Cover Story
Making history
As demonstrators continue to plea for justice for people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Juneteenth was marked differently this year. Many say its unofficial status is proof that, collectively, we need to do a better job of acknowledging our roots. The Juneteenth holiday comes from an announcement of emancipation made in Texas on June…
Reminder: we’re still in a pandemic
With a holiday weekend on the horizon, Springfield officials remind residents to practice caution. Experts note that Sangamon County is seeing an uptick in confirmed cases of COVID-19. On June 29, 12 new cases were reported. The daily number of confirmed cases had been in the single digits, or at zero, for more than a…
Two dead, one wounded in Bunn-O-Matic shooting
Two people were killed and one person was wounded at Bunn-O-Matic on Stevenson Drive this morning by a gunman who took his own life after leaving the scene. The wounded woman is in critical condition this evening. The shooter, identified as Michael L. Collins Jr., 48, fled and was later found dead of a self-inflicted…
In her words: Khoran Readus
Khoran Readus puts the “active” in activism. In 2019 she took a job with Sojourn Shelter as a Sangamon County court advocate for survivors of domestic abuse. Previously she spent more than 15 years as a domestic violence advocate for the Sangamon County state’s attorney. She has four daughters, a son and a grandchild she…
Politicians resume fundraisers
As Illinois slowly begins the reopening process, some state legislators have decided to start hosting in-person fundraisers. For the past few months, most legislative incumbents and challengers have abandoned fundraising. The global pandemic, accompanied by an international economic crash, made the idea of raising campaign money seem crass, inappropriate and even dangerous. Eventually, some folks…
p.o. poem #1
once upon a time the post office delivered this letter to berea ky: “To the president of a college some place in Kentucky where boys can work their way through school do not know their address” years later the burlington p.o. delivered a letter to “chad walsh grumpkin hall vt” – grumpkin hall is a…
Letters to the editor 6/25/20
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to letters@illinoistimes.com. —— HIGHLY OFFENSIVE Yes, according to Jesse White’s spokesman, our secretary of state was highly offended that Candace Wanzo allegedly stole over $340,000 from his office (“Six figures of trouble,” April 30). Well, Mr. White,…
Visions of an anti-racist education
The sentiment that schools do a poor job of telling the true history of racial oppression is not new, but calls for change have been amplified in recent weeks. This comes as demonstrators across the country call for widespread reforms in the wake of more police killings of Black people. Petitioners have asked school districts…
Innocence Project client freed
Nathaniel Onsrud left Menard Correctional Center on Tuesday, June 23, after more than a decade in prison. The same day, his conviction and sentence were vacated during a hearing in Rock Island County. Onsrud was convicted of killing his four-month-old son in 2007. The child was born prematurely and the Illinois Innocence Project said the…
The problem is policing
Vitale, Alex S. (2017). The end of policing. New York and London: Verso. Alex S. Vitale is professor of sociology at the City University of New York Brooklyn College and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project there. Like George Floyd, he is a native of Houston. The End of Policing, published in 2017,…
Capturing stories of life in Illinois
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. For more stories about the effect of COVID-19 on museums, please visit the Prairie State Museums Project at PrairieStateMuseumsProject.org. The COVID-19 pandemic rocked the entire planet in 2020. The world has changed forever. Undoubtedly, history will record the number of cases and worldwide death toll,…
Spy: An unexpected delight
I’ve never really understood the idea of a “guilty pleasure.” There’s no reason I should feel guilty or have to justify the fact that I like Keanu Reeves’ criminally overlooked 47 Ronin or Kevin Costner’s The Postman. Just because others can’t see the obvious quality in these films isn’t my problem – they simply don’t…
Homemade ice cream
On the last official day of this discombobulated school year, I glanced out the window at my daughter, swinging in the hammock suspended over her treehouse. She was engrossed in a novel and looked utterly peaceful, and yet still I felt a twinge of sadness as I watched her. I wished she could be at…
Music rolls on
This has most certainly been a wild roller coaster ride over the last few months and the ups, downs, ins, outs and around the bends are still happening for sure, on many levels. Let’s first continue to thank those still working on the front line of coronavirus battles, send our condolences to all directly affected…
Bright stars and constellations
Join John Martin, UIS associate professor of astronomy and physics, for a virtual summer star party. Martin will give tips for finding planets, bright stars and constellations in the early summer evening sky. You will be able to find the Big Dipper, a group of stars in the constellation Ursa Major and the summer triangle,…
Drug money
I’ve never much liked the state’s cannabis program. It is, boiled down, an attempt to prove that the government can do better than the free market. There are too few pot shops and growers for too many customers, which has led to high prices, both for recreational users and imbibers with cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic…
Editor’s note 6/25/20
In a world that’s virus-infected, politics-inflicted and racism-tender, many of us are on edge, looking for someone to blame. Tempers flare and fighting becomes common. At the same time we’re hearing the word “microaggression” more often. It’s not new, but comes up in the revived conversation on how to be an anti-racist. Microaggression is “any…
Another take on the injustice of looting
The LOOTING. Oh, the looting! It begins with a wrongful invasion. Then there is wanton taking. Later, always, comes some tragic aftermath. We’ve all read about powerful gangs barging in where they had no right to be, eager to grab all they could and escape to turn a profit on their booty. Rivalries among these…
