As Portland goes, so goeth Illinois?
Back in April I remarked on the decision by Mr. Rauner to take the necessary administrative steps toward seeling the old State of Illinois Center (now known as the Thompson Center) in Chicago. The new governor judged that the building was inefficient, decrepit, and inappropriately designed for its purpose and ougt to be sold, and…
“Jobs” a Compelling Portrait of a Clueless Genius
We’re attracted to biographies because we’re fascinated with what makes the famous and infamous tick. Problem is, due to limitations of both the literary and film mediums, we’re destined never to get the full story. Autobiographies have to be taken with a grain of salt, biographies, no matter how well-researched can never truly get under…
Winner takes nothing
As you might have heard, the merry band of ball players disguised as Chicago Cubs won for themselves a chance to go to the World Series this year as one of the two best teams in American professional baseball. Except that the two best teams were already known back on Oct. 4. They’re the Royals…
‘We are writing the rules,’ says Obama
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE The negotiations and the sales push behind Washington’s latest (and biggest) “free trade” agreement amounts to Kabuki theater. What theater? Kabuki. It’s a 17th-century form of Japanese drama, featuring elaborate sets and costuming, rhythmic dialogue and stylized acting and dancing. That does, indeed, nicely sum up the White…
Building resentment over a building sale
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS Gov. Bruce Rauner said last week that he had spoken with both Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan about his proposed sale of the state’s Thompson Center building in Chicago and that both men were “forward leaning and positive” about the plan. So, I checked in with the…
Letters to the Editor 10/22/15
The latest mural in Downtown Springfield Inc.’s artification project is coming right along. Troy Freeman of Free Sky Studios is completing the mural on the west side of the building at 406 E. Adams St., adjacent to the downtown Farmer’s Mark HOMELESS WRITER When I read Mr. Bolin’s letter (GUESTWORK, “From a grateful Springfield homeless…
Editor’s note 10/22/15
It was good of Jim Edgar, the former governor, to say clearly that Gov. Bruce Rauner needs to stop holding the budget hostage to his demands, because damage is being done to the state. “We need a budget,” Edgar told the State Journal-Register. “These other issues, they’re important, some of them more important than others,…
Billionaire populist really just a billionaire
Listening to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s stump speech about taxes, I was intrigued that his official tax plan might break new ground. I had hoped that candidate Trump shared my view and that of my fellow Patriotic Millionaires – that our tax system needs a massive overhaul and a fairness adjustment. As he has said on the…
Trick-or-treat where Lincoln walked
Children ages 12 and under are invited to don their Halloween costumes on Friday, Oct. 23, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and enjoy a free trick-or-treating event compliments of the Lincoln Home Employee Association. Though the houses will not be open for tours, there will be candy stops set up at several historic homes in the festively…
Craft beers, wines and liquor
Love craft brews? Then the Springfield Jaycees Annual Beer Festival is the place for you on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 2 to 8 p.m. The beer bonanza features more than 125 local, regional and national craft beers plus assorted wines and spirits. New for 2015 is an indoor beer garden with live music by Brooke…
Funny Frank Ferrante
On Sunday, the Kirkland Center for Fine Arts welcomes award-winning actor/director/playwright Frank Ferrante as he performs his hilarious show portraying the third-born Marx brother, Groucho Marx. Ferrante, accompanied by his pianist, incorporates the audience into the quick-witted, slapstick show, resulting in a crowd-pleasing performance. The two act, 90-minute long show contains many of Groucho’s famous…
High, I think I love you
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon Two friends of mine are in “love at first sight” relationships. (One went from chills at seeing the guy to moving in with him weeks later.) Each has said to me, “When it’s right, you just know.” Well, as I get to know this new guy I’m seeing, I…
Archaeology of a hate crime
The smoldering ruins at Tenth and Madison Streets in the aftermath of the 1908 race riot, very near where the modern-day archaeological investigations took place. When Floyd Mansberger and Christopher Stratton at Fever River Research began their archaeological investigation of 10th Street between Madison and Mason streets in Springfield, they knew the probability was high…
Mitsubishi exits. What’s next?
For nearly three decades, the sprawling Mitsubishi Motors North America plant in Normal was an enormous economic engine, providing jobs and other commercial opportunities to its hometown and downstate Illinois. Now, as the Tokyo-based automaker cuts more than 1,250 good-paying area jobs and prepares to permanently end vehicle production by December, that mammoth plant is…
Urban League hit in pocketbook
The Springfield Urban League has been ordered to pay more than $200,000 in a reverse discrimination lawsuit filed by a woman who says that she was fired because she is white and refused to participate in workplace religious activities. The order issued last month by Sangamon County Associate Judge Jack Davis came on top of…
Thinking of the children
Nichole Heyen, principal at Lincoln Magnet School. Photo by PATRICK YEAGLE From the moment they’re born, some children face hurdles to their mental, emotional and physical development. However, a movement is growing in Sangamon County to help those disadvantaged kids reach their potential. A report released Oct. 14 by The Sangamon County Continuum of Learning…
North to Peoria
Court and Karen Conn, long a Springfield institution when it comes to having fun, are taking their show on the road to Peoria, where the couple has purchased a church-turned-banquet-hall that will become the planet’s second Obed and Isaac’s. The version in downtown Peoria promises to be bigger and better. In addition to a microbrewery,…
Thrills and chills aplenty in Peak
Mia Wasikowska as Edith Cushing in Crimson Peak. PHOTO COURTESY Universal Pictures The most visually sumptuous film of the year, Guillermo del Toro’s (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) haunted house tale Crimson Peak, is one part Edgar Allen Poe and one part Shirley Jackson, buoyed by impressive production design that makes the title mansion as important a…
Octobering for music
Chris Miller, along with Joe Dawkins and Mike Burnett, plays Trail’s End Saloon in Curran on Fri, Oct. 23. I don’t know why, but this weekend shows up like a who’s who of what’s happening here, there and everywhere. Tough choices lie on the entertainment table. Let’s start when Chris Miller, the extraordinary guitarist, singer…
Rockin’ Johnny Burgin
Hot off a Southern California run and in between a southern Missouri romp, the very busy and very talented blues guitarist, singer and bandleader from Chicagoland makes his way to the Illinois Central Blues Club Blue Monday show at The Alamo. RJB is on the move in more ways than geographical tours. His latest CD…
tomatoes poem #1
tomatoes poem #1 frost predicted for tonight therefore gathered green tomatoes galore from Demi’s little garden I have kept it going these five years since that September day she chose death over torment it’s as if she bequeathed it to me along with the basil frozen in neat cartons each labeled “add garlic for sauce”…
Make your own sausage
“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.” –John Godfrey Saxe Nineteenth century American poet/lawyer Saxe’s quip is still commonly used, though less elegantly phrased – and not just about lawmaking. We wince, shrug and say, “You know, it’s like making sausage….” Everyone understands that the rest…
