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ILLUMINATIILLUMINATED Watch out, Abe, and step back, Obama —
we’ve got some new celebrities in town. Kevin Smith and the
rest of Illuminati Motor Works are steppin’ right outta the
cornfields and directly into the limelight . . . the TV limelight, that is.
Since we last heard from them [see Amanda Robert,
“Eyes on the prize,” March 27], IMW has started negotiations
with a feature documentary company from Chicago. If the deal goes through,
“Seven” — their supergreen X Prize automotive contender
— will be showcased in all its glory on the big screen. The group has also been contacted by VPRO Television,
a Dutch company filming a news documentary on alternative fuels, and by
WealthTV, the California company responsible for the Wealth on Wheels television
series. Who’s the underdog now?
UISMAKESTHEPLANETROCK Judging by the rate at which small puddles have been
forming at the feet of global-warming deniers and the uptick in patchouli
and granola sales at area organic-food marts and head shops, Earth Day must
again be upon us. The University of Illinois at Springfield will
observe Earth Day 2008 (Tuesday, April 22) with a presentation by Dr. Debra Rowe, a faculty member
at Michigan’s Oakland Community College and president of the U.S.
Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. The program begins at 7 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium,
in the UIS Public Affairs Center. Immediately before Rowe’s lecture,
at 5:30 p.m., the Sangamon Valley Sierra Club’s energy and
climate-change committee will meet in the PAC cafeteria. All events are
(carbon) free and open to the public.
FAMILYTY Welcome home, Springfield family, welcome home. He’s been everywhere from New Jersey to Hawaii,
and now hyperactive hunk Ty Pennington and the rest of his goodwill gang want to bring
ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to the capital city. They’re searching for a family whose members
have gone above and beyond, putting themselves last in their effort to help
others. Community members may nominate their friends and heroes by sending
short descriptions of deserving families to castingillinois@gmail.com by
May 7. Nominations should include the name and age of each
household member, the story of the family’s major challenges and how
a makeover would make a difference, a contact phone number, and a recent
photo of the family.
“TIMINGISEVERYTHING”
In the midst of talks about water rates, Mayor Tim Davlin seems to be
rethinking his position on Hunter Lake. In his “State of the City” address,
delivered on Monday, Davlin called for updates to the water
department’s 70-year-old pump house. “We have an ‘invisible bandit’ in
our city that we are fighting, and it’s called our
infrastructure,” Davlin said. “And gambling on the continued
reliability of our pump house is not a risk we can take.”
After the speech, reporters asked Davlin whether
pursuing the second lake would be smart for Springfield, considering the
millions of dollars required to address now-urgent infrastructure needs. “Timing is everything, and right now the timing
doesn’t look so good for Hunter Lake,” Davlin replied.
TAKENTOTASC For the record, state Sen. Mattie Hunter, D-Chicago, wants to
create a commission to study the impact of Illinois drug laws on
minorities. She does not, however, want $10 million to fund the commission,
which is what some readers thought we reported in last week’s Cap
City. The budget appropriation instead would be a
“down payment” on a comprehensive statewide drug-treatment
plan, says Daphne Baille, director of communications for Treatment Alternatives for Safe
Communities.
This article appears in Apr 10-16, 2008.
