One way to gauge how very close this mayoral race is would be to look at the daily paper’s latest poll. Another would be to look at all the last-minute political maneuvering among City Council members. Last Tuesday night’s vote on an ordinance offering an early-retirement incentive program for city employees was surrounded by all […]
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War as tradition
My son’s leaving for Iraq this week. I wish him well. For years I’ve told him what his generation needed was a good war. It would be a wonderful character builder. See how it worked for mine? But I meant that more as irony, as paternal joshing, and not as wish. Whatever–Sean is going. And […]
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A rough draft
The investigation that was going to take just three weeks and cost $15,000 is finally ready—almost ready, that is. Last Tuesday night, after spending 20 minutes discussing an early-retirement plan for city employees, the City Council spent 90 minutes in executive session listening to attorney Chris Nichols from the Peoria firm Husch & Eppenberger present […]
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Cop Out
Sergeant Kevin Keen is the public information officer for the Springfield Police Department. Fielding calls from the media is his job. I ring his number and tell him I’m working on a story about Renatta Frazier, the former police officer who left the department under a cloud of controversy. As all of Springfield undoubtedly knows, […]
