Cover Story
A second chance in life
More than 150 people who attended a free program in Springfield on Oct. 19 emerged with a possible second chance. The Expungement and Record Sealing Summit, hosted for the second year by the Sangamon County Circuit Clerk’s Office, gave pre-registered participants free, full-service assistance to get their adult criminal records possibly expunged or sealed. Volunteer…
Fate a tired, redundant sequel
It’s time to put this to rest. Without question, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a seminal piece of science fiction, a film that, much like many of its characters, has transcended time to become a part of our pop culture lexicon. Its dire warnings about technology taking over our lives has unfortunately proved prescient, while…
Emmerich’s Midway a surprisingly sincere effort
Over the course of four days in June 1942, a vastly outnumbered American naval force pulled off a successful surprise attack on the Japanese Navy at a remote atoll known as Midway. Still smarting from the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy marshaled their battered forces and set out to check the…
Springfield teachers reject contract offer
Springfield school teachers tonight rejected a contract offer that appears to include raises of nearly 14 percent over two years for some teachers.Under the rejected proposal, the lowest base salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree would be $40,776 in the 2020-21 school year, up from $35,869 in the contract that expired in August,…
Rosario gets probation
Samuel Rosario, the former Springfield cop found guilty of official misconduct for a 2017 fistfight with a civilian, was sentenced to probation this morning. During the proceeding, Sangamon County state’s attorney Dan Wright and defense counsel Dan Fultz revealed that Rosario, prior to trial, had refused to promise that he would never again be a…
“Sgt. Rosario saved my life”
Samuel Rosario as a soldier, left, and an arrestee. Samuel Rosario is due for sentencing tomorrow. That he’ll get probation is almost certain. The former Springfield police officer had never been in trouble before he lost his temper in 2017 and challenged a rude youth to fisticuffs that the whole world watched via body cam.…
ComEd/Exelon struggles in wake of investigation
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has lately won plaudits from even some conservative opinion-makers for making the right moves on corruption. But I am going to register an objection in a bit. When Senate President John Cullerton dithered about what to do with Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) after the powerful Transportation Committee’s Statehouse and district offices and…
Letters to the Editor
PROTECT BIRD HABITATSA recent bird study, which showed 30% of numbers of birds declining since 1970, has local implications. Not too long ago, several area scientists tried to stop a bicycle club from taking over the Lick Creek Nature Preserve. This preserve had been designated as such by CWLP’s water division manager. However, the city…
Remember the real victims of lynchings
It was the panels. Row after row after row of hanging panels, shaped to resemble coffins, with name after name after name inscribed. That was where my mind went last week after Donald Trump insensitively claimed he was the victim of a lynching by impeachment investigators. Several critics suggested Trump should visit the National Memorial…
Namaste
Family Service Center is hosting a community yoga class the first and third Monday of each month. According to the American Osteopathic Association, the benefits of regular yoga practice include increased flexibility, muscle strength and tone, improved respiration, energy and vitality, a stabilized metabolism, weight reduction, cardio and circulatory health, improved athletic performance and protection…
A Christmas classic
Moscow Ballet, a Russian ballet company, consistently produces record-breaking seasons, thrilling audiences from New York City to Los Angeles and from Puerto Rico to Calgary. Sold-out theatres attest to the public’s love and appreciation of its high quality, classic ballet productions. The Moscow Ballet returns to Decatur this week to perform the holiday favorite the…
Drug dealer’s sentence thrown out
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals last week tossed a cocaine dealer’s sentence, ruling that improper communications between U.S. District Court Judge Colin Bruce and former colleagues at the U.S. attorney’s office merited his removal from the case. James Atwood pleaded guilty to selling 2 ½ ounces of cocaine. Bruce last year sentenced him to…
Goodbye jobs
Horace Mann Educators Corp. has eliminated between 20 and 30 jobs in Springfield as part of a reorganization effort. Among those gone is Bret Benham, executive vice president of life and retirement, whose resignation last week was effective immediately. He will be paid his regular salary at the rate of $400,000 until Jan. 1, according…
Halloween help
Per usual, there is a slew of music mustered up for this weekend, but first, with Halloween on a Thursday this year, we must help ourselves to the haunted happenings here and below. On Halloween night, the Third Base bar hosts a fundraiser for the Illinois Central Blues Club as a thank you for all…
The Neverly Brothers
A travelling band since 2003, this trio of hard-working, lifelong musicians from Chicago present an educationally entertaining show that covers early rock ’n’ roll and the British invasion in American pop music from 1955 to 1965. They’ve played all around the Midwest and other parts of the U.S. at festivals and theaters, proving that period…
go-play-in-your-sandpile poem
I cannot find enough horrific words (or guts) to tell the slaughter of the Kurds of murders that have never had to be all caused by gross insane insanity 2019 Jacqueline Jackson
Sweet potatoes. Dig it.
I should know never to go into the vegetable garden without a basket and shears. I’d ended up there with my toddler, following her as she wandered aimlessly about our property on a sunny autumn afternoon. Several days had passed since I’d last been out in the garden, and in that time we’d had the…
