John Donvan and Caren Zucker accept the Illinois Literary Heritage Award
On March 10-11, the Illinois State Library hosted the second national “Targeting Autism” conference. This year the ISL welcomed John Donvan and Caren Zucker, New York Times bestselling authors of the book In a Different Key: The Story of Autism and former ABC news correspondents to talk about their efforts to generate awareness. At the…
McCann to face public hearing on mileage allegation
Sen. Sam McCann will face a public hearing on at least one campaign disclosure allegation, a state board voted today. The board’s vote comes one day before McCann faces a primary challenger backed by Gov. Bruce Rauner. The Illinois State Board of Elections earlier this year received a complaint from Kirk Million of Jacksonville regarding…
Eggheads, again
This week I take up the governor’s choices in clothes, but I can find no fault with his grooming. I haven’t always been able to say that about Illinois’s senior politicians. In a 1990 column titled Eggheads, I examined – not a bit more closely than I had to – the topic of the comb-over…
Unfit
Usually when the subject is Illinois governors and someone brings up cuffs, you know what they mean. But this week I’m talking about attire, not arrests. We’ve had chief executives who preferred casual clothes – Jim Edgar comes to mind – but Bruce Rauner prefers what I call casualty clothes, because he looks likes a…
Off the rack
PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE I took in two things during lunch the other day. One was bean soup. The other was Goethe’s observation that the nobleman “tells us everything through the person he presents, but . . . the burgher simply is, and when he tries to put on an appearance, the effect is ludicrous…
In favor of the financial transaction tax
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE The financial transaction tax is not an idea whose time has just now come; it simply has returned. From 1914 to 1966, our country taxed all sales and transfers of stock. The tax was doubled in the last year of Herbert Hoover’s presidency to help us recover from…
No end in sigh
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS “How do they sleep at night?” It’s a question I’m asked a lot these days. The inquirers always wonder how Gov. Bruce Rauner, House Speaker Michael Madigan and their more full-throated enablers on both sides can live with themselves as they watch big chunks of the state government’s responsibilities crumble before…
Letters to the Editor 3/10/16
Bryce Benton and Sam McCann. DEMS, VOTE GOP I voted for Rauner; mea culpa. Now I beg that Democrats cross over and vote in the Republican primary. Vote against Trump; Hillary is not likely to lose. Vote for McCann and against Rauner; Democrats rarely win the state seats in question. Government by and for the…
Editor’s note 3/10/16
It looks like next week’s primary election will see Illinois still in play for the presidential race on both sides. Usually everything has been decided by the time our state gets to vote, but not this time. Will our middle-class, middle-road, middle-of-the-nation Prairie State impose its traditional values on the contest, avoiding the fringes to…
Social Security is critical primary issue for Illinoisans
With the March 15 Illinois primary quickly approaching, it is urgent that presidential candidates take a stand on one of the most critical financial and retirement security issues Americans face as they age: Social Security. More than 2.1 million Illinoisans receive Social Security benefits. How critical is Social Security to them? Nearly half of Illinoisans…
Having the time of someone else’s wife
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon I’m a 39-year-old guy, and I just met the most amazing woman but she’s going through a divorce. My best friend said to never date somebody while they’re divorcing, because they’re crazy and emotionally unavailable. He says you need to wait for two years afterward. Well, I really like…
Living and working with Viv
Finding Vivian Maier is a critically acclaimed documentary about a mysterious photographer by the name of Vivian Maier, who shot more than 100,000 photos and hid them away in storage lockers for decades. Two years before her death in 2009, Vivian’s photos were discovered at an auction house on Chicago’s North Side by John Maloof.…
The Lincoln nuptials
This weekend, see an original play based on the wedding of Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln. On Nov. 7, 1842, Springfield’s elite gathered at the home of Ninian and Elizabeth Edwards to witness Elizabeth’s younger sister, Mary, give her hand in marriage to a young lawyer by the name of Abraham Lincoln. During the play,…
Bringing the songs of George Gershwin to life
Paired with a live jazz combo and some of the area’s finest vocalists, the Springfield Ballet Company brings the magic of George Gershwin to life during four performances of Rhapsody in Gershwin. Featured pieces include “Someone to watch over me,” “Fascinating rhythm,” “An American in Paris” and more. The show is choreographed by Anna Bussing,…
Death by a thousand cuts
ILLUSTRATION BY JOSEPH COPLEY Someone may have to die before this is resolved, and even that might not be enough. That’s the consensus among several social service agencies in Springfield which are running on fumes as a result of the state budget crisis. The list of organizations and programs being starved is long and sobering:…
A quick trip down Memory Lane
Hungry visitors to the Do-Drop In Cafe in Mason City get a warm smile, a full stomach and a trip to nostalgia. The wall clocks have been a feature of several Mason City restaurants for decades. PHOTOS BY Brent Bohlen. When I was in seventh grade, my friends and I got our parents to drop…
Sorority marks 40 years of service
Founding members of the Springfield-Decatur chapter of Delta Sigma Theta include Norma Holland, left, Clemmie Webster, Edyth Cole and LaVon Wilson. “Each of you should look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others” (Philippians 2:4, English Standard Version). This could have been the root Bible verse that inspired some…
The battle for autism civil rights
Caren Zucker and John Donvan In a Different Key: The Story of Autism, by John Donvan and Caren Zucker. Crown Publishers, $30. The lives of John Donvan and Caren Zucker have both been touched by autism and their passion for the subject shines through in their new book, In a Different Key: The Story of…
Building your best you
Veris Van, owner of Bless’ It Beauty Salon Veris Van has a mission to “change the world one head at a time” using her beauty talents to build confidence, to educate and to lift the spirits of women and children in Springfield. Van’s most recent endeavor is “Building Your Best You,” a four-part workshop series…
Senior cops remember how policing used to be
George Graves remembers when police officers used “wheel books,” a log of license numbers shelved at police stations, to identify whether a car had a criminal history. Since that time, technology has not only changed the gadgets police use to perform their jobs, but also has enhanced the level of communication and professionalism in law…
ORANGE THUMBS
Forget green thumbs; the Springfield YMCA has an orange thumb. That’s because the Y just won a $3,500 grant from international tool company Fiskars – known for its distinct orange-handled scissors – to support the Y’s community garden program. The grant is one of 30 given to community groups nationwide, out of more than 400…
MEDICAL MISSION IS 20
The International Health and Development Network, a Springfield-based nonprofit, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Created in 1996 by Springfield physician Dr. Edem Agamah, IHDN helps make health care possible for people in underdeveloped countries by sending volunteers on “medical missions” to places like Ghana to develop effective and sustainable primary health care programs. When…
Fey can’t save disjointed Foxtrot
Tina Fey as Kim Baker in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. PHOTO COURTESY Paramount Pictures More times than not I’ve liked Tina Fey more than the films she’s been in. Baby Mama and Date Night were hit-and-miss affairs, their best moments saved by the comedienne’s deft timing, while Sisters, though very funny, conveyed the sense that she…
St. Pat’s hoopla
Skibbereen plays the Midwest Family Broadcasting’s Kegs and Eggs event at Floyd’s Thirst Parlor on Saturday from 8 to 10 a.m. No blarney here; we’re about to do the St. Patrick’s Day-thing this weekend in Springfield. Next Thursday, March 17 is the official date, but our Saint Patrick’s Day Marching Band Parade and celebration of…
The Emerald Underground
The Emerald Underground As witnessed above, this is definitely the busiest band in Celtic show business during the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Springfield. 2016 marks the 15th year in the existence of The Emerald Underground concept and experience. 2016 also marks the second year the lineup of Megan Turner (fiddle, vocals), Bill McKenzie (bass,…
A dish to make the Irish smile
Cauliflower and potato mash with parmesan. PHOTO COURTESY ASHLEY MEYER “Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream?With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream.Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flakeOf the creamy, flavoured butter that your mother used to make? Yes…
Having Survived Double Jeopardy
This week’s poem is by permission of Robert Erickson, brother-in-law to Springfield’s DelindaChapman. He is in hospice, and hopes to live to see these prescient words printed in Illinois Times. Having Survived Double Jeopardy and Made My Wager, I Anxiously Wait for Alex To Begin A reminder, the Final Jeopardy category is:World Events. And the…
