Welcome to “IT: Off The Clock”
Week in and week out, the staff writers at Illinois Times bring the world of central Illinois politics and culture to life with in-depth reporting and commentary on the most important, unusual and entertaining things happening in this part of the world. But after the deadline, who are these writers? With the backdrop of all…
Bad Guys Like Me
The following is a letter from Norton Kay, who served as News Secretary to former Gov. Dan Walker. The letter was printed in the first issue of Illinois Times on Sept. 18, 1975, as a welcome and bit of “advice.” We’ve transcribed the letter from the original text, and photos of the letter as it…
On the move
Illinois Department of Human Services offices that are now at the northern edge of downtown Springfield are slated to move more than two miles south and out of the core of the city. DHS offices now in the Centrum Building at the intersection of Fourth and Madison streets would move to vacant buildings at a…
A little knowledge . . . Part 7 in a series
From a recent report by Doug Finke: “Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont. . . said property taxes account for most of the complaints fielded by her district office.”
Better world without people
Curses, foiled againPolice said they received their “strongest investigative lead” in the case of 80 frozen pizzas stolen from a warehouse in Gambell, Alaska, when John Koozaata, 29, and Lewis Oozeva, 21, called the police station and tried to sell the pizzas to on-duty officers. (Anchorage’s Alaska Dispatch) Police who found a 43-year-old man covered…
The Widening Net
The Illinois House passed a bill last week which would allow prosecutors new access to personal records in criminal trials. Senate Bill 1688 adds state’s attorneys to the list of people who can submit a written request for someone’s vital records, such as a birth certificate or a death certificate. A request would have to…
Historic change
The SJ-R’s Doug Finke informs us that Mr. Madigan has had a change of mind, if not of heart, about the best way to organize the State of Illinois’ historic preservation efforts. Good. The speaker originally sought to strip the Lincoln Presidential museum from the state’s Historic Preservation Agency, and handed the IHPA to the…
Building a modern tax code
As the May 31st legislative deadline looms, tax experts are making one more push to extend the state’s sales tax to services. The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA) and the Taxpayers Federation released a report last week calling for Illinois to tax services the same way products are taxed. Illinois sales tax covers…
Four decades of Michael
Invincible: A Tribute to Michael Jackson This Friday, May 29, the number one Michael Jackson tribute show in the world will be performed at the Prairie Capital Convention Center. Two talented performers will portray the King of Pop during multiple stages in his career, from his early beginnings as part of The Jackson 5 through…
Unity the Band
Unity the Band How a native of Fuji ended up playing reggae in an award-winning band all over the Midwest is one part of Unity’s story, but what keeps them coming back to venues is the real story and that’s based on the fantastic and flowing music they play. Fronted by founding member Kai “Pita”…
THE PINK TRIANGLE
When the Nazis began forcing groups deemed “undesirable” into concentration camps in March 1933, gay people were among those rounded up and murdered. Gay people were forced to wear a pink triangle to identify them in the camps, but that sign formerly used to shame has now been repurposed as a symbol of pride for…
Experts blast prison health care
Dying inmates neglected. Undiagnosed cancer. Haphazard recordkeeping. Unsanitary exam rooms, staff shortages and physicians who aren’t qualified. It adds up to cruel and unusual punishment in the opinion of a court-appointed panel of medical experts assigned to assess the quality of medical care in Illinois prisons as part of a class-action lawsuit against the state.…
Making Mr. McGregors
Moving west to California some years ago, I was commanded to pull off the interstate at the state line in the Sierra Nevada. A young man in uniform asked me to open the car so he could inspect what I was carrying. A narc? DHS goon? Nope. He wore the uniform of the California Department…
Drunk drivers need to hear from victims
It appears certain that drunk drivers, drivers under the influence of drugs, and distracted drivers will continue to kill and injure innocent motorists. Why is it so certain, when everyone recognizes the dangers involved in these practices? Or do they? The unfortunate truth is that DUIOD (driving under the influence or distracted) drivers don’t fully…
Obama’s ugly show of presidential petulance
When the going got tough, Barack got in a huff and then he got gruff. President Obama has worked himself into such a tizzy over the TPP that he’s lashing out at his progressive friends in Congress. He’s mad because they refuse to be stereotypical lemmings following him over this political cliff called the Trans-Pacific…
Going the mile
Illyania Rocha Illyania Rocha still hasn’t gone home. Six weeks after she was mauled by a Great Dane at the Springfield home of her older half-sister, the 10-year-old girl from Chatham is at a rehabilitation center in St. Louis, doing her best to learn how to walk without a limp. Her smile remains bright in…
Editor’s note 5/28/15
Just when we start to think we understand the game now being played at the Statehouse, we learn something that makes us not so sure. At first the Democrats’ position seemed to make perfect sense – that it’s wrong to hold the state budget hostage to win approval for the governor’s “Turnaround Agenda,” which we’d…
cowcount poem #1100
cowcount poem #1100 mitch you’re totally wrongwhen you say why do I need1100 cows on my computer my reply is if you need 11 cows it is good to have 1100 to choose fromwe have the singing cow thesuspicious cow the bellicose cowthe contemplative cow we havecows in parades cows reluctantto go in the barn cows…
Madding a glorious, romantic throwback
Carey Mulligan in Far from the Madding Crowd. Unabashedly romantic, sumptuously shot and wonderfully acted, Thomas Vinterberg’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd is the perfect anecdote for the summer movie overload. (Yes, I know the season has just begun, but I’m feeling special effects weary already.) This is the sort of…
MARIJUANA MATH
The numbers still aren’t adding up for Illinois’ fledgling medical marijuana industry, once seen by many as a license to print money. Consider startup costs that can never be recouped given the current trajectory of the pilot program, which will expire in 2018 unless Gov. Bruce Rauner signs a bill extending it for four years.…
Standout students receive college scholarships
Carolyn Blackwell and Betsy Weidner joined Student of the Year finalists Ryan Salzeider, Maria Palazzolo, Connor Davlin, Stephanie Chou and Meghan McClain at the SFLL awards. Bob Bunn is at right. Photo by Courtney Westlake The Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln awarded more than $109,000 in scholarships to 57 area students at a…
No positive news from the Statehouse
I spent the better part of last Wednesday asking folks around the Statehouse if they had anything positive to tell me. I went looking for anything that might indicate a silver lining to this increasingly nasty spring legislative session. Mostly, people just laughed at me. Other than some individual personal developments, there just wasn’t much…
Birds, prairie plants and drones
Master Naturalist Summit On Saturday, the Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary hosts a Master Naturalist Summit for those interested in volunteering with the University of Illinois Extension Master Naturalist volunteer program. The day’s events will include a short presentation about the Master Naturalist Program, a bird hike, a native plant hike, a talk on using drones in…
A musical about mental illness
Next to Normal Next to Normal is the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary rock musical about a suburban family of four grappling with a mother’s worsening bipolar disorder. The show utilizes central Illinois vocal talent to carry an exciting, pop-rock score. Next to Normal addresses complicated themes such as grieving and loss, ethics in modern psychiatry and suburban life.…
End of May music
Mary Jo Curry and Lori Kretzinger of Radio Twist play the Long Bridge Golf Course clubhouse on Sunday afternoon, May 31, 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Now that the Memorial Day weekend festivities and commemorations are past, let’s turn our attention to the summer ahead as the outdoor activities heat up. Last week I mentioned the…
Reducing the rape kit testing backlog
Rosa Pickett (right), of Robbins, Illinois, shared her experience with rape at the Illinois Statehouse in May, advocating for HB369 with her mother, Velma Pickett (left). PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Rosa Pickett’s eyes still well up with tears as she describes how, in 1977, she was raped, beaten unconscious and left in the weeds as…
The file high club
A year ago, a co-worker I had a crush on made moves on me after hours at work, and we stopped just short of having sex. I saw him as a potential boyfriend, and I emphasized that I was not interested in casual sex. He told me at the time that he had broken up…
Strawberry party
“For the last two weeks, we have had a continual round of strawberry parties….. This last week we gave a strawberry company of about seventy.” – From a letter written on June 26, 1859, by Mary Todd Lincoln to a friend. In the mid-1800s, late spring and early summer was strawberry party time in Springfield.…
Summer Movie Preview 2015
It’s summertime and at the movies that means two things – superheroes and sequels. Of the mainstream films being released between June and Aug., more than one-third will be followups, TV takeoffs or tales featuring meta-humans. Most of the rest will be comedies, animated features, horror flicks and teen movies. However, each summer season has…
Letters to the Editor 5/28/15
Photo by Kerri Westenberg AN OUTSIDERS’ PERSPECTIVE As someone who has come to know Springfield a little over recent months, I wonder if folks here might like to know how it seems from the outside. These are times when there is a lot of discontent expressed in various quarters, and it seems to be the…
