com. —- SUPPORT ACCESS TO ABORTION As are most things in life, the matter of abortion is complex and multilayered (“Abortion haven: Illinois before and after Roe V. Wade,” Nov. 12). I resolutely affirm that women…
Birthday by mail
Birthdays aren’t the same during COVID times. With ramped-up mitigations and public officials calling for no socializing with those outside immediate households, get-togethers are increasingly rare – or at least should be, to slow the rate of infection. Over the past several months some have taken to birthday parades. The birthday girl or boy (or…
