The other day State Rep. Bill Mitchell (R- Hickory Point Mall) introduced a resolution in the Statehouse that would ask Illinois voters to decide by referendum whether Cook County should secede from the State of Illinois. His motives were civic-mindedness at its purest.

Can it be possible that the good ol’ boy political machine is weakening in Sangamon County? Clearly, some kind of change is underway. The normally disciplined and restrained Republican Party engages in open warfare and the Democrats struggle to rebuild after years of intra-party battles and organizational inertia.

In past commentaries, I have called Newt Gingrich a lobbyist. Apparently, he hates that tag, even though he has indeed gotten very wealthy by taking big bucks from such special interest outfits as IBM, AstraZeneca, Microsoft and Siemens in exchange for helping them get favors from federal and state governments. But Gingrich, his lawyers and staff adamantly insist that it’s rude and crude to call him a lobbyist. Nono, they bark, The Newt is – ta-da! – “a visionary.”

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Let’s face it. We in Springfield and Sangamon County are products of a very political environment. Politics permeates our government, businesses, agencies, schools, churches and other aspects of our lives. But we can no longer just accept the notion that to get ahead here one must be forever indebted to power elites.

“I... I... I... I... I couldn’t fathom what I would say to those two girls,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald stammered last week when asked what he would say to Rod Blagojevich’s daughters after our former governor was sentenced to 14 years in prison..

But after weeks of decorating downtown sidewalks with symbols, slogans and quotations, members of Occupy Springfield have gotten crosswise with police, who last week issued a pair of $500 vandalism tickets for quoting Aristotle with the help of chalk on a sidewalk outside the downtown office of U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria.

The cluttered skyline near South Grand Avenue and Dirksen Parkway in Springfield overlooks a swirling mass of fast-food wrappers and plastic shopping bags blown across an empty and unkempt lot by the brisk winter wind. It’s exactly the kind of scene that planners of a renewed commercial zone on the city’s east side say keeps the area from thriving.

A milestone was quietly reached Dec. 5 with a certificate of occupancy granted by the city of Springfield for one of seven four-plexes placarded last August in a housing inspection blitz at the MacArthur Park apartment complex.

Jim O’Connell, president of the American Postal Workers Union, Lincoln Land Area Local 239 in Springfield, said the Postal Service’s estimates don’t make sense. He said there are 300 workers at the Cook Street facility, so it’s unclear what would happen to the remaining workers.

Shaw, from Heyworth, south of Bloomington, wondered some 10 years ago if anyone had done such a project – documenting with photographs locales where Lincoln lived and worked. After learning that no one had, he began photographing various sites in Illinois.

Check out our Holiday Calendar each week until January for holiday events and activities. Events are subject to last minute changes, so we suggest phoning prior to attending. See more events in our online calendar at www.illinoistimes.com.

Lincoln Home - A Historic Christmas Dec 17, 1-5pm, 1860s historic carols sung by Sound Celebration Chorus, 1:15-1:45 p.m. Theater 1, Visitor’s Center. Lincoln Home National Historic Site, 413 S. Eighth St, 217-391- 3221.

This week we are publishing four lists for the first time and repeating several others, as space permits. A more complete listing of local agencies and their needs is available at www.illinoistimes.com

Wish list for Tower of Refuge (TOR) • Adult bicycles in good condition to provide transportation for TOR’s clients to get to work • Gift cards • Monetary Donations

Central Illinois Foodbank 2000 E. Moffat Avenue 217.522.4022 Office www.centralilfoodbank.org Central Illinois Foodbank, established in 1982 by a coalition of churches, distributes over 8 million pounds of food annually to over 150 food pantries, soup kitchens, residential programs and after-school programs in a 21 county region. The Foodbank is a member of Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization and a United Way certified agency.

There are few things in this world more irritating than paying an oversized cable bill (OK, paying an oversized gas bill comes close). Thankfully, TV fans don’t have to suffer the indignity of paying a monthly bill for thousands of shows and movies they don’t watch. Services like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video can deliver the latest movies and TV shows at modest subscription fees over a high-speed Internet connection. These services can land in the living room through a media player/set-top box, a Blu-ray player or even popular gaming consoles. They use either a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection to hook up to a router, and they can multitask, too. In addition to Hollywood fare, they can usually connect to a home network to view digital photos, videos and music on an HDTV.

Thanks to smartphones and tablets, we’re going to have to retire the venerable term “couch potato”; you no longer need to be reclined at home to channel surf. The same video applications that stream content to the big screen also support sending movies to mobile phones or tablets.

Sony BDP-S780 Give a Blu-ray disc playback and online movie streaming with Sony’s BDP-S780 ($250). This player has built-in Wi-Fi for accessing Sony’s Bravia Internet Video service, which includes Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and YouTube, among others. It’s ready for a home network with DLNA technology to enable easier wireless hookups and even supports Skype calls (though a web cam is not included). The BDP-S780 is 3D-ready and can upscale DVDs to squeeze every last drop of resolution. Rounding out the feature set is a free app that turns mobile devices (Apple or Android) into a remote control for the player.

Don’t let those who’ve cut the cable miss out on their favorite shows. Holiday downtime is perfect for catching up on some of cables’ most popular and critically acclaimed shows. Here are a few of last season’s biggest titles, available on DVD and Blu-ray. – Lindsey Romain

Since this year marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War’s beginning, it seems appropriate to look back at how some of those soldiers spent their holidays.

“Darling Nellie…Did Kris Kringle bring you anything last night? I don’t believe he comes down this way at all for I haven’t heard anything about him. I haven’t any thing to send you for a Christmas present so I will put in 25 cents and you may get what you want or what mama thinks is best…A Merry Christmas to you from Papa.

It’s astonishingly quiet in Lanphier’s kitchen lab. But not actually silent. Students in the four kitchen cubicles are talking to each other. They’re also responding to questions from the adults observing them.

Brewer backed into teaching. She’d gotten a hospitality management undergraduate degree and a consumer science master’s, intending to open her own restaurant. But startup costs can be overwhelming; getting teaching certification was a backup. Today, having a restaurant is still a dream.

A never-better Charlize Theron is Mavis Gary, a drop-dead gorgeous woman whose sense of entitlement has developed at a far greater rate than any sense of humility she might have ever possessed. Having left the tiny burg of Mercury, Minn.

When I first saw Nora Jane Struthers she was standing around at a Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, Tenn., in February of 2010, passing out promo EPs of her upcoming CD. At those get-togethers everybody has an agenda, often with less than polite means and always with at least a strong purpose of commercial possibilities.

This Nashville-based band comes on with feet and fingers, music and minds in several generations. Members of the Farewell Drifters, born in the 80s and 90s, reach into the past for inspiration, conjuring up modern sensibilities within the timeless folk, bluegrass and country idiom.

Two performances of Second City’s Dysfunctional Holiday Revue are slated for audiences in the LRS Theatre at the Hoogland Center for the Arts on Saturday, Dec. 17. Don’t miss the mark as the best-known comedy troupe enterprise in the United States shares an evening of humorous song, scenes and the improvisation that gives Second City its name.

One of the best times to see the Dana-Thomas State Historic Site is during the holidays and especially at the popular Luminaria Evening, set for Sunday, Dec. 18, from 4-8 p.m. The recently remodeled home will glow with approximately 1,000 luminaria lining the sidewalks and ledges of the 12,600-square-foot structure.

The folks at The Legacy Theatre cooked up a Christmas film treat for the people of Springfield this weekend. Instead of watching your two favorite holiday classics on your television at home, come out with other holiday and film enthusiasts to savor and view It’s a Wonderful Life.

STATE OF ILLINOIS IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE SEV- ENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT COUNTY OF SANGAMON IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF NORMA J. CLARK, DECEASED. NO. 2011-P-632 NOTICE FOR PUBLICATION - CLAIMS NOTICE TO HEIRS AND LEGATEES Notice is given of the death of NORMA J.

Dick Taylor Collision Services 2947 Old Rochester Road Springfield, Illinois 62703 (217)525-0613 NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF VEHICLE Notice is hereby given that the following described Motor Vehicle(s) are unclaimed by the person or persons entitled to Legal possession of them for a period of at least thirty (30) days. Unless rightful claim is made by 2/30/2011(within 30 days after date of this notice).....