STOMPTHEFAIRGROUNDS
After the Illinois Symphony performs and before ZZ Top takes the grand stage,
amid the motocross demonstrations, open barrow and sheep costume shows, and
the fiddle and banjo contest, teams representing cities across the state
will compete in the Illinois State Fair’s first dance and Greek-style
step competition.
No, the contest, scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug.
14, doesn’t involve the stone staircase that leads to Athens’
Acropolis; instead, it involves a performance-art form rooted in African
dance and popularized by African-American fraternity and sororities.
Several Greek organizations and Boys & Girls Clubs from Springfield,
Chicago, Rockford, Bloomington, and St. Louis have already signed up, but
interested step squads can sign up until Monday, Aug. 10, says assistant
fair manager Kristi Kenney.
Actors from the 2007 film Stomp the Yard have been invited to
judge. Springfield’s own DJ Rico P (a.k.a. Rico Perkins) and Dyi Kinney will MC. “I think
both adults and kids would enjoy this event,” Kinney says.
“That’s why Rico and myself, representing the older crowd, hope
to be the perfect blend for the mixed crowd that we expect.”
Tickets to the event cost $5.
POORHOUSE
It’s possible that the news will be good when State Journal-Register owner
GateHouse Media announces its second-quarter earnings in a conference call
Friday morning, Aug. 8. We wouldn’t bet our GateHouse stock on it,
though.
In July, the New York Stock Exchange delisted
Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse after the company’s stock price dipped
below $1. Electronic markets continue trading GateHouse securities.
Despite dark days for media companies everywhere, few
newspaper chains have fallen so far so quickly as GateHouse, whose stock
has lost approximately 98 percent of its value in just over a year and a
half, down to 50 cents this week from an all-time high of $20 at the time
of its IPO, in October 2006.
From the outset, the company seemed to have a winning
strategy: focusing on acquiring small-circulation properties in towns whose
citizens have never heard of Craigslist and still turn to the local daily
for most of their news. But, seeming to take a page from George W. Bush’s playbook,
GateHouse continued spending (or more aptly, borrowing) to purchase more
and more newspapers while paying out handsome dividends to shareholders.
That didn’t work out so well. Late last month,
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded GateHouse’s credit rating
on “heightened concern that GateHouse could face a near-term default
under the financial covenants of its loan agreement, absent an amendment or
another equity cure from its largest owner, Fortress Investment Group
LLC.” Fortress, oddly enough, also owns the famed Neverland Ranch,
which once belonged to pop icon Michael Jackson, and holds a stake in the operator of the Ryan’s
Steakhouse and Old Country Buffet restaurant chains.
Moody’s negative outlook reflected
GateHouse’s tight cash flow and reliance on proposed asset sales, the
likelihood of continue soft of ad sales, and, according to Thomson
Financial News, “concern that GateHouse’s management will
continue its pace of acquisition activity in the face of recessionary-like
market conditions.”
LOCALCOURT RECORDSGOONLINE
Sangamon County officially joined the 21st century
this week when Circuit Clerk Tony Libri unveiled a portal allowing mere mortals to check court
records from the comfort of their home computers — for free.
Announced Monday, the Web site www.sangamoncountycircuitclerk.org had
already been hit by 3,270 unique users by midnight, Libri says.
In fact, there was so much traffic, the Web site
began experiencing gridlock, forcing Libri to order certain graphics to be
removed, which explains why the picture of the Sangamon County Courthouse
is gone. Of course, there are still two portraits of Libri (one casual, one
formal), but he says he specifically requested that there should be only
one.
There is only one portrait of Cecilia Tumulty, Springfield city
clerk, on her official Web page, where citizens can review council agendas
and meeting minutes and even hear audio recordings. Tumulty, who just
happens to be running for Libri’s job, finds his sudden enthusiasm
for technology “coincidental.”
“It should’ve been done a long time ago.
This, in my opinion, is part of bringing the government to the
people,” she says. “It would’ve saved Bob and Betty
Bungalow half a day driving from Illiopolis or
wherever to search records.”
YOUBETHEJUDGE
We’ve heard accounts of the Springfield race
riot of 1908 and seen the banners and markers up around downtown. But what
did it feel like to watch the horrific historical events unfold?
That’s the question the Citizens Club of
Springfield will attempt to answer with “Mobs, Murders, and Justice:
You Be the Judge,” a re-creation of the trial of Abraham Raymer for the Aug. 15, 1908,
lynching and murder of 84-year-old William
Donnegan. Because a transcript of the trial
was never produced, actors will play out events as they were reported in
newspapers at the time.
Citizens Club member Lee
Milner says the point is to return the
audience to the 1908 mindset: “We want them to question themselves:
Was this justice then, and what can we learn from the past?”
The re-creation will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug.
14, in the Dove Center of the Prairie Heart Institute at St. John’s
Hospital. It’s free and open to the public.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2008.
