Sheriff’s deputy suspected of shoplifting
A Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy recently acquitted on charges of stealing plants from a Sherman park is suspected of shoplifting. Sangamon County state’s attorney John Milhiser said that he has a Springfield police report on the April 24 incident involving deputy Sherry Waldron but has not made a charging decision. He declined further comment. Authorities…
Telling time
A key witness testified Tuesday in the murder trial of Christopher Harris, and if the jury believes Ronald Frakes, the defense faces tough odds. Frakes, who has lived in the tiny town of Beason for nearly a quarter century, was up late the night the Gee family died. He works the third shift at a…
Timing is everything
A key witness testified Tuesday in the murder trial of Christopher Harris, and if the jury believes Ronald Frakes, the defense faces tough odds. Frakes, who has lived in the tiny town of Beason for nearly a quarter century, was up late the night the Gee family died. He works the third shift at a…
The calm before the storm
Less than 12 hours after Raymond “Rick” Gee, his wife Ruth and three of their children were beaten to death with a tire iron, Christopher Harris answered a booty call from a girlfriend, spending more than three hours with her while the Gees lay dead and undiscovered in their blood-soaked Beason home. Under questioning by…
Shredgate: The saga continues
A man who is suing the city of Springfield for destroying police internal affairs records is asking a judge to bar the city from destroying more documents. In an emergency motion for a protective order filed Monday, attorneys for Calvin Christian, who has requested dozens of police records as a private citizen and as an…
Poets and painters gone wild
May 11-12, 2013 turned out to be a gorgeous weekend! It did not rain the Saturday before Mother’s Day as weather forecasters had predicted. Dr. Dolittle Day at Henson Robinson Zoo was sunny and warm (with just the right touch of wind, notice the flag above) — a perfect day for folks in central Illinois…
If the shoe fits
Christopher Harris wasn’t much good at covering his tracks. But he was a cool customer, according to Robert Michael Jennings, a retired special agent with Illinois State Police who interrogated Harris on Sept. 30, 2009, nine days after Raymond “Rick” Gee, his wife Ruth and three of their children were found beaten to death with…
Down the rabbit hole with the feds
A while back I griped about the failure of federal prosecutors to seek criminal charges against bankers and others who perpetrate financial crimes. The Economist of May 4 reminds us that in Britain not one senior banker has faced criminal charges relating to the failure of his institution. In this country the Federal Deposit Insurance…
If we could talk to the animals
The animals might not be talking but the poets will.Tomorrow!!! The newest attraction at the Henson Robinson Zoo’s Dr. Dolittle Day this Saturday is Springfield Poets and Writers. During the last month, poets visited the zoo and selected one animal as inspiration to craft a poem about. They will read those poems beginning at 1…
Sex and violence
Amid lurid tales of sexual escapades and stomach-wrenching photographs of battered bodies, the prosecution dropped two potential bombshells Thursday in the murder trial of Christopher Harris. Perhaps the most important one came late in the day when Natalie Klien, who had engaged in threesomes with Raymond “Rick” Gee and his wife Ruth, testified that she…
State suspends doctor, finally
Dr. Stephen Austin Cullinan, a Peoria physician whose poor care has resulted in death, amputation and scores of lawsuits across the Midwest, has surrendered his license to practice medicine in Illinois. Under a deal reached in February with the state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the doctor who worked as a physician in dozens…
Whimsical world of words and visual wingdings
Ken Bradbury and Steve Varble put out an awesome new book that loosely covers Jacksonville in verse to the flavor of Shel Silverstein. The hardcover book, The Place Where We Live, is for all ages and not just for Jacksonville folk. Bradbury’s words will have your cheeks a’peaking (as in mountains) and Varble’s colorful illustrations…
Miracle worker
District 186 school superintendent Dr. Walter Milton leaves Springfield having disappointed a lot of people. (See Board games, Feb. 28, 2013.) The new District 186 board met May 3 with parents and other community members to discuss what each wanted in a new superintendent, which opinions will guide the search for candidates. Fair-minded critics have to ask,…
LoveIT
Love this comic in Illinois Times! Homage to all my brothers and sisters in poetry and prose out there who continue to craft in the art, even though the art pays out infrequently, if at all. I read a book once that offered ways a poet could make a living at writing poetry. The book…
A house filled with horror
The first sign of trouble came after school, when Seaton Landstrom, now 14, rode to the Gee home to show his new bicycle to Dillen Constant and his half-brother Austin Gee. There was blood on the porch and door of the Gee home that afternoon on Sept. 21, 2009 in the tiny town of Beason…
This Momma’s Boy is blessed
Within the burgeoning Springfield music scene bubbles a wonderful and creative world of hip-hop and rap music that thrives on talent and expression. As the national music direction goes, so goes the flow of local music as it filters down through the airwaves and eardrums to affect the musings of individuals making music with passion…
Drying paint and picking jurors
It took just two weeks to try mass killer Richard Speck in a Peoria courtroom in 1967. Forty-six years later in a courtroom adjacent to the one where Speck was convicted after less than an hour of deliberations, it took a full week simply to pick a jury in the murder trial of Christopher Harris,…
State Senator Matt Murphy out
In yet another blow to the Illinois Republican Party, state Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, has withdrawn his name from contention for the state GOP chairmanship job. And, no, it didn’t have anything to do with Murphy being injured during the annual House versus Senate softball game last week. Murphy was approached a month or so…
Symphony season goes out on a high note
This past weekend marked the end of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra’s 20th anniversary season, which was the first under the musical direction of Maestro Alastair Willis. Willis did not conduct Saturday’s program, however, handing the baton to renowned conductor Stefan Sanderling of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. The deliberately paced concert began with the atmospheric, nearly…
A plea for African-Americans to get screened for diseases
A diagnosis with stage three Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 12 led Julius Simmons of Springfield to make a lifetime commitment to health and medical research. While urging a Springfield audience to get more involved in minority health issues, Simmons, now 42, said he learned there was little medical knowledge about the causes of…
Iron Man 3 a clunky debut for Marvel’s second phase
Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 has the unenviable task of following Joss Whedon’s widely entertaining The Avengers as the next Marvel Studios movie out of the chute. Too bad that Iron Man 3 gets the company’s second phase off to a bad start. Illogical, scattered and underdeveloped, the film plays like a rush job, littered…
Bringing people back downtown
When Jasper Madonia started working in downtown Springfield in 1939, the downtown was a different place from today. He describes a bustling place so busy that he had to push his way through the crowds of people during his lunch breaks. His favorite memory of working downtown is the Fannie May chocolate store that used…
George W’s $250 million can of whitewash
Big doings in Big D – the George W. Bush Presidential Library is open for business! What a piece of work it is: a $250 million, 226,000-square-foot edifice on 23 acres in Dallas. His brick-and-limestone structure is certainly imposing, but once inside, you quickly see that it’s a $250 million can of whitewash. Of course,…
Bananas gone wild
“You have never heard of Banoffee pie?” asked my daughter Ashley. “I thought everyone knew about Banoffee pie!” Four years at Lincoln University in New Zealand taught Ashley many things. Most importantly was that she didn’t want to make wine or grow wine grapes as a profession, the careers that her major in viticulture and…
Credit union tax can’t save Illinois
As the Illinois General Assembly continues to grapple with the state’s budget deficit, a statewide “big bank” trade association has undertaken a media campaign to pursue taxation of Illinois’ credit unions. This is a bad idea for several reasons. The state’s credit unions, which by law are exempt from income taxes, have emerged as a…
State suspends doctor, finally
When Jasper Madonia started working in downtown Springfield in 1939, the downtown was a different place from today. He describes a bustling place so busy that he had to push his way through the crowds of people during his lunch breaks. His favorite memory of working downtown is the Fannie May chocolate store that used…
Looking for Mr. Right
Springfield voters on April 9 taught School District 186 a lesson. The district needed a better board, they believed, and they made their point by electing a slew of new members. But what, exactly, are these board members expected to be better at? They start their new jobs with the usual confused mandate. Some were…
Getting fresh
Old Capitol Farmers Market presented by St. John’s Hospital and Downtown Springfield, Inc. opens for the season Wednesday, May 15, at 10 a.m. Frank Trompeter Quartet will play, Ashley Glatz of RealCuisine Catering and Café will present a celebrity chef demonstration, and free cake by Incredibly Delicious will be served. With nearly three blocks of vendors,…
FARM-FRESH FOOD
It’s spring in the fields, and for Springfield, that means it’s farmers market time! The Old Capitol Farmers Market opens next week with a variety of food, goods, and festivities. To start the market off right this year, Downtown Springfield, Inc. plans to have live music, a cooking demonstration, and free cake. The live music…
The Brothers
The Brothers do the Allman Brothers music and do it well. Unlike other tribute bands, they have actual experiences of working with the group they celebrate, as some of the “brothers” actually played with Gregg Allman in the day, and more recently with his son, Devon. Headed by Danny Liston (founder of the legendary 1970s…
Letters to the Editor 5/9/13
DOUGLAS DESERVES HIS DAYHere in central Illinois it should be noted that a historical figure had a birthday on April 23. It was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Stephen A. Douglas, Illinois’ own “Little Giant.” Though short in stature at 5 feet, 4 inches the man made up for this with his booming…
GARDEN ALL YEAR
Lincoln Land Community College is giving garden enthusiasts the opportunity to learn how to garden year-round. On May 9 and 10, Four Season Tools gardening experts will host a workshop on movable structures for year-round gardening. The workshop will be held at the community garden behind the Workforce Careers Center at Lincoln Land Community College…
Party musical
Theater lovers with a taste for rock ’n’ rock will get elated over a five-time Tony-nominated musical Rock of Ages, performed one night at Sangamon Auditorium. The show features a slew of fantastic 80s tunes such as “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “We Built This City,” “Wanted Dead or Alive,” “Here I Go Again,” “Can’t Fight this…
Smells like libertine spirit
I got involved with my co-host on my Web show – a woman in an “open relationship” with her live-in boyfriend of two years. Things were light and fun between us until we developed actual feelings for each other and he got jealous and she became guilty and torn. Two weeks ago, after we had…
Animal social
The wildly popular Dr. Dolittle Day at the Henson Robinson Zoo is Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Activities are ongoing throughout the day, including the ever popular turtle races, as well as animal programs and special enrichment treats for the animals. Vendors will also be on hand throughout the zoo. This…
Inspiration sensation
The secret is out and folks flock to PechaKucha. PechaKucha is an evening of interesting or amusing facts and information presented by a dozen equally interesting and most often entertaining people. Held at Capital City Bar and Grill, each talk lasts six minutes and 40 seconds paced by 20 Powerpoint slides, 20 seconds each. Food…
earthday-ecopoem # 11
“A major study commissioned by theBritish government concludes in itsyesterday report that rapid andsubstantial spending to combatglobal warming is needed to averta catastrophic reduction in worldwideproductivity on the scale of the GreatDepression that could devastate foodsources, cause widespread deaths andturn hundreds of millions of people in-to refugees.” – Los Angeles Times, Oct. 31, 2006 our…
Sweet carillon
There’s never been a better time to visit Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon in Washington Park. Enjoy free 30-minute weekly concerts four days a week with two performances on Sundays. The park district’s carillonneur, Robin Austin, will play a variety of classical, folk and popular songs. Also, carillon tours resumed the first of May. Offered every…
