Police shuffle
Springfield Police Chief Don Kliment shook up his command staff Wednesday, naming one assistant chief and four deputy chiefs. The reorganization promotes two officers and demotes only one. The most significant promotion was given to Ralph Caldwell Jr., who is now officially second-in-command to Kliment. Caldwell, a 23-year veteran of SPD, was previously assistant chief…
Movie Review
Who would have ever thought that the crew behind the Airplane! and the Naked Gun movies would actually add a little class to any sort of cinematic endeavor? But writer/director Jerry Zucker and his team of writers do just that with Scary Movie 3, the latest installment in the studio’s horror spoof series. Created by…
Hide and seek
We are witnessing in Illinois a high stakes game of hide-and-seek as SBC attempts to hide its profits and stifle competition. Ultimately, the game will cost the citizens of Illinois millions of dollars. To appreciate the game, we need to go back 20 years. After the break-up of Ma Bell in 1984, the telecom world…
Now Playing 10-30-03
Don’t scare easily, you say? How terrifying is this — Halloween falls on a Friday night. That means every pub, bar, nightclub, thirst parlor, watering hole, tavern, saloon, juke joint, and any other legal libation station will be throwing a Halloween party. Most of them include costume contests with prizes ranging from promotional T-shirts to…
Health summit
The state of rural health services is the subject of a two-day conference in Springfield that features presentations by several public policy and medical experts. The event, which is being held at the Crowne Plaza, begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, with panel discussions on the state of rural health care and the declining…
A treat at the end of a trail
Sometimes life just isn’t fair. It’s ironic, for example, that the best coconut cream pie I’ve ever tasted happens to be located at the end of a four-mile exercise trail in Rochester. I first discovered the Lost Bridge Café because of its location on Route 29 near the Lost Bridge Trail, connecting Springfield to Rochester.…
To Jerusalem with love
Parents of murdered Israeli and Palestinian children formed The Parents Circle in search of reconciliation and forgiveness. Citizens from those countries are forming nongovernmental peace initiatives. “When things get so bad, people are bound to look for alternatives,” says Andy Shallal, founder of The Peace Café, a forum for Arab and Jewish dialogue. Shallal, 48,…
More than just ol’ Abe
When Illinois Times offered me a column to write about local and regional history, I leapt at the opportunity without so much as a nanosecond of thoughtful consideration. Though I now consider myself to be solidly middle-aged, prudence, caution and foresight somehow escape me yet; too often do I leap and then look. Maybe someday…
Knoepfle 10-30-03
lines from “all hallows” when there were stone houses or on the walled hovels even the jointstools were warm at the hearth and the cottage doors they were left open the night long that fell dark when the dead came home that was until the famine and who was left living then if only the…
Your Turn . . . 10-30-03
Kudos to pioneers Thank you for your recent article on Ray Spooner, a Certified Nurse Midwife at Carle Clinic in Urbana [Deb Aronson, “Against the Odds,” Oct. 23]. Spooner exemplifies what nurse midwifery is all about. As a fellow midwife, I had the opportunity to hear Ray speak about water births at one of our…
Time to sign up for gardening program
As our summer flowers fade away and leaves fall from the trees, our focus turns to planning for next year’s garden. As you jot down notes on what did and didn’t work in this year’s garden you may also be compiling a list of questions, such as “why did my mums bloom in July instead…
Simon Says
From his office on the Carbondale campus of Southern Illinois University, Paul Simon contemplates the nation, and he worries. The state’s former senior senator, retired from public office but not from public service, sees his country moving into the future without plan or purpose, its civic leaders too willing to take the path of least…
Flight plan
On Saturday, the passenger-airline hub in St. Louis fades to a memory as American Airlines cuts its operations at Lambert Field by nearly 200 flights a day. As part of the cutback, American will also drop six of its 10 daily flights to St. Louis from Springfield’s Capital Airport. For St. Louis, the loss of…
The Witches of Hoopeston
Under a sky blackened by the new moon, witches invaded downtown Hoopeston. From as far away as Canada, New York and Colorado, they came wearing black robes festooned with mystic symbols. To celebrate the Pagan holiday Samhain, they feasted on slaughtered animals. Then the Archpriest and High Priestess summoned The Spiritsand channeled otherworldly messages. And…
Know how to breathe? Think again.
In 1999, Dr. Padma Talchekar, a pediatrician, injured the cartilage in her knees while exercising at a gym. When she returned to her native India months later for a visit, she was still in pain. A friend encouraged her to take part in a stress-relief program being offered in Bangalore. The course taught breathing techniques…
Pickin’ and grinnin’ at the fairgrounds
Broken Grass and Tony Furtado and the American Gypsies will hoot and holler their way into the Capital City this Saturday, with a “Harvest Hoedown” that promises a roaring night of real music for anyone who loves live picking. Broken Grass came together in Carbondale, Ill., as a bluegrass band with a heavily subversive musical…
Water world
There was a time, more than three generations ago, when thousands of tourists and sportsmen traveled to two lakes near the confluence of the Spoon and Illinois rivers. The visitors couldn’t resist the abundant wildlife — and enough bass, yellow perch, paddlefish and carp to give the area the reputation as the fishing capital of…
Bards of the Sangamo 10-30-03
six-fifty-two AM CST through fog this morning two amblers one bipedal his stalker quad gangly legs: ringed tail:bandit mask juvenile raccoon — such an odd sight chasing a backpacked jogger east down Kimbal through August fog and i thought i was only playing his morning a role as schizophrenic . . . — David Pitchford…
