PHOTO COURTESY ROYAL SON OF a GUNS Hailing and railing from Chicago, while curtailing nothing pertaining to righteousness and proper behavior, this trio describes themselves as “barstool smashing miscreants” ready and willing to “take Americana on a psycho-cathartic hayride through the thorny nettles of the American roots music underbelly,” – and they mean it, folks. […]
Chicago
Posted inArts & Culture
flu shot poem #1
flu shot poem #1 this is flu shot season my friend annette writes she can’t take one on account of raw egg allergy she adds, “I’ll always remember my grandmother’s recollections of the 1918 Spanish flu. So many people died in Chicago that her parish priest couldn’t keep up with the funeral masses. Instead he […]
Posted inOpinion
Promote the vote
Some recent Chicago Tribune poll results appear to indicate that support for raising the minimum wage in the state’s largest city may be enough to increase voter turnout for a nonbinding November ballot referendum. The poll found that 84 percent of registered Chicago voters support a city task force recommendation to increase the minimum wage […]
Posted inOpinion
Feds back off of Ford
As you probably know by now, the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago has agreed to drop all felony charges against Illinois state Rep. LaShawn Ford, D-Chicago, and has charged him instead with a simple misdemeanor. The original 17 federal counts of bank fraud and submitting false information to a bank each carried potential sentences of […]
Posted inNews
Missing the money
Computer tampering charges have been dropped against a defendant in a bizarre court case involving supposed computer hacking at a defunct Illinois nonprofit. Still, millions of dollars in state and federal grants are missing, and the nonprofit’s director has yet to account for the money. Annabel Melongo of Chicago was found not guilty of computer […]
Posted inNews
Medical marijuana rules spark concerns
Speaking from his wheelchair, Dennis Garland of Chatham addresses regulators in a May 21 public hearing on medical marijuana, urging the state to roll the program out immediately. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Illinoisans want their medical marijuana sooner, cheaper and with fewer restrictions. At a May 21 public hearing in Springfield, several speakers asked the […]
Posted inMusic
No maybe for May music
James Armstrong and band plays Casey’s Pub on Thursday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m. Wow, what a month of May music coming up. Yessiree, there’s no maybe about it; we are in for a blast of interesting and exciting music moments in the next several weeks. That then leads right into the summer season, including […]
Posted inOpinion
Cultural arts major
George Lucas Photo BY TISH WELLS/MCT Toymaker George Lucas is thinking about buying Chicago a museum to house his personal collection of early 20th century soft-core and magazine cover art by the likes of Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell, among exhibits devoted to cartooning and movie graphics. The Florentines had the Medici, we have the […]
Posted inNews
A beacon for ex-cons
Before he was even 12, Lorenzo Louden had shot a man and slept with two prostitutes. Growing up so early, it’s no wonder he preferred gang life to school and eventually wound up in prison. Now 57, Louden runs the Springfield-based nonprofit Tower of Refuge with his wife, Bevey. Using his life experience and her […]
Posted inMusic
This Must Be the Band
This Must Be the Band Coming from Chicago and claiming to be best, and incidentally, the only Talking Heads tribute band from the Windy City, This Must Be the Band likes being faux T-Heads a lot. How they best like to display this like comes in two formats. The first is a “note-for-note and prop-for-prop” […]
Posted inNews
More jail time for gun crime?
Illinois lawmakers are considering an increase in minimum prison time for carrying a weapon under certain circumstances, but opponents say that won’t reduce crime. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing the bill, which may be voted on when lawmakers return to Springfield in January. Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Chicago, sponsors Senate Bill 1342, which would increase […]
Posted inOpinion
Recent numbers on governor’s race
Back in mid-August, near the end of his summertime TV advertising blitz, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner scored 14 percent in a Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll of likely GOP primary voters. That was up a tick from the 12 percent he got in a June 20 poll by the same firm. His campaign has […]
