Cover Story
Reducing harm, saving lives
This year marks the 50th anniversary since President Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs. The U.S. continues to reckon with the failed “tough-on-crime” policies that have led to harsh treatment, over-sentencing and the disproportionate incarceration of people of color. Meanwhile, service providers in central Illinois say the best way to keep people struggling with…
A grand reopening
The Legacy Theatre is celebrating its reopening by bringing one of the most cherished American classics onto its stage. A fast-talking traveling salesman brings trouble to River City, Iowa, where he cons the townspeople into buying instruments for an imaginary band, but his plans are foiled when his heart is stolen by the town librarian.…
Nurturing the potential of every child and teen
The YMCA of Springfield is partnering with the Old Capitol Farmers Market to help nurture the potential of kids, improve the nation’s health and well-being, and give back to and support neighbors. Each Wednesday after the farmers market, vendors will donate their remaining produce to the YMCA of Springfield’s Pop-up Produce Pantry, which will in…
Be afraid of Fear Street, but watch No Sudden Move
Soderbergh’s Move one of year’s finest Director Stephen Soderbergh has never suffered fools. Even his more light-hearted efforts (Ocean’s 11, Logan Lucky) are smarter than you expect, while his best films are multi-layered narratives that challenge the viewer to follow a complex narrative that slowly reveals itself with one subtle revelation after another (Traffic, The…
Lois Jeanne Nelson – Arnold of Chicago
Daughter of Springfield, IL and eldest of four siblings to Frances Moore Arnold and Elmer Ellsworth Arnold. Loving mother, world traveler and LTJG USN decorated Veteran. She is survived by her sons Mark, David and Joshua and her sister Sharon Young. Memorial service Oakridge Cemetery-Springfield 10am 7/17/21 Block-8 Lot-223 Grave-9.
217 Pony Shoe Week July 12-18, 2021
$7 Pony Shoe Week is Monday, July 12 through Sunday, July 18. Explore the amazing pony shoe dishes area chefs have created for these seven days. Many restaurants will also offer specials on Peroni Beer. To help you plan your food week travels, you can download a passport from 217foodweek.com. By downloading the passport, you…
Editor’s Note 7/8/21
Christina Shutt, the new director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, is already making small waves in the capital city by suggesting that we “humanize” the historical figure too many of us know only as a “great” man. Lincoln’s views on race evolved, she recently told host Brian Mackey on NPR’s “The 21st”,…
Homeless in the heat
Marshawn Higgins, 52, lives in what’s called tent city, on the corner of 11th and Jefferson streets in Springfield. He said a lack of support, whether from family, employment or social services, is why he and many others end up there. Higgins, a Chicago transplant, has no surviving family in Springfield and said he recently…
American as apple pie
Immigrants in the U.S. are as American as apple pie – as well as rice and beans. That was the premise of an action in Springfield July 2, when members of the Faith Coalition for the Common Good took both pies and rice and beans to the offices of members of Congress. They were advocating…
Buzz at Reopened Kidzeum
Things were buzzing at the Kidzeum over the July 3-4 weekend. Children rushed to climb Active Alex, splashed in the water table and searched for queen cells in the observation beehive. “Real bees? That’s so cool!” one girl squealed in delight upon seeing the buzzing beehive. Kidzeum reopened July 3 after a 16-month closure due…
Letters to the editor 7/8/21
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to letters@illinoistimes.com. —- SAVE THOMPSON CENTER I was in the James R. Thompson Center the other day for the first time in over two years. With the ongoing evacuation of many state offices and the hoped-for sale,…
Archival find #51
I wrote this biblical parody in fourth grade. Us Dougan kids attended Sunday School regularly, Bibles in hand, so the language was familiar; this was a deliberate spoof. Beautiful is thy tongue, O Shep, Tinged with the crimson of sunset, Hanging, panting, lolling, drooling. Dangling daintily from your mouth Gracefully swaying as your head Goes…
State’s fiscal situation improves
You cannot, on the one hand, constantly harp about decades of Illinois credit rating downgrades and then blithely dismiss the first bit of good Illinois rating news since George Ryan was governor. It’s OK to step away from the “Illinois is awful” screaming for a moment in the wake of last week’s upgrade of Illinois’…
Punks on the prairie
What do you do when you want to be part of a music scene, but you live in a small Midwestern city or town, where most culture is slow to filter through? You build it yourself. That’s what the book Punks in Peoria: Making a Scene in the American Heartland, published in June by University…
Shakespeare’s #MeToo moment
Measure for Measure, now onstage in a sterling production at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in Bloomington through Aug. 4, may shock anyone who considers Shakespeare’s work as irrelevant. While he wrote the play in 1604, England was suffering through an unprecedented pandemic, with blame thrown in all directions. Political divisions were exacerbated by cultural and…
July music on a roll
Hello everyone, and welcome to the busiest weekend in live music I have seen in years. Maybe it’s just been too long, but I cannot recall a time when more shows were listed in our calendar than what I just browsed through. So, let’s go visit a bit of what’s happening out there and see…
A celebration of garlic
One of my favorite books as a child was a cookbook called Fanny at Chez Panisse, written by the legendary chef and restaurateur Alice Waters. In it she chronicles her then-young daughter’s adventures growing up in what is still today one of California’s most iconic restaurants. In the first section of the book, a seven-year-old…
