Pritzker signs bills doubling line-of-duty death benefits, addressing human trafficking
SPRINGFIELD – While Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been touring the state to promote his signing of capital infrastructure and marijuana legalization legislation, several other bills he signed have received less public attention. House Bill 2028, which passed the state Senate and House unanimously, became law last week. It doubles the death benefits for families…
King George and public records
It being Independence Day, let’s celebrate government that’s supposed to be of the people and by the people, even in Illinois. When founding fathers created America nearly 250 years ago, the deed was done in secrecy. Under a 1775 agreement signed by every member of Congress, anyone who blabbed about what Congress did or contemplated,…
Criticism flies both ways over governor’s travel
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the $45 billion infrastructure bill into law last week during a three-day fly-around to several Illinois cities. It’s a good bet that the billionaire Pritzker paid for the plane that took him and whatever staff he brought to the various venues, since he’s regularly done that since taking office in January.…
Letters to the Editor 7/4/19
APPRECIATES ARTS COVERAGE Thank you so much for publishing the wonderful and insightful theater review of The Muni’s Evita in your latest issue (“Sex, lies and political power, June 27). It has long been my belief that we have a rich and thriving arts community in Springfield and surrounding areas. I have been doing theater…
Editor’s note 7/4/19
Abraham Lincoln said it was time, 87 years after the founding Fourth of July, for the nation to have a “new birth of freedom” and it is time again. Nobody knows quite what to do about racism, but equality is valued so we keep trying. Health is another shared value, but disease is the rule,…
Denied communion but who cares?
After being elected to the Illinois legislature in 1936, Richard J. Daley would do the same thing every morning in Springfield. The future mayor of Chicago would kneel and a priest would intone: Corpus Domini Nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam, Amen.” And then the Host would be placed on his tongue.…
Poetry and Fiction
The Vachel Lindsay Association is offering a poetry and fiction writing camp for students aged 13 to 18. Students will study basic elements of poetry and experience a broad range of classic and contemporary poetry. They will use the study of those poems as a springboard for their own work. The students will also learn…
243 Years and Counting
Where to begin? It seems that the IT calendar is full of holiday happenings for this year’s Fourth of July. You can choose to go big with live music, food galore, bustling crowds and spectacular fireworks displays at hot spots such as Knight’s Action Park, Rock the Dock at the marina or at the Levitt…
Women who go the distance
Women runners and walkers are encouraged to turn out in force on July 13 at Washington Park to celebrate the 40th annual Springfield Women’s Distance Festival (WDF). The first was July 26, 1980. Why is a two-mile race called a distance festival? Debbie Huffman, who codirected the first WDF with George Anne Daly, explains that…
2019 Women’s Distance Festival
Whether you are an avid runner, a walker or have never thought about participating, this is a great year for women to sign up for the race. Everyone who registers gets a race shirt and swag bag with goodies and is entered to win door prizes. Previous race directors are invited to attend and be…
Six trailblazers
Many of the women who have participated in the Women’s Distance Festival over the years continue to run and live a life of exercise and fitness. Each has a different story as to how she got involved in running and stuck with it, but they all cite the lasting friendships they have forged and the…
Big Hair at the Barricades
From its magical and jaw-dropping opening moment to the finale that had the audience on its feet cheering, Hairspray at the Legacy Theatre reinvents the delights of old-fashioned musical comedy without seeming old-fashioned. Hairspray is a sweet, infectious bubblegum-flavored confection with a cartoon story line and a surprisingly deep message. This inventive production, with a…
The Amish go to court
A Moultrie County judge last week awarded guardianship of an elderly Amish woman to the woman’s daughter, capping a fight that has spilled from the insular world of the Amish to the civil court system. Allegations involve accusations of sexual abuse by a relative. Kim Adamson, a social worker with Mid-Illinois Senior Services, says she…
FREE JUDGE BRUCE
In a May 14 order that surfaced just last week, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago decided that U.S. District Court Judge Colin Bruce, removed from criminal cases last year, should be sidelined until Sept. 1, when he’ll again be allowed to preside over criminal matters. The judge, once a prosecutor, had been…
PITY POT PURVEYORS
If you think sex offenders have it tough, try being an ad rep for a cannabis company. Rapists, under state law, can live or hang out as close as 500 feet to a school or playground. But the law legalizing weed establishes a 1,000-foot rule for cannabis ads – can’t be any closer than that…
Joyous Yesterday a moving celebration of the Beatles
There’s always been a sense of whimsy about the films of Richard Curtis. Whether Love Actually or About Time, which he wrote and directed, or the many episodes of Blackadder and Mr. Bean he penned, he brings a light touch to his comedy as well as many sincerely romantic or poignant moments. Now comes Yesterday,…
Extra July 3 music
Hello July. How’s it going? I feel the same way, but here we are anyway. Now give us the goods as we get the summer on with live music galore and then go find some more. Since the paper comes out a day early this week with the Fourth being on our normal distribution day…
Emily Hope
A true believer in the healing power of music, singer-songwriter Emily Hope feels her musical mission is to “inspire, encourage and enact change.” Armed with a ukulele and Martin guitar, as well as a transcendental voice that delivers her message clearly and with passion, Emily sings her own tune as she “strives to write songs…
family memory poem # 11
family memory poem # 11 my niece jackie jo maybe seven riding with parents sister headed toward a northern wisconsin lake jackie held her red swim suit out the window it flapped in the breeze “if you drop that” warned her dad “we wont stop to pick it up” the inevitable occurred she dropped it…
The secret to grilling? The oven.
The grill can be difficult to master. Grilled chicken legs, for example, sounds straightforward enough, but cooking them evenly without burning the skin into a mess of char takes attention and time. And while I love grilling out for a party, I don’t like fooling around with meat thermometers, waiting for food to be done.…
Higher education official hopeful new funding will stem tide of student outmigration
SPRINGFIELD — The interim director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education is hopeful a combination of added infrastructure and operations funding for state universities and colleges will help entice Illinois students to remain in the state for their college education. The cause of the optimism is state budget action which provided $154 million in…
Some new laws taking effect; others already in place
SPRINGFIELD – Starting Monday, July 1, it will officially become illegal in Illinois for anyone to sell or provide tobacco cigarettes or other tobacco products to people under age 21. The so-called “Tobacco 21” bill, House Bill 345, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law April 8, is one of several new laws that will…
Key state financial document six months late and counting
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois officials are six months late publishing an annual document presenting the state’s fiscal health in detail, and they are unsure when it will be released. The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is used by ratings agencies to set the credit rating for the state — which in turn affects the interest rates Illinois…
Sex, lies and political power
The Muni Opera is staging the groundbreaking and endlessly entertaining musical Evita for the first time in a generation, and it is a must-see. Evita is the very adult Cinderella story of Eva Duarte, a poor Argentinian girl. Through powers of seduction, Eva rises from rags to riches and marriage to Juan Peron, the autocratic…
Iron-mess
I am as much a fan of triathlon as I am of watching paint dry. As colored latex crusts, you say, “Looky there,” then cook up another toasted-cheese-and-bacon sandwich, which I’m told is to paint-drying as strawberries-and-cream are to Wimbledon, pimento cheese sandwiches to The Masters and mint juleps to the Kentucky Derby. Triathlon fans,…
Where was the lieutenant governor?
“We are so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish this first legislative session of ours,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton told a TV interviewer earlier this month. “We said that we wanted to think big for the people of Illinois, we said that we wanted to get Springfield back on the track of working…
Letters to the Editor
CRISIS AT THE BORDEREvery day we learn more about the appalling conditions facing children, women and men in detention centers along our southern border. The situation is unconscionable. If your readers are like me, they may feel overwhelmed and paralyzed by the images of children and adults housed in overcrowded, filthy conditions that fail to…
Editor’s Note
Illinoisans got used to thinking that because we abolished capital punishment in 2011 the moral dilemma of the death penalty now belongs only to residents of other states. But now the guilty verdict in the Brendt Christensen murder case is a reminder that there is work to do. The sentencing phase of the trial will…
How much federal debt can we afford?
A few months ago, the federal debt we have accumulated over the past decades crossed the $22 trillion mark. That’s a record. And it’s surely not going to be the last. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, annual federal deficits over the next decade – the deficit is the annual figure for how much more…
A musical romantic comedy
The Legacy Theatre heats up the stage once again with the smash Broadway musical Hairspray. The popular American musical that opened on Broadway in 2002 has won eight Tony Awards, including one for best musical, and it continues to be one of the most widely presented musicals today. Based on a 1988 cult film by…
Stuck in that awkward space between birth and death
Urgent Care is a 50-year survey celebrating Thomas Skomski’s career as one of Illinois’ finest sculptors. Many area residents have already experienced Thomas Skomski’s work. His Impermanent Column, the stone column sculpture on the campus of the University of Illinois Springfield is hard to miss. His art honors life’s struggles. It reflects our times and…
At the confluence MONEY and THE Mississippi
The Mississippi River system is both an artery and a vein. It pumps ag products out of the heartland and into the world while bringing back fertilizer and steel to keep that economic engine purring. But there’s too much water. Flooding is forcing boats and barges to wait for the river to drop. In the…
Lawmakers pass taxes on parking, car trade-ins
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street. – George Harrison The cost of driving, or even just parking, is going up in Illinois. In addition to doubling the gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents per gallon and raising vehicle registration fees from $101 to $151, lawmakers during the recently concluded legislative…
HOTEL UPDATE
Some Springfield City Council members not long ago said the price the city pays, if it ever does pay, for land to build a proposed hotel near the downtown Amtrak station is between the developer who would receive tax increment financing money and the owner of land where Club Station House now sits. Aldermen in…
CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN
The legislature has adjourned, but a different type of entertainment is hitting Springfield this weekend with the arrival of Paranormal Cirque, a European-style circus with acrobats but no animals that is pitching its tent at White Oaks Mall. Shrewdly, promoters say the production is rated R and sexy, and so no one under 17 will…
Besson’s Anna: Old-school action done right
It’s a shame that Luc Besson’s Anna arrived in theaters under cover of night. Lionsgate Pictures released it without previewing it to critics and with little in the way of promotion. Besson was accused six months ago of sexual impropriety during the shooting of numerous films and, as a result, the studio didn’t want to…
Toodle-loo to June
As we float on through the last weekend in June, headed downstream toward Independence Day, a whole bunch of good, live music floods the scene right here in the old hometown. Plenty of local folks went to the recent Rolling Stones concerts in Chicago and I bet even more wanted to and couldn’t, or just…
JukeRox
Calling themselves a “party rock cover band,” JukeRox indeed lives up to that calling with a striking set list of your favorite hits covering the genres of “rock, pop, hip-hop, country or heavy metal” with incredible musicality and stunning showmanship. Band members Janet Morris (lead vocals), Kent Starr (guitars, vocals), Kylan Davis (keys, vocals), Tim…
Optimal flavor starts with superior seeds
In a recent op-ed published in the New York Times, renowned chef and author Dan Barber wrote: “As a chef I can tell you that your meal will be incalculably more delicious if I’m cooking with good ingredients.” This should be self-evident, yet the unfortunate reality is that, in the case of fresh vegetables, optimally…
archival find, 1952 letter
My dad responding to an applicant for a job: “I am afraid you are a little young and therefore lacking in experience for the job of assistant herdsman” and ends with “Now for some unsolicited advice. While most employers know that a man’s maininterest is the wage it is much smarter for the man also…
