A few weeks ago, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia made a small splash in the press when he took Congress to task for failing to authorize our nation’s ongoing war against Islamic militants. “The silence of Congress in the midst of this war is cowardly and shameful,” he said.

The dewy-eyed farm memoir is by now a discredited genre but nostalgic farm folk and wannabe urbanites apparently eat these stories with a big spoon. Countryfarm Lifestyles (“a country living website for homesteading, self sufficient living and the good life”) offers compilations of such trifles as “Aunt Ruth and the Ginger Snap Cookie Incident.

Doug Hughes is one gutsy and creative mailman. In April, this rural letter carrier from Florida stunned the Secret Service, eluded federal aviation authorities, embarrassed Washington’s haughty all-seeing security hierarchy and threw members of Congress into a chaotic panic.

By filling it out and sending it in with your June bill payment, your future CWLP bills will be rounded up to the next dollar, with the extra change going to agencies that help the homeless. You’ll contribute 1 to 99 cents a month, 50 cents on average.

The agency directors received an order from the Rauner administration last Wednesday demanding that they and their staffs not meet or talk with any lobbyists unless the governor’s policy office had first OK’d the communications. The directors were also told to inform agency “stakeholders” that they didn’t really need to hire lobbyists anyway.

“It was such an honor to be asked,” Logan said this week. “I was walking right behind B.B. King’s guitar, Lucille, carried by Bobby Bland’s son. People were coming up asking for my picture all afternoon. I played from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. My mouth was so sore.

The project is so early in the planning stages that neither an artist’s rendering nor a solid budget exists. But if all goes well, the massive brick structure at 815 N. 11 th St. that takes up the better part of a city block and was once a shoe factory would be converted into apartments for low-income people.

DHS offices now in the Centrum Building at the intersection of Fourth and Madison streets would move to vacant buildings at a complex called Iles Park Place at the intersection of South Sixth and Ash streets.

Many fictional detectives and private investigators are identified with the cities of their authors. It is a means for the writer to share with the reader the spirit and ambiance of the environs the author loves. For Michael Harvey, the city is Chicago and the character is private investigator Michael Kelly.

Each year, Illinois spends about $1.3 billion to lock up more than 48,000 prisoners. Nearly half of those who are released return to prison within three years. Parolees in Illinois face significant barriers to getting jobs, finding housing and even obtaining health care, which vastly increases their likelihood of committing new crimes.

Recently I was asked if I had any suggestions for kids’ lunches during the summer. It’s not the first time I’ve been asked that question and probably won’t be the last. But without information on things such as childrens’ specific ages and eating habits it’s a tough question to answer; even tougher to answer in general.

Try it, you might like it. B, L & D. $ Bugatti’s Bar & Grill.

It is stunning how formless, frustrating and just plain bad this film is. Murky in intent and unfocused throughout, the blame for this misfire rests firmly on Crowe’s shoulders, as key scenes were either shot and forgotten or perhaps 30 pages of the script went missing, and that fact went completely unnoticed.

SOHO 11 is the big music event this weekend. From humble beginnings as a dream shared among friends designed on borrowed money and a shoestring budget, SOHO (now an acronym for Service Organization for Humanitarian Opportunity) began as SoJo (that’s another story) and has grown to be a whopper of a show.

James Armstrong Presents: Luca Giordano & Quique Gomez.

How nice is it that a band with five members each bringing decades of music-making experience to the fold has a debut performance? Members come with nicknames included, as Jeff “Drum Junkie” Bechtel (drums), Mark “Big Guy” Bott (lead vocals),...

54th Annual International Carillon Festival.

This week, the 54 th Annual International Carillon Festival plays host to 11 carillon concerts across five days by the world’s leading carillonneurs. All concerts are free of charge and will occur rain or shine.

The annual Springfield SOHO Music Festival is back and bigger than ever for its’ 11 th year. The two-day music festival takes place between Fifth and Sixth streets on Washington Street north of the Old State Capitol.

Temple B’rith Sholom and the Jewish Federation host the Second Annual Film Series every Sunday at 4 p.m., throughout the month of June. The goal of the series is to show award-winning films from around the world, none of which are religious. The series kicks off this Sunday, June 7, with a showing of Deli Man,.