Shakespearean actor Rob Clare and television and off-Broadway actress Reiko Aylesworth return to the Theatre in the Park outdoor stage in a 90-minute adapted performance of MacBeth. Clare’s credits include the UK National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. Aylesworth stars in “24” and “Lost.” The show also includes Kevin Purcell […]
Chicago
Posted inArts & Culture
Stories, song, supper
“Heroes of the Civil War” is the theme of this year’s Prairieland Chautauqua, a four-day fest of stories, songs and suppers under the big tent in Jacksonville Community Park. Organizers are bringing in talent from Illinois, New York and Ohio to portray famous men and women of the Civil War, and others who will discuss […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Meat me in Taylorville
Taylorville Main Street hosts a state championship BBQ cook-off sanctioned by the Kansas City BBQ Society and a backyard BBQ for amateurs. Friday night meet the pro cookers as they prep for the next day, enjoy some barbecue, and hear at 7 p.m. the Screamin’ Vatos, with the sounds of Santana. Saturday, besides the great […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Trouble at Groupon?
We all like to see homegrown Illinois businesses succeed, but sometimes they get a little too cocky. That may be the case with Chicago-based Groupon. The Internet startup, which offers one discount coupon per day for various U.S. cities, is being sued in a San Francisco federal court for alleged “false and misleading business and […]
Posted inNews
UI tuition hike follows raises for selected faculty
Certain University of Illinois employees together received $9.7 million in raises this fiscal year, according to an Illinois Times analysis of UI salary data. Meanwhile, the state’s largest public university system instituted a 6.9 percent tuition hike for the next academic year due to $477 million in late state funds. Constituting about one percent of […]
Posted inNews
Labor unions balk at bargaining bill
Labor unions are continuing negotiations over legislation backed by Gov. Pat Quinn that would lift collective bargaining rights from current high-ranking state agency workers and legislative liaisons, as well as their right to apply for future union membership. “We strongly support union representation and collective bargaining for many state workers, but the system only works […]
Posted inOpinion
Chicagoland, Chicagoland
While the pundits debate whether Illinois is leaning to the left or the right, the U.S. Census Bureau, deciding on better evidence supplied by the 2010 population count, has concluded that Illinois is leaning toward the northeast. Yes, some Downstaters were cheered to learn that the City of Chicago, their ancient nemesis, lost some 200,000 […]
Posted inNews
Parking war
Parking in Springfield is cheap. Visitors from Chicago sometimes joke that it’s cheaper to get a parking ticket here than to simply pay the meter in their city. But that could change with a proposed ordinance under consideration by the city council. On Jan. 25, the council considered a measure to double Springfield’s fine for […]
Posted inNews
‘Put Illinois to Work’ doesn’t always work
Judy Smith, president of Avenue Thrift Shop, signed up last year for Put Illinois to Work. She trained workers so they could advance to another job but says by the end of the program she would consider the experience with PIW trainees “a headache,” and the source of more problems than she has had in […]
