Guilty plea due in 2008 death
Anakin Credit, died in 2008 PHOTO COURTESY MICHELE CREDIT A man accused of killing toddler Anakin Credit, whose death helped force the ouster of former coroner Susan Boone, has agreed to plead guilty more than two years after being charged with first-degree murder and aggravated death of a child. The exact charge to which Mason…
A pathologist with a past
Cinda Edwards A forensic pathologist set to begin duties for the Sangamon County coroner’s office has a history of alcohol abuse and run-ins with the law. Dr. Nathaniel Patterson has been sober since June 16, 2008, according to the Texas Medical Board that last month released the physician from requirements that he receive psychiatric care…
If you’re headed to Chicago
You didn’t ask for it; but here it is. Chicago Haunted Handbook: 99 Ghostly Places You Can Visit in the Around the Windy City by Jeff Morris and Vince Sheilds. Buy yours today if you’re headed to Chicagoland this Halloween weekend and looking for some hauntingly awesome places to explore. Or purchase one for your next trip. It’s…
Listen to the music
A recently posted article by Austen Rosenfeld, “Why Billy Collins is America’s Most Popular Poet,” points out pertinent thoughts about poetry today. Mainly, has academia hijacked the art of poetry or is it alive and well but mutilated in the public sector? But we’re missing the point. The poetry world has never provided much direction…
Stay safe online
Oct. 1 marked the kick-off of the 10th Anniversary of National Cyber Security Awareness Month! This month the U.S Department of Homeland Security and National Cyber Security Alliance collaborate to help everyone be safer online. Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. Get involved and learn to stay safe online and educate others at www.staysafeonline.org/ncsam. From http://www.staysafeonline.org/ Be a Good Online Citizen It…
The end of the rainbow?
The Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission voted last week not to allow a parolee housing organization to remain in a north side neighborhood, but the final say will come from the Springfield City Council next month. House of the Rainbow, which offers temporary housing for recent prison parolees at four houses on north 10th…
ZZ Top rocks Springfield
PHOTO COURTESY WWW.ZZTOP.COM The problem with reviewing a ZZ Top show is that somebody has already written practically everything that could be written about the trio from Texas that’s been touring since Nixon was in the White House. The essentials: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, it’s been, as guitarist…
Cure for the common blockbuster
Sleight of Hand is a 10-minute stop motion film by Michael Cusack of Adelaide, Australia. This film will be presented Sat., Nov. 2, in the morning session. The festival takes place at Capital City Bar and Grill. For more than 10 years, the Route 66 Film Festival has been screening independent films from around the…
PIZZA PARTY
Vinod “Vinnie” Gupta of Springfield is turning 75 this year, but instead of throwing himself a party, he’s throwing a party for someone else. Gupta has volunteered for about 10 years with Helping Hands and the Springfield Overflow Shelter, two of the homeless shelters in Springfield, so for his birthday he’s throwing a pizza party…
News Quirks 10/24/13
Curses, foiled again• Samantha Ellen Ward, 24, presented a driver’s license and debit card to withdraw money from a bank in Boynton Beach, Fla., but the teller looked up the account, noted the license had been reported stolen and summoned police. Ward pointed to a Chevy Tahoe in the parking lot and told officers that…
Halloween happenings
NIL8 headlines at the horrifying Hobgoblinspookadelic show at Black Sheep Cafe on Saturday night with Soap Scum, Looming, Execution Techniques and Orange Soda. Silly me, I was thinking of writing my column on Halloween stuff next week so it would come out on the day proper, but, as I should have remembered, all the goings…
Food for thought
Join The Jewish Federation of Springfield, Ill., in partnership with Bread for the World, Central Illinois Food Bank, Douglas Avenue United Methodist Church, Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation and Slow Food to view A Place at the Table, a new documentary that highlights the stories of a few of the 50 million people in the…
Just give me a moment
Robert McChesney, professor of communication at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and his latest book: Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America. The shutdown of both the government and the American spirit was still in full effect when U of I professor Robert McChesney addressed about 300 environmentalists at the annual fundraising…
Stars shine in Enough Said
James Gandolfini as Albert and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Eva in Enough Said. PHOTOS COURTESY FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES’ There’s an air of melancholy that hangs over Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said. Obviously, some of this is due to the untimely passing of James Gandolfini, who delivers one of his most informed performances, pointing toward what could have…
prayerpoem #4
today’s prayers were in lugandamukama tukwebaza, olwobulamubwafte era tukwebazza olwabantubonna abali wano embanjawuloabakazi abassajja aberu nabadugavulord we thank you for our lives andwe thank you for everyone who ishere whether man woman black whiteI heard about a school in ugandaand two orphanages one filled withchildren who have lost both parentsto the aids virus the other…
Terri Clark
PHOTO COURTESY CHEEKY MONKEY Terri Clark joined the prestigious Grand Ole Opry in 2004 as the only female Canadian on the show. She grew up in Montreal, where her maternal grandparents were well known country music performers. In 1987, her mom drove the aspiring artist to Nashville, dropped her off at the famed Tootsie’s Orchid…
Growl, woof, woof
Ward 6 Alderman Cory Jobe PHOTO BY DAVID HINE Ward 6 Ald. Cory Jobe wants a watchdog for city hall. Jobe has proposed hiring an inspector general at a cost of as much as $400,000 per year, but he says details are up for discussion. “I think we can probably do this for $250,000,” Jobe…
The hows of behavior
PHOTO COURTESY CONSCIOUS DISCIPLINE Friends of Funshop invite adults, Friday, Oct. 25, to an informative workshop about discipline for children of any age. The featured speaker, Kim Hughes of Wake Forest, N.C., is a nationally certified instructor with Conscious Discipline and an award-winning educator recognized by President Bill Clinton. Light dinner and registration begins at…
Money matters
Let’s take a quick look at the campaign finance disclosure reports filed last week by some of the statewide candidates, shall we? • Bill Brady – It goes without saying that the mere $66,104 Brady reported raising during the third quarter was beyond pathetic. But here’s how bad the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s performance really was:…
Math problems
Hoogland Center for the Arts, Over the Moon Productions and American Association of University Women present The Little Years, Oct. 25-27. Directed by Kevin Purcell, the innovative play explores what happens to a young girl who is a math prodigy. It begins in 1957 and follows her for 45 years of her life. The play also…
Trick-or-treating country style
PHOTO BY METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION Trick-or-treating is different when you’re a country kid. But when I was very young, I wasn’t aware of any difference. After supper, I’d put on my costume and head out with my mom in the car. These days, North Cotton Hill Road is a different scene, with subdivisions galore, but…
Golden pond scum
I went to meet my girlfriend’s 90-year-old father. They have a conflicted relationship. He doesn’t “agree” with his daughter’s homosexuality, generally looks down on women, and believes they should be helpful, nice, pretty and married to men. When we got to his upscale senior living facility a few hours away, I jokingly asked my girlfriend…
Fall fellowship
Looking for an awesome fall event for the family this weekend? Saturday, Oct. 26, Bomke’s Patch is hosting Old Barn Bash with an amazing lineup of fun attractions. Activities include a petting zoo, corn maze, bean maze, pony rides, Chris Camp the whip guy, face painting, crafters and artisans, antique tractor display, wagon rides, dulcimer…
FIRST BLACK FIREHOUSE
In 1902, Springfield created an all-black firehouse to segregate black firefighters from their white counterparts. Located at what is now 1310 E. Adams, it was the only firehouse at which black firefighters were allowed to work. Firefighters from that building responded to blazes torched in the infamous 1908 Springfield race riot. While the building hasn’t…
Miles of nature, wild, scenic and close to home
Nine cabins at the Prairie Lake Campground have electricity but no plumbing. Each cabin sleeps six and is within walking distance of the campground’s shower house. Go to www.reserveamerica.com to make reservations for the cabins or camping sites. ALL PHOTOS BY BRENT BOHLEN A long name but a short hop from Springfield, the Jim Edgar…
Judge fast-tracks lawsuit
Carlock after his arrest. He died after 39 days in jail. U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough surprised both sides last week by setting a Feb. 4 trial date for a lawsuit filed by the widow of Amon Paul Carlock, who died nearly six years ago after falling ill in the Sangamon County jail. The…
Marching for marriage
Supporters of same-sex marriage fill the intersection of Second Street and Capitol Avenue in front of the Illinois Statehouse, demanding passage of a bill lifting the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Supporters of same-sex marriage rallied at the Illinois Statehouse this week, demanding that the legislature pass a bill lifting the…
Life with baseball in my genes
My father died in 2004; my mother five years later. Anyone who has lost their parents knows one of the bittersweet tasks of grieving – going through all their stuff, deciding what to give away, throw away, keep. There were hundreds of stories to tell in the detritus of two well-lived lives, but the one…
J.P. Morgan – The man and the bank
J.P. Morgan was recently socked in the wallet by financial regulators, who levied a fine of nearly a billion bucks against the Wall Street baron for massive illegalities. Well, not a fine against John Pierpont Morgan, the man. This 19th century robber baron was born to a great banking fortune and, by hook and crook,…
