Another one bites the dust
Alan Lowe, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, has been let go. No reason for Lowe’s departure was given in a memo to staff distributed today and informing employees that Lowe is no longer a state employee. Lowe was terminated by the governor’s office, according to an entry in Capitol Fax, a political…
Going to pot
I am happy, but not surprised, to report that the sky remains above my hometown, which I visited recently and where marijuana has been legal since voters overwhelmingly ended pot prohibition in 2012. Tacoma isn’t like Springfield, and Washington isn’t like Illinois. For one thing, the Evergreen State pays its bills on time and has…
Editor’s Note
Next time we want a building to help the poor, or a building for any controversial purpose, why not separate the issues of what we want to build from where we want to build it. That way we who care about the poor can make a case for a better building with more services, with…
Making the numbers work
The governor’s top budget people sent a memo last week to agency directors giving them a heads up about what will be required in their annual budget request submissions. They are not easy-peasy asks. This fiscal year’s budget was originally supposed to be austere, but then a $1.5 billion flood of unexpected revenue poured in…
Letters to the Editor
JUST SAY NOI went to the city council meeting where the topic of selling recreational marijuana in Springfield was on the agenda. I could tell from the comments of several of the members that their minds were already made up before the meeting started. All of my comments, and others too, dealt with the destructive…
Mass shootings take a toll on the American psyche
Mass shootings leave an imprint on the American psyche. Thoughts of “It could have been me” and a sense of vulnerability occur when shootings occur in places that citizens frequent, including schools, churches, concerts and shopping malls. Mass shootings are prevalent in our society. The U.S. is an outlier among developed countries in terms of…
Pleasant Plains Historical Society
The Pleasant Plains Historical Society will host the annual Clayville Fall Festival this weekend. The Broadwell Inn, the oldest brick building in Sangamon County, will be open for tours. Visit the log cabins, schoolhouse and agricultural museum where blacksmiths, tinsmiths and other period artisans will demonstrate their work and you can see what life was…
Springfield Art Association
Join the Springfield Art Association on its historic campus for the 31st annual Edwards Place Fine Art Fair. For the past 30 years the lawn of historic Edwards Place has been transformed into an outdoor art market. Many favorite local artists are returning to the fair this year and plenty of new artists will also…
Attracting teachers 101
It appears that until very recently Illinois has been trying to make the career of teaching seem as unpalatable as possible.“For many years there’s been a lack of respect for the educators in our schools,” said Kathi Griffin, president of the 135,000-member Illinois Education Association. “The funding has been diminished so much over the years…
Mostly solo
Music is in a constant state of flux. Bands form, perform, break up, get back together and eventually call it quits. Venues become established, switch hands, change names and get torn down. Genres increase and decrease in popularity, and they sometimes end up as dead as disco. Over nearly four decades, as popular music moved…
Bringing farmers and eaters together
The Illinois Stewardship Alliance promotes eating local, wholesome foods and supports local food producers. The Buy Fresh, Buy Local Central Illinois campaign – to connect farmers with eaters – is just one example of how the organization works to connect local farmers with community members, restaurants and retailers. Proceeds from the group’s annual Harvest Celebration…
For LGBT teens, Lincoln Prairie cares
“I remember coming into the hospital for my interview and seeing the pride flag flying out front. I thought to myself, ‘It isn’t pride month, there must be some special event or something that they would be flying it,’” recounts Rob Weis, a part-time therapist at Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health (LPBH), a Springfield inpatient psychiatric…
City stumbles to homeless shelter
Despite appearances, the Springfield City Council’s Tuesday vote to build a homeless center in a black neighborhood, with the 8-2 vote on racial lines, wasn’t a racial issue. Just ask aldermen. Nope, just a neighborhood NIMBY deal, council members declared after rescuing their own wards from the prospect of solving the city’s homeless issue by…
Downton a delight for true fans
In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I have never seen a single episode of the hit PBS series “Downton Abbey.” I don’t know a Crawley from a Talbot and whether the show has been on two seasons or six, I couldn’t tell you. I do know that everyone loves Maggie Smith…
September music mixture
This week we have a large assortment to cover, including anniversaries and inaugurals, a Honky Tonk Circus and a SamJam, a jazz night and an Oktoberfest weekend, plus pet sounds and fancy fiddlin’. So let’s get right to it, shall we? On Saturday, let the celebration begin as Walnut Street Winery commemorates 10 years of…
Dexter Anodyne and Greenhouse Opera
A self-taught, artistically driven musician, proficient on several instruments, as well as an accomplished vocalist and songwriter, Dexter Anodyne gives it her all as she gives it all to produce profoundly interesting and distinctly creative music. When accompanied by Ryan Cox (drums) and Isaac Barrett (bass, guitar), Dexter transforms into Greenhouse Opera, a self-described “alt-psych…
specialness poem #1
sometimes there comes a perfect day: a shallow river near our vermont lakemeanders unconcernedly among rocks earth drops sends the stream plunging a spectacular waterfall the flow spreads in a great foaming fan all other soundblocked the land below is now a cliffedgorge my grandsons leap and leap fromincredible heights into the deep pool the…
Finding connection and comfort over cauliflower
On this day 18 years ago I was on a plane flying to New York City to spend a weekend with my daughter, Anne, who was attending law school at Columbia. The flight had been rescheduled from a week earlier due to the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack. The mood on the plane was…
