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High-speed rail should use 10th St. tracks
It has taken many years, a lot of hard work, tax dollars and private investor dollars to turn our downtown into a revitalized, vibrant central city brimming with tourists, commerce and nightlife. But all this may come to a screeching halt if the Third St.

Stuck in the ’70s
Last fall, the University of Illinois trustees approved the most recent UIS campus development master plan. The document maps the preferred locations of hoped-for new student housing and office and classroom buildings.

Fake rallies on the rise
Protests are back! All across America, angry demonstrations are popping up like mushrooms on moldy astroturf.

goodadvice poem #1
remember the main point is for you to have decompression time — sit in the water walk in woods turn your face to the sun listen to the birds eat some healthy food eat some junk food survey the stars talk trivially with friends avoid a newspaper...

LETTERS
Apparently the Illinois (Chicago) Department of Transportation is willing to allow the quality of life in Springfield to take an expeditious drop in order that baseball fans may more quickly travel between Chicago and St. Louis. Chuck Moles Springfield.

Hynes challenge could toughen up Quinn
There’s been quite a bit of private grumbling by Democratic county party chairpersons and other party leaders about Comptroller Dan Hynes’ decision to run in the February primary against Gov. Pat Quinn.

JAZZ IT UP
Center hopes to expand its arts and crafts, music, health and fitness, computer technology and education programs into the Matheny School Building, 2200 E. Jackson St., but first the nonprofit needs the finances. John T. Crisp, Jr.

Clayville’s back on track
They’ve vanquished weeds and brush, separated worthy antiques from junk and have begun restoring aged, but sound, buildings. This weekend the Pleasant Plains Historical Society will show off its success, hosting its first major community event at the Clayville Historic Site.

SUPERHERO STATUS
They don’t wear capes, see through walls or fight crime, but Bill and

Walking ‘Side by Side’ with cancer patients
Cancer care isn’t only about treating physical symptoms — it’s also about helping patients handle the emotional distress that accompanies their illness, says Dr. Rhonda Johnson, the director of the new psycho-oncology division of the SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at Southern Illinois University.

Fifty years later, celebrating diplomacy on an Iowa farm
The menu served to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. farmer-business man Roswell Garst in 1959 at Hotel Fort Des Moines was served again at the hotel last Friday, Aug.

National ‘CanVention’ revisits Springfield’s brewing past
Before the miracle of refrigeration, the only way to get an unspoiled beer was to get it nearly straight from the brewery. And if you were a thirsty Springfieldian in the early 1900s, the odds were that you’d drink a beer from Reisch Brewery. There would be other competition, with Springfield Brewery starting production after repeal in 1933.

The state’s dirty little secret
Just north of the Willard Ice Building, blocks away from Memorial Medical Center and Douglas School, and just a few feet from homes, sits a little coal power plant that most people probably don’t know exists.

A prairie plant for your landscape
Prior to European settlers in Illinois, 60 percent of the 22 million acres was prairie. Today less than one hundredth of one percent of the original undisturbed prairie exists in the Prairie State. Some of these original prairies can still be found in pioneer cemeteries, fencerows and railroad rights-of-way.

Lincoln in bronze
Carl Volkmann, historian and retired director of Springfield’s Lincoln (public) Library, has meticulously researched and written a welcome book to add to our shelf of Lincolniana. Or let’s say no shelf, but at $10 each, one for the coffee table, one for the car.

Double the pleasure, double the hope
Most chefs who contribute their time and efforts to the Hope School’s annual Celebrity Chef Dinner prepare wonderful feasts, have a great time interacting with their hospitable hosts and appreciative diners, and leave Springfield feeling good about helping a worthy institution.

RealCuisine Recipe
This recipe appeared in a Food and Wine, July 2008, article about the Independence Day feast Virant prepared on his parents’ 60-acre horse farm near St. Louis. It’s not one that Virant serves at Vie, but it’s a perfect example of his cooking style – eschewing fussy techniques and presentations in order to let the ingredients take center stage.

The Hurt Locker puts the viewer on the front lines
Politics are immaterial here, survival is paramount and everyone is a victim of circumstance whether they be the Baghdad civilians whose lives are lived in a crossfire, the insurgents acting to take their country back or the U.S. forces who simply want to return home.

Movie times
Kerasotes listings are for Friday, September 4 through Tuesday, September 8. For this Labor Day weekend, bracketed show times are Saturday, Sunday, Monday only matinees or Friday. Saturday, Sunday only late shows. All times are subject to change. For updates on Kerasotes films, call 1-800-FANDANGO.

Labor Day to-do list
Well here we are again at the seasonal crossroads of the Labor Day weekend. With this three-day celebration, dedicated to the working people of America, but commemorated by all classes, we proclaim a final tribute to summer festivities and prepare to act autumnal.

PUB CRAWL
Jazz

BAND SPOTLIGHT
Lauded as one of the finest blues guitarists performing today by none other than Eric Clapton and encouraged in his youth by the legendary Muddy Waters, Bryan Lee holds high the mantle of the blues as a creative and artistic empowering force for good times and decent living.

SLAM POETRY
The free morning performance features New York City slam poet, Shanelle Gabriel, best known from the HBO series Def Poetry Jam. Gabriel is an international slam poetry competitor, singer/songwriter and actor, presently touring the United States and abroad, facilitating creative writing workshops and promoting Lupus awareness.

THE CALENDAR
11th Prairieland Chautauqua: “Pioneers of Science and Invention”.

FESTIVAL
The tastes and sounds of the world come to you right here in Springfield at the Illinois State Fairgrounds this weekend. Local ethnic groups cook up ethnic foods and entertain with music. If that isn’t enough, there will be some cultural activities to partake in.

MUSIC
Singer/songwriter Zach Nichols performs at UIS this Saturday. This young musician combines folk, pop, rock, blues, jazz and soul, picking, strumming and singing in a style deemed a mix of Josh Kelley and Jonny Lang with the lyrical insight of Damien Rice.

FESTIVAL
John James Audubon, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, George Washington Carver, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and John Roebling and other scientists and inventors come alive under the big tent in historical reenactments, storytelling, lectures, music and dance.

NEWS QUIRKS
Police arrested Christopher Lee Anson, 23, for robbing a bank in Cannon Falls, Minn., after an officer stopped him for speeding during his getaway. According to the Rochester Post-Bulletin, the officer started writing a ticket but heard the call about the robbery and asked Anson for his address to mail him the ticket, then sped off to the crime scene.

LOCAL BIZ DIRECTORY
Radiesse dermal filler treatments that deliver soft, natural-looking results you can see immediately. Perfect for smile lines, marionette lines, cheeks, chin, jaw line and more. Call 217-787-5244 to schedule a consultation and ask about the BOGO Special through September 09.

THE ADVICE GODDESS
An incident with a bodyworker and another with my husband have me questioning everything. Upon entering the bodyworker’s apartment, you see a bunch of nude photos of him. He makes you strip to your underwear and stand there while he “evaluates” your body structure.