Illinois owes CWLP $2.7m for power at Capitol complex
The State of Illinois owes Springfield’s municipal utility more than $2.7 million for electricity at the State Capitol and surrounding buildings. Despite the mounting bill, it’s unlikely that power to the Illinois Statehouse will be shut off any time soon. Dave Druker, spokesman for Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, told Illinois Times on Tuesday…
Agency applies for Lincoln grant
After saying that it would not apply for a federal grant to help fund the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency says that it did, in fact, seek federal funding for the effort to digitize every document the Great Emancipator wrote or read. “There was some internal miscommunication about that, which…
CEO supports the arts
The other day I admitted that I was not quote convinced of the wisdom of the State of Illinois offering tax credits so that Con-Agra, a billion-bucks makers of processed foods, could move their corporate headquarters close to the home of its new CEO. (See “Home is where the boss is,” Oct. 8, 2015.) I…
LIGHTS ARE ON, BUT…
While a panel of state legislators acted quickly to pick a replacement for retiring Illinois Auditor General Bill Holland (see article this page), another high-level investigative office in state government has been vacant going on six months. No one has been in charge of the office of the Legislative Inspector General, which investigates allegations of…
State skips Lincoln grant application
The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency will not apply for a federal grant to help fund the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project that is digitizing every document ever read or written by the Great Emancipator. After deadline for an Illinois Times story printed today that highlights the project’s financial uncertainty, IHPA spokesman Chris Wills yesterday afternoon…
“Malala” a Compelling but Incomplete Portrait
You can’t help but be humbled while watching Davis Guggenheim’s He Named Me Malala, his new documentary that focuses on the experiences of Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani woman was thrust into the international spotlight in the aftermath of events that occurred on October 9th, 2012. Having protested against the Taliban’s closing of schools and…
Home is where the boss is
Well, looks like we got taken again by a big out-of-town jasper. The Omaha-based processed food giant Con-Agra – parent of Chef Boyardee, Swiss Miss and other take-in fast foods – is moving its 700-person corporate headquarters to downtown Chicago. The Tribune parroted the company line that leaving the firm’s suburban-style campus in Nebraska to…
Thieves get richer the old-fashioned way
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE With the 2016 presidential campaigns in full swing, the burdens of the working middle class have taken center stage. And believe it or not, there is bipartisan support from the front-runners on a key issue brought up over and over again. Donnie Trump is for it. Hillary Clinton…
A Statehouse divided
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS The Illinois Senate had been scheduled to return to Springfield on Oct. 6 after not being in session since Sept. 9. But last week the Senate President postponed session until Oct. 20. The reason is pretty straightforward. The Senate has overridden several gubernatorial vetoes. It’s pretty easy for the majority party because the chamber…
Letters to the Editor 10/8/15
In answer to critics who say District 186 spends too much of its budget on administration, Supt. Jennifer Gill says the size and diversity of Springfield Public Schools requires a robust administrative team. She also says the number of middle management p PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE A TOP-HEAVY 186 I support Springfield Public School District…
Editor’s note 10/8/15
Sometimes friends get into financial or legal trouble but they’re still friends, and those troubles don’t wipe out the good that they’ve done. We and hundreds of others are sad to see Gold’s Gym close. Maureen Suhadolnik and her family built a business on the east side of Springfield when others headed west and south,…
We face real challenges to democracy
People who care about the United States’ place in the world often fret about challenges to representative democracy from other countries. I’d contend that the more formidable challenge comes not from abroad, but from within. For starters, it’s hard to make American representative democracy work. Our country is large, growing and astoundingly diverse by every…
From funeral home to graveyard
Terror in the Graveyard PHOTO COURTESY SHAWN MCKINNEY The Terror on the Square scare squad takes haunting to a whole new level in this year’s Terror in the Graveyard event. The veteran crew has manned the popular Terror on the Square haunted house for the past 22 years but switched locations in 2014 from a…
A Sunday stroll through history
Echoes of Yesteryear: A Walk through Oak Ridge Cemetery PHOTO BY DONNA CATLIN This Sunday, a popular walking tour returns to Oak Ridge Cemetery after a seven-year hiatus. The public is invited to enjoy a guided stroll through Oak Ridge Cemetery, during which they will learn about historical figures from Sangamon County. Costumed actors will…
Gender in the world of Hogwarts
Hermione Granger and Other Characters This Tuesday, enjoy a UIS ECCE Speaker Series presentation that features analysis and discussion on the gendering (masculine, feminine, androgynous or gender bent) of characters in J.K. Rowling’s beloved books, supplemented with excerpts from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The presentation and discussion will be led by Heather Dell,…
Hurl, Interrupted
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon Six years ago, I was dating this guy on the East Coast. He and I share a deep love of the arts. We started arguing on the sidewalk, and I got so upset that I vomited all over myself. He refused to drive me home or let me back…
Mautino nominated for top auditor
Frank Mautino By all accounts, Illinois Auditor General William “Bill” Holland made the leap from a Senate Democratic chief of staff to his current role as a fiercely independent auditor with ease. He adamantly avoids injecting politics into the audits his office conducts, and he rarely even expresses personal opinions about anything publicly. But Holland…
Visa flap could affect thousands of immigrants
On Oct. 1 and 2, thousands of immigrants across the nation sent flower bouquets to the headquarters of the federal Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. It wasn’t a gesture of thanks or admiration; it was a form of polite protest. The perceived transgression was giving certain highly skilled immigrants from China and India…
Supporters defend Lincoln papers project
PHOTO BY OLIVIER DOULIERY/TNS With finances uncertain, a financer of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project is urging the state to fund the project that aims to digitize every document that Lincoln either wrote or read during his lifetime. “We consider this project one of the most important historical efforts by the State of Illinois,”…
OOPS
Folks who work in prisons aren’t supposed to be criminals. And then there is Dr. Arthur Davida, erstwhile medical director at Stateville Correctional Center. Davida was once in private practice in Bloomingdale as an employee and part-owner of Home Care Physicians. Davida would certify that patients were confined to their homes and needed in-home nursing…
Filmmaker shines a light on Malala
Malala Yousafzai in He Named Me Malala. “I wondered if she was too good to be true.” No one could blame filmmaker Davis Guggenheim for being skeptical where the subject of his latest documentary, He Named Me Malala, is concerned. Activist Malala Yousafzai was thrust into the international spotlight in the aftermath of events that…
Autumn 2015 Brew Review
Tastes change with the advent of fall. Absent the blast furnace of summer, we become more finicky, less willing to shotgun can after can from 18-packs that dip below 10 bucks when the temperature shoots past 90 degrees and humidity strains our ability to do anything except, well, drink beer. In July, we care only…
Meandering Walk ultimately rights itself
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Walk. PHOTO COURTESY TRISTAR PICTURES Director Robert Zemickis has always been enamored with the technology of film, so much so that at times it has become a distraction to the stories he’s told. While his work inWho Framed Roger Rabbit? complimented the aesthetic of the entire production, his films The Polar…
Girls, gardens and grooves
The 6th Annual Girl-A-Thon, starts at 2 p.m. on Sun., Oct. 11, at Boondocks with Tina Thornhill, Janet Morris, Gwen Harris, Caprice Hardin, Patty Kniss and Kyla Kruse featured as the GAT house band. Things just keep rolling along with more excitement and entertainment than you can shake a stick at – if you were…
Dave Alvin, Phil Alvin & The Guilty Ones
Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin with The Guilty Ones play Oct. 11 at Casey’s Pub-Knights of Columbus as part of Bedrock 66. PHOTO BY JEFF FASANO Starting in the late 70s, brothers Phil Alvin and Dave Alvin started an adventure in American roots music called The Blasters. The band kicked off lifelong adventures for both…
Pâté à choux
Pâté à choux – One dough, many possibilities PHOTO BY PETER GLATZ It’s used to make one of the most traditional and delectable complements for wine but has many other guises both savory and sweet; probably the best known to Americans are cream puffs and éclairs. Pâté à choux, or – as my grandmother called…
firearms poem # 1
firearms poem # 1 just saw a photo of an AR-15 assaultrifle on sale at spike’s tactical in floridathe store is a declared muslim-free zonethe gun’s three-way trigger boasts peace-war-god wills it; a crusaders cross is attached to its left side on the right aquote from psalm 144 well the psalmauthor knew not of assault…
