Cover Story
Performing in a pandemic
Reggie Guyton’s star was rising when the pandemic hit. In 2019, he directed Memphis – a musical with a diverse cast that features interracial love – set during the 1950s. For an adult show, cast members skewed young, and the talent on stage at the Hoogland Center for the Arts was immense. The production was…
Sale pending on SJ-R building
The State Journal-Register building on Ninth Street has been taken off the market, pending an offer from an unidentified buyer. Sandy Hamilton, a local real estate broker, confirms that an offer is pending and says that she is no longer showing the building or considering offers. She said that she doesn’t know the name of…
State may limit child care copayments to $1 a month
After an executive order from Gov. JB Pritzker that set monthly copayments for child care services to $1 for all families expired last month, a House Committee on Friday, March 5, agreed to continue working on legislation to create a law to make the benefit permanent for low-income families. House Bill 141, sponsored by Rep.…
Langfelder goes it alone
Mayor Jim Langfelder has authorized $44,572 for a building associated with the Springfield chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which couldn’t get money from the city council last fall. The funds are going for HVAC and roof repairs on a building at 801 South 11th Street that Visions 1908, a…
This old house
Local legislators say that they support plans to renovate the state Capitol building, which is scheduled for a facelift that could cost as much as $170 million. “We’ve got to realize that the Capitol’s the crown jewel of Springfield,” says state Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Springfield. “I’m not opposed to anything I’ve seen so far.” Murphy…
Phonics needs grammar on its team
Rachel Otwell’s “Rethinking reading” (IT Feb. 25) raises the need for phonics instruction, the process of learning letter sounds. I agree. Phonics hasn’t been stressed for many years. I encountered the lack of phonics instruction in 1970 as a student at the University of Illinois. One of my classes required tutoring a student in reading.…
Pandemic worsens gendered inequalities in workforce
Experts confirm working mothers are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. They overrepresent frontline workers and are taking on more responsibilities at home. “This could be a ticking time bomb for women in the workforce,” Elizabeth Powers, associate professor of economics with the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,…
ROCK THE FAFSA
A statewide campaign urges students to “Rock the FAFSA.” The Free Application for Federal Student Aid helps families identify resources to pay for college. High schools throughout Illinois are encouraged to hold workshops for students and families during the week of March 15-19. District 186 in Springfield traditionally holds FAFSA workshops in February. “The vast…
SCHEELS IN TROUBLE?
We built a freeway interchange. We extended MacArthur Boulevard through fields where corn still grows. Now, the city says, we need more public money for things to blossom across the street from Scheels, a privately held sporting goods company with a massive parking lot that looks pretty empty a decade after opening day. At Tuesday’s…
County quietly changed policy for leftover vaccines
The COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Sangamon County Department of Public Health has a new process for giving out doses left at the end of each day, department director Gail O’Neill confirmed March 8. For about the last week and a half, the first nine cars lining up at 2 p.m. at the health department’s…
Astronomy
The evening sky will play host to this season’s entertainment as John Martin, associate professor of astronomy and physics at University of Illinois Springfield, once again leads the ever-popular star parties. The monthly parties offer opportunities to view astronomical occurrences such as lunar and solar eclipses and comets. In particular, you might be able to…
Ball-Chatham school board hopefuls debate identity politics
Campaigns for Ball-Chatham’s school board are underway. The six candidates gathered virtually March 4 for a forum in advance of the April 6 election. There are four seats up for election. According to 2020 figures from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), of about 4,750 students in the public school district in Chatham, 77.8%…
Worth watching now
Hopkins dazzles in sobering Father Anthony Hopkins delivers perhaps his best performance as Anthony in Florian Zeller’s The Father, an adaptation of his 2011 play that effectively puts the viewer in the shoes of the titular character, an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who suspects his grasp on the world is slipping away from…
Compass Zooming Book Club
Every Thursday night around 93 children sign onto one of three Zooms happening simultaneously to participate in a book club. This is a new addition to Club Compass, one of the programs under the umbrella of Compass for Kids. In any other year, students in first through fifth grades would be meeting in person at…
Country captain chicken
My favorite scene from Christopher Guest’s 1997 mockumentary Waiting for Guffman, is Eugene Levy talking to friends over dinner at an old-school Chinese restaurant in rural Missouri. “We have friends Barbara and Bruce who went to China. They went to Peking, where they make the ducks, and what they say is that the food over…
A St. Pat’s pause
Here’s hoping you’re doing fine and fuzzy, while getting ready for some St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans in the best way possible, under the circumstances, of living within the constraints of a worldwide pandemic. We’re continuing to see an increase in live music, all while hoping beyond hope things will keep traveling in a safe direction.…
Pritzker loses another battle
When legal questions were raised about US Rep. Robin Kelly’s campaign for state Democratic Party chair last week and Kelly only got stronger, that should tell you a couple of things. One, Kelly is a genuinely well-liked, well-known and trusted person within the Democratic Party and her alliance with US Sen. Dick Durbin was crucial.…
Letters to the Editor 03-11-21
PROBLEM PROPERTIES A big thanks to Bruce Rushton for his recent articles highlighting Springfield’s problem with problem properties (“Blight fight,” Feb. 25 and “Code violations pile up, city slow to act,” March 4). Through his in-depth research and clear reporting, I felt he shared the pain that Springfield residents feel as they deal with problem…
ALPLM picks a leader
The new executive director of Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum isn’t like her predecessors. At 34, she’s younger. She isn’t white. And she says that glorifying Lincoln isn’t the best way to understand him. “It’s oftentimes easy to put people in history on a pedestal, to glorify them, to make them external to the…
