There is no traffic situation so bad that drivers can’t make it worse, as I was reminded while driving on I-55 recently. Work on the Des Plaines River bridge required rerouting traffic onto one lane in each direction, resulting in the mother of all merge bottlenecks. Took 40 minutes to get through. It didn’t need […]
Illinois
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 pot regulations approved
Dan Linn, executive director of the marijuana advocacy group Illinois NORML, holds a canister used by the federal government to mail marijuana to one of the last remaining participants in the federal medical marijuana program that began in 1978. In May, Linn and others spoke at a public hearing in favor of making medical marijuana […]
Posted inOpinion
Frerichs needs to up his game
Back in January, state Sen. Michael Frerichs formally kicked off his campaign for Illinois state treasurer and posted a video online touting the fact that he’d ended “free, lifetime health care for state legislators.” Actually, Frerichs had voted against that bill in the General Assembly. Frerichs’ campaign had to pull the video and replace it […]
Posted inNews
Forging a new path
An artist’s rendering of how a revamped pedestrian-friendly Jackson Street might appear, from Fifth Street looking west, with the Executive Mansion grounds on the left. MASSIE MASSIE AND ASSOCIATES In the 1820s, when Springfield was still changing from a sleepy frontier settlement to a bustling metropolis, a small creek ran through what is now the […]
Posted inOpinion
Immigrants behaving badly
The house came ready-made but the yard didn’t. Thus it was that, in addition to the picket fence and the rose trellis, my parents decided to plant a tree in the front yard. They did this because houses are supposed to have trees in the front yard, but as I look back the gesture also […]
Posted inOpinion
Walgreens ploy to tax dodge
How would you react if one of your neighbors announced that while he obviously benefits from having clean water, highways, Medicare, police protection, parks, schools, and other public services, he was no longer going to pay his part of the taxes that make them available? And what if this neighbor also said he was renouncing […]
Posted inOpinion
Unionizing moms and dads
Pamela Harris won her case, and the U.S. Supreme Court won another skirmish in its war against the liberal consensus. What Illinois’ disabled and dependent citizens won is less clear. Chicago-area resident Pamela Harris is the mother who cares at home for her 25-year-old son who’s had severe intellectual and developmental disabilities from birth, with […]
Posted inNews
Giving them something to strive for
Lanphier senior forward Kalvin Caesar drives to the hoop against three defenders at the Boys and Girls Club in Springfield. Photo BY PATRICK YEAGLE It’s already warm outside at 85 degrees on a breezeless summer evening in Springfield, but inside the gym at the Boys and Girls Club, it seems even hotter. The gym, sans […]
Posted inNews
Getting smart on crime
Rep. Michael Zalewski People convicted of low-level crimes in Illinois could soon see less time behind bars, but that doesn’t mean Illinois is going soft on crime. State lawmakers during the spring legislative session approved the creation of a committee to reconsider sentencing guidelines. However, the legislator who pushed the idea says it’s about being […]
Posted inNews
Inside the Bel-Aire Motel
Joe Landry (left) and Franklin Fite (right) both say the Bel-Aire is their home. They say they don’t want to leave and have nowhere else to go. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Franklin Fite is a collector. The small, one-room apartment he shares with his wife at the Bel-Aire Motel in Springfield is decorated with Pez […]
Posted inOpinion
Squabbling over the inheritance
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, front, and museum, rear, feature large rotundas in Springfield, Illinois PHOTO BY BILL HOGAN/MCT That nice Mr. Madigan, I’m sure, just wants to help. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency have not been getting along. Friends of both have offered their advice, but […]
