A frequent visitor to Springfield since her appearance at The Alley in the early days of the Sangamon Valley Roots Revival, Rosie Flores never makes it back soon enough. The “Rockabilly Filly” is making a quick trip this week up from Austin, Texas, through Tennessee, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Mich., Indianapolis and Virginia – Illinois, that […]
Illinois
Posted inOpinion
The birth of the plyscraper
Illinois corn growers have been getting fat because so many Americans drive to their convenience stores for sweet drinks in cars using ethanol-laced gasoline, both made cheap by trade barriers that keep out cheaper sugars and fuel ethanol. That kind of agriculture is not sustainable in ecological or economic terms, and one day the state […]
Posted inNews
A martyr or a menace?
Jeremiah Elugbadebo of Springfield runs Joyce’s Community Home for Adults, two houses for people with mental and physical disabilities. The houses have been cited several times for alleged violations by city building inspectors, but Elugbadebo says he is providing a valuable service for people who might otherwise be homeless. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Correction: This […]
Posted inNews
Telling their stories
Springfield photographer Adam Smith, left, is producing a documentary film about the homeless people with whom he spent the past three months. Bill Guyer, right, is one of Smith’s subjects in the film. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE In the middle of the gazebo at Washington Park in Springfield sits a homeless man named Bill Guyer. […]
Posted inNews
Ready to work
ILLUSTRATION BY KIRK LYTTLE/MCT With about $4 billion in transportation and other projects planned for Springfield in the coming years, groups in Springfield are already working to ensure a fair share of the jobs generated go to minorities. The Faith Coalition for the Common Good and Bridging the Gap, both based in Springfield, are helping […]
Posted inNews
Getting it right
Brian Banks spent five years in prison for a rape that never occurred, but he was freed with help from the California Innocence Project. Banks is shown here carrying petitions calling for the release of another prisoner in California whom some believe to be innocent. PHOTO BY BRIAN VAN DER BRUG/MCT Brian Banks had the […]
Posted inOpinion
Legislative little me’s
In a country where people of like social class (and thus political views) tend to huddle together like bison in a blizzard, defining the geographical reach of a given legislative district goes a long way toward deciding which party represents it. The unhappy results include uncompetitive races, political stagnation and columns like this one. The […]
Posted inNews
Illinois may decriminalize small amounts of marijuana
Rep. Michael Zalewski sponsors one of three bills that would lower penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Photo BY PATRICK YEAGLE Illinois could follow the example of several other states in decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, thanks to legislation under consideration in the Illinois General Assembly. The three bills prescribe tickets – effectively […]
Posted inNews
Illinois may end ‘planned abandonment’
Toni Hoy speaks to lawmakers during a legislative hearing on a bill to end “planned abandonment” of adopted children who need intensive care for emotional disturbances. Photo BY PATRICK YEAGLE When Dan Hoy was just six months old, he was taken from his biological parents by the state. He was lethargic and starving to death, […]
Posted inOpinion
Prince of demagogues
Stephen A. Douglas The prospect is in store of two rabble-rousing populists trading insults for the next seven months. Each will try to tap the deep vein of grievance that runs through a middle class convinced that privileged interests (unions or the rich, it hardly matters) have robbed them blind. It’s all too depressing to […]
Posted inNews
Health insurance deadline approaches
James Hayes, Harvard Park Elementary principal, and Peggy Cormeny, family and community engagement coordinator for Springfield Public Schools, appear outside the school, which recently hosted an event helping families enroll in health insurance. Photo BY PATRICK YEAGLE A national deadline to enroll in health insurance looms at the end of March, and Springfield Public Schools […]
Posted inNews
Supreme Court strikes down recording law
Watch what you say; it can now be recorded without your knowledge or consent. The Illinois Supreme Court decided this very thing last week in a pair of unanimous decisions that invalidated a state law requiring “two-party consent” to record conversations. The decisions bring Illinois in line with the majority of other states and further […]
