Cyclist hurt by pillar
A bicyclist suffered a serious head injury last month after a pillar designed to keep traffic off the Old State Capitol Plaza tumbled onto his head in downtown Springfield. A video of the Oct. 10 incident released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request to the city shows the bicyclist, whom the city…
Best Places
BEST AUTO LUBE SHOPBrahler Tire and Auto Center531 E. Laurel St., 523-56451950 N. Dirksen Parkway, 523-00271557 Wabash Ave., 546-0234When we bring our vehicles in for routine maintenance, we want it done right and we want it done fast. Readers agree: Brahler brings it on both fronts, and that’s been our personal experience. In business since…
Best Local Life
BEST LOCAL FAMILY FUN SPOTKnight’s Action Park1700 Knights Recreation Dr., 546-8881Knight’s Action Park is a child’s wonderland. There’s the water park, with its seven twisty slides and a giant wave pool. You and the munchkins could easily spend all day on the go-cart track, 18-hole mini-golf course and arcade. If you’ve left the kids at…
Land of loopholes
The aggressive and unrepentant tax avoidance of Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has become a major flashpoint in the presidential campaign, but it also underscores a broader debate about the fairness and wisdom of tax codes riddled with special breaks. In Illinois, a plethora of 257 separate categories of breaks – tax “expenditures” in…
Medicaid fraud a $30 billion industry
Want to make some easy cash? Try defrauding Medicaid. It’s a booming business, according to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which says the total amount of “improper payments” for Medicaid last year totaled more than $29 billion and accounted for nearly a tenth of all payments. Just one caveat: you’ll probably get…
Gun thieves thrive
Less than two weeks after burglars stole more than 50 guns in a heist that wasn’t discovered until the next morning, Letz Hunt and Sport is back in business. Sydney Letz has been selling guns from the small shop adjacent to his east side home for more than 20 years ago. The Oct. 9 burglary…
Keeping what’s ours
All that banging and buzzing you might have heard coming from the Springfield city council chambers in September was the council and mayor building a wall along the city’s border with Sangamon County and the world beyond. That’s when alderpersons approved an ordinance requiring that contractors make good-faith efforts to ensure that Springfield residents work…
A tale of two pipes
A dramatic new chapter is unfolding this year in a volatile confrontation on a remote stretch of the northern Plains in rural North Dakota. It’s a “Battle of Two Pipes,” pitting the cultural power symbolized by the Native American peace pipe against the bruising financial power of a giant pipeline owned by Energy Transfer Partners.…
Strange things happen in politics
Democratic House candidate John Bartman was appointed to the ballot in July when Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) dropped out of the race to run for McHenry County Board chairman. Bartman is not getting help from the House Democrats, who appear to have all but conceded. Rep. Franks’ district is solidly Republican. President Barack Obama lost…
Letters to the Editor 10/27/16
MARIJUANA NOT HARMLESS Parents and teens need to know that marijuana use is not harmless and it has serious risks, particularly for the developing brain, which is not fully developed until age 25 (“Trading places,” by Patrick Yeagle, Oct. 20). People have died after consuming high-potent THC marijuana. As an example, two college-age men committed…
Editor’s note 10/27/16
Here we present the Best of Springfield edition, our annual celebration of what in Springfield is good and true. And popular. This is a reader poll, remember, so we don’t agree with all the choices, and you won’t either. Agree or not, there is a lot of goodness here – interesting food, hardworking and successful…
Corporations dodge billions in U.S. taxes
European regulators’ recent finding that Apple avoided billions of dollars in taxes by stashing its profits in Ireland, a known tax haven, put the tech giant in an unwelcome spotlight. But Apple’s tax dodging is just the tip of a huge iceberg of offshore corporate tax avoidance. According to a new report, Offshore Shell Games…
Spooky science
The Lincoln Land Community College Chemistry Club hosts its fourth annual “Haunted Lab” on Friday, Oct. 28, on the upper level of Sangamon hall at Lincoln Land Community College. The event, which is geared towards children ages five and older along with their parents and guardians, will feature spooky science demonstrations and simple experiments that…
Comedic canines
You’ll howl your way through this slapstick act featuring Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College graduate Johnny Peers and his 12 talented dogs that perform challenging and difficult tricks. Johnny has been working with dogs since he was a young boy who adopted his first puppy, a beagle named Freckles, from the Humane…
A smashing good time
With more than 50 years of experience as a touring comedian, Gallagher has filmed 14 Showtime specials, made more than 4,000 appearances, and destroyed countless watermelons in the process. But at long last, the comedian is heading out for one final tour along with fellow comedian and his own personal manager Artie Fletcher on their…
Eat should and die
Your response to “Torn” really missed the mark. She is the 35-year-old woman whose friends and family think her 43-year-old boyfriend is lazy and not good enough for her and will end up living off her. She has a full-time job with benefits while he works part time and saves up when he wants to…
Best People
BEST BARISTAKori GreenGrab-A-Java1702 S. Sixth St., 523-5282If you’ve pulled up to the Sixth Street Grab-A-Java on your way to work in the morning anytime in the past seven years, it is more likely than not that Kori Green was there to greet you with a smiling face, kind words and a tasty beverage. Green has…
Best Food & Drinks
BEST BAKERYIncredibly Delicious Bakery and Cafe925 S Seventh Street, 528-8548Winning again this year, Incredibly Delicious provides Springfield with delicious cakes, pastries and bread. We love the aroma of freshly baked bread, especially when dining al fresco in the patio area around the ever-changing landscaping at the Weber House. Yes, that’s right – Incredibly Delicious also…
Best Arts, Culture and Music
BEST BASS PLAYEREric TinsleySo we finally wised up and added a category for the most important band member, at least that’s what these keepers of the bottom end and masters of the groove feel, anyway. With any one of the finalists a likely contender for the bass crown, Eric Tinsley fingered the highest level of…
GRACE FOR VOTERS
With the awful tone of this election season at both the national and state levels, Election Day (Nov. 8) can’t come soon enough. But time may feel like it’s slipping away if you’ve been too busy to register to vote or change your registration. While the normal registration period is over, Illinois has “grace period”…
VOTE FOR HOMELESS KIDS
Every summer, Camp Compass gives homeless kids renewed hope and a chance for a better future. Operated by Compass for Kids in Springfield, Camp Compass helps kids catch up academically over the summer, while keeping them nourished physically and mentally. The program has shown improved math and reading skills among the kids who participated, helping…
Cruise on auto-pilot in Never Go Back
Not since Conrad Veidt played the monstrous somnambulist Cesare in the first horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, has an actor sleepwalked through a film the way Tom Cruise does in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, an unnecessary, by-the-book sequel that’s nothing more than a pastiche of every action film cliche you’ve come to…
Halloweening music
Welcome to the terrorizing time of Halloween, the Devilish Day of the Dead and the most frighteningly fearsome event of all, the upcoming 2016 election. But we’re here to talk about music, and this week brings us a catastrophic cacophony of wacky wonderment, meant to entertain, scare, frighten and, otherwise, remove the bejesus out of…
The Lustre Kings
Hailing from Albany, New York, this hot-time trio plays rock and roll the way it was invented to be done. Mark Gamsjager is the lifeblood of the band and totes his Gretsch, the rockabilly guitar king, around the country with a live band ready to rock a joint like it should be done. Mark and…
It was a dark and stormy night…
There comes a point when creativity and enthusiasm go too far. This week’s recipe, reprinted from an article written by my late wife, Julianne Glatz, in 2014, is an example of something that might be a bit close to the intersection of cool and creepy. Her Witch’s Fingers look convincingly like something you might receive…
