Letters to the Editor 10/25/12
CLOSER LOOK AT ENOS SCHOOL I saw in IT (See “Enos School replacement plan under fire,” Oct. 18) that Save Old Springfield founder and historic preservation expert Jerry Jacobson is accusing District 186 of breaking the law by building a new Enos School when the cost to renovate the historic building is less. This allegation falls…
Nov. 6 Elections
Please vote Tuesday, Nov. 6. The internet makes it easy to access information about all the candidates you will find on your ballot. Here’s info on the proposed amendment to add section 5.1 to Article XIII of the Illinois Constitution. The Secretary of State offers this pamphlet that includes the proposed amendment; explanation of the proposed amendment; arguments in favor of the…
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We’re ‘bars,’ clubs say, but gaming board says no
When is a bar not a bar? When the watering hole in question is located within a social club. That, at least, is how the Illinois Gaming Board, which is sitting on gambling applications from clubs throughout the state, sees things. Under state law, video gambling devices are allowed in four types of establishments, including…
Pumpkin party
Rain or shine, meander through the Halloween splendor of 2,012 hand-carved, illuminated jack-o-lanterns surrounding the Carillon and Botanical Garden in Washington Park. This family-friendly event is a fundraiser for the Rees Carillon. Save $1 per ticket in advance at all Pease’s stores and Bank of Springfield locations. Food vendors will be on location. Organizers suggest taking…
Snake in the ceiling
If there had not been that snake in the ceiling, we might never have done it. My husband, Peter, and I knew when we bought the Spaulding Orchard farmhouse that we would eventually want to do some remodeling. But initially we only made minor changes, partly because of financial reasons, and because we wanted to…
Call me Black Magic Johnson
Reggie Britton is one of my best friends as well as one of the most admired and respected artists on my personal list. We met in the early ’90s when Reggie showed up at my Thursday night gig at Bedrock’s. He asked if he could play drums with us, and being a smart aleck, I…
FINGERPRINT YOUR KIDS
Mark Bott of Springfield wants to give parents something he hopes they’ll never need. Bott is the founder of Operation Kidsafe, an international program that photographs and fingerprints children for free, providing parents with the information in case a child goes missing. Now in its 11th year, the Springfield-based program is celebrating its one millionth…
The 1 percent’s cry for justice
It’s out! This year’s list of American success stories has just been published, and according to its compiler, it “instills confidence that the American dream is still very much alive.” Maybe you are one of these success stories. You might be a great public school teacher, for example, who motivated students to achieve new heights…
Enos School replacement plan under fire
A Springfield nonprofit is asking the state to put the brakes on a plan to replace an elementary school building located north of downtown. Jerry Jacobson, spokesman for the nonprofit historic preservation organization Save Old Springfield, sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Education on Monday, asking the state to reevaluate whether it’s…
SLOW RIDE
Call it Mosey On The Joliet Express. We here at Illinois Times would love to accompany Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin on a demonstration of an alleged high-speed rail train scheduled to run between Joliet and Normal on Friday, but there are a couple of issues.…
More than meets the eye in Psychopaths
There is far more at play in Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths than witnessing acts of gruesome violence committed by a collection of certifiable nuts. Well, there is that but the subtext that McDonagh, who also wrote the screenplay, weaves throughout does an interesting job of deconstructing the very genre the film belongs to. Having written…
Head over heals
LEO will be performed at 8 p.m. Oct. 19 at Sangamon Auditorium, UIS, as part of the Visiting Artists Series. With no spoken words, the one-man show relies on physical theater to portray the story of Leo, a man who has found the physics in his world have been altered. The audience views Leo and a live…
fortunecookie poem #1
my chinesefortune cookieinforms me “youhave a charming way with words” then adds a gentle command: “write a letter this week” okey-doke
Chicks with Picks
What do you get when three of the best female guitar-playing and singing songwriters in town come together on the same bill? Chicks with Picks is the correct answer. Josie Lowder, Monica Morris and Sarah Schneider man their guitars and muscle up the tunes for a night of song sharing and music making. Regardless of…
Unlucky Article XIII cheats voters
The constitutional amendment to Article XIII on the November ballot is cleverly drafted to concentrate more monetary power in the same Springfield legislative leaders who have de facto bankrupted the Illinois treasury. With $83 billion in projected liabilities, Illinois has the nation’s largest state budget crisis. This “Unlucky Article XIII Amendment” is crafted to strip…
Musical revue
Conceived and directed by Scott Richardson, Halloween Dreams musical revue celebrates the season with a cast of nine of the area’s finest singers and an eight-member swing band at The Legacy Theatre. The group – including Greg Floyd, Sandra Fritz, Emilie Heckenkamp, Johna Keen, Geoff Leathers, Lori Ann McCabe, Mark McCue, John O’Connor and Shelley…
Horrific Sinister succeeds despite flaws
There is no question that Scott Derrickson’s Sinister is a flawed movie. While we expect horror films to test the boundaries where an audience’s suspension of disbelief is concerned, this movie obliterates it halfway through. And yet, the movie manages to keep us in its grip thanks to the pervasive sense of terror that Derrickson…
Getting there from there
South MacArthur Boulevard is a lot like a heart attack patient. It might recover its former vigor, but it will never thrive in the ways it did before it got sick. It will be able to survive at all only if it makes a whole bunch of smallish changes – the urbanist equivalent of quitting…
Letters to the Editor 10/18/12
CRYING OVER TIERSThank you for publishing an article that brings more light onto the State of Illinois’ five-tier retirement systems [see “For state pensions, use a scalpel not an ax,” Guestwork by Scott Stahlman, Oct. 11]. I believe tiers like these were developed so the least paid tier of State of Illinois employees could have…
Ratatouille
• 8 c. peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes• 6 c. eggplant (remove any largely seeded areas), cut into 1-inch cubes• 6 c. onions, NOT super-sweet, cut into 1- inch cubes• 1/3 c. thinly sliced garlic• 6 c. zucchini (remove any largely seeded areas), cut into 1-inch cubes• 6 c. bell peppers – red, green or…
Campaign committees dodge money cap law
One way of getting around the state’s new campaign contribution caps is by forming a lot of different campaign committees. State law forbids people from forming more than one committee (except for independent expenditures, political parties and state legislative leaders), but nothing in the law prevents “friends” and allies from forming their own committees to…
Country dancing for 25 years
Yes, it’s a little boot scootin’ and a little two-steppin,’ but Prairie Land Dance Club (PLDC) in Illiopolis ain’t your mama’s square dance. Folks at PLDC are just as comfortable sliding through “Sex on the Beach” or “Moves Like Jagger” as they are with local darlin’ (and current contestant on “The Voice”) Gracia Harrison’s yodeling.…
Project Censored
People who get their information exclusively from mainstream media sources may be surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on the left for President Barack Obama in this crucial election. But that’s probably because they weren’t exposed to the full online furor sparked by Obama’s continuation of his predecessor’s overreaching approach to national security, such as…
Legendary raconteur
Legendary singer/songwriter Jackson Browne performs at Sangamon Auditorium, UIS with guest Sara Watkins. A 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 2007 Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Browne kicked off a career in the ’60s in New York City though most of his life and work was in California. Hits such as “These Days,”…
Look for the union label
The mood was upbeat last Friday at Floyd’s Thirst Parlor as State Journal-Register journalists gathered to celebrate the newsroom’s new status as a union shop. The 26-4 vote earlier that day in favor of forming a union was a shellacking for management, which couldn’t make a case that employees at Springfield’s embattled daily newspaper are…
