Cover Story
Keeping the lights on
The numbers are undeniable. City Water, Light and Power has seven power generators that combined can produce 724 megawatts of electricity. On top of that, the municipally owned utility can import 325 megawatts from the grid. It’s more electricity than Springfield has ever used or likely ever will use, and it is not cheap. Three…
Hair salon opens despite order
The Bow + Arrow Salon on Springfield’s west side opened Tuesday despite a statewide stay-at-home order prohibiting hair salons and barbershops from opening their doors. “It’s going great,” said owner Riley Craig Shaffer, who estimates that her salon has lost about $80,000 in revenue since closing in March pursuant to Gov. JB Pritzker’s order that…
Old Capitol Farmers Market opens
Hannah Tomlin’s family farm dates far back enough the road it’s on in Pleasant Plains shares her last name. “My great grandfather actually bought the farm where we live. And so it’s a Centennial Farm. And my dad’s really proud of that because he grew up here too, and his dad was a farmer.” Tomlin’s…
It’s your money
Since March, Gov. JB Pritzker has spent nearly $240 million for supplies needed to respond to the pandemic. Records on the comptroller’s website outline the spending and amounts involved. Disinfectant. Bleach. Thermometers. Body bags. Sanitizer. Hospital beds. The list of stuff bought with public money under the governor’s emergency declaration is extensive. It includes, according…
School or jail?
After his cancer diagnosis, the late Warren Zevon advised those he would leave behind to enjoy every sandwich. He never dined in the school cafeterias of my youth. On good days, there was chili served with cinnamon rolls. On bad days, it was mystery meat casserole or hockey pucks masquerading as hamburger patties or fish…
Reopening could lead to liability
Gov. JB Pritzker has repeatedly said he’s delegating enforcement of his stay-at-home order to local governments. That stance has frustrated some folks who want him to get tougher with violators (although he’d undoubtedly risk making martyrs out of them if he did crack down hard). And the governor’s position seems to have emboldened some local…
Letters to the Editor 05-14-20
RUN WITH MAUD I run. I run through my neighborhood. I run in parks. I run on trails. I run in other people’s neighborhoods. I feel safe. On May 8, I joined countless runners across the country who ran 2.23 miles to honor the life of a recently slain 25-year old black man and runner,…
archival find #27
my dad has interesting dreams in one he’s a little kid out in the back pasture dangling his feet in the small pool he and his brother made by damming up the meandering crick he sees jesus gliding across the water jesus looks just like his pictures on the sunday school wall “young man,” says…
Reopening woes
Ashley Sims worked at Petsmart when she had her first child. She said she felt the company wouldn’t accommodate the reality of being a new parent, and she wanted to find a better balance. “I wanted to make myself happy.” So she’s her own boss now. She started her own dog-grooming business where she’s the…
Court lacks diversity, lawyer says
In a scathing resignation letter, an assistant Sangamon County public defender has blasted the local judiciary as being a politically influenced body that seeks to manage the public defender’s office. In a May 1 letter to Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John “Mo” Madonia notifying him of her decision to resign effective May 15, Lindsay…
Managing mental health
“It is OK not to be OK.” That’s a saying in the mental health field, according to Andy Wade of Chicago, the executive director of NAMI Illinois. NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an advocacy-oriented nonprofit. It’s a saying he has taken to heart recently, after noticing one of his own children…
Keeping Suttill’s Gardens in the family
While the rest of the world is innovating to rethink the global food system, Caitlyn and Jacque Suttill Simpson are buckling down on the basics. The mother-daughter team own and operate Suttill’s Gardens, a five-acre produce farm located just a quarter mile east of Southeast High School in Springfield. Caitlyn is the fifth generation to…
Music goodness
Onward we go into the bizarre world of a global pandemic with empathy and compassion for those most closely affected by a direct connection to COVID-19, plus thoughtfulness and care for the rest of us, however touched by this worldwide concern. In this column about live music, we can rest assured that musicians playing in…
Science will find the cure. The arts will heal.
A ghost light is an electric light that is left on the stage of a darkened theater after a show. It typically consists of an exposed bulb in a wire cage on a portable light stand and is usually placed near center stage. Although a ghost light has a practical use in dark, windowless theaters,…
Less is more in poignant Driveways
Andrew Ahn’s Driveways is a quiet little movie, one that sets out to tug at your heartstrings and succeeds in doing so. Thankfully, it accomplishes this without laying on the sentiment too thick. Instead, a trio of subtle performances wind up getting under the viewer’s skin, turns that prove effective because they lack grand pronouncements…
Not enough contact tracers
Because of relatively strong social distancing requirements placed in Illinois, the COVID-19 outbreak in this state had been relatively mild, given the size of the population. There were 243 cases per 100,000 on May 6. Because of the success of these efforts, there is a push by some legislators and members of the public to…
Editor’s note 05-14-20
Thank goodness for the internet, which makes everything possible in a pandemic, including Illinois Times. Web traffic keeps growing at illinoistimes.com, where breaking news is posted regularly. Still nothing beats the magic of print, so we remain dedicated to publishing this weekly newspaper on paper. Many of the bars, restaurants, shops, college buildings and offices…
