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‘A neat and appropriate address’
When I lived on the east side in the 1980s, I often walked past the building now called the Lincoln Depot on my way to and from downtown.

Setting the facts straight about pensions
For 2011, the state owes TRS $2.4 billion. Only $715 million would be required to pay this year’s contribution if the state had been paying its bill each year. But, another $1.7 billion is needed to make up for past unpaid costs..

Ethics, health care, guns and Congress critters
Back when DeLay was the GOP’s corrupt majority leader, he got caught hustling campaign funds from an energy corporation whose legislation he then helped pass.

LETTERS
Springfield’s intersection of Lawrence Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard is considered a dangerous place. Known as the “high accident intersection,” everyone in town seems to know it well. My husband and I have worked our business here within earshot of it for nearly four years now.

Setting the facts straight
Second, the state would actually see an increase in what is owed to TRS. The current retirees would need to be paid as per law; yet, without contributions coming into the system from active teachers, the state would need to make up the difference. A 2008 estimate put that additional cost at more than $25 million in just the first year.

Budget politics: What was Quinn thinking?
Child care advocates thought they had avoided $400 million in threatened cuts to the state’s child care services budget after speaking with top officials in Gov. Pat Quinn’s office earlier this month. And the governor’s budget office then told a Senate appropriations committee that no such cuts were being planned.

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
The young folks at Sacred Heart- Griffin High School in Springfield take theater seriously. They’ve won Illinois Times’ Best of Springfield reader poll three years running in the “Best High School Production” category, and they’re at it again this year.

Quinn calls for cuts to social services
Illinois owes billions in overdue payments to mental health clinics, long-term care facilities and numerous other service providers statewide. In his Feb. 17 budget address, Quinn proposed borrowing $8.75 billion to pay them back, along with schools, contractors and more.

Civil rights office asks UIS to evaluate Title IX compliance
After a former faculty member at University of Illinois Springfield issued a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights that the university was violating federal law, UIS has come to an agreement with the Office for Civil Rights to settle the matter.

Advocates: ‘Don’t prosecute teens for consensual sex’
Illinois law criminalizes so-called “Romeo and Juliet” relationships, in which two consenting teens have sexual contact but one is under the age of 17, the legal age of consent.

Water under the bridge
A bridge, by any other name, is still a bridge. Nowhere does a definition of the word offer up the structure as a house or a liveable shelter. But after two years of bickering with bureaucracy, New Berlin developer David Barnett no longer has to pay taxes to the county on his bridge as though it served that purpose.

School turnaround
When Springfield Art Association director Betsy Dollar moved to town a little over a year ago, she learned early on of the poor reputation of McClernand Elementary School, the building at North Sixth Street and Enos Avenue directly across the street from her organization’s headquarters.

Overcoming the odds
Along with a high low-income rate, McClernand hosts the highest “mobility” rate of any District 186 elementary school. A student is designated as mobile if he or she transfers in or out of a school during the school year. Every year since at least 1999, McClernand has had a mobility rate ranging anywhere from 36 percent to nearly 55 percent.

School turnaround
Community partners like Eastside Pride and Grace Lutheran Church help the school meet those needs by providing food baskets when school is out and warm clothing when the weather turns cold.

Being better neighbors
Combs wants to increase the number of families that own homes in the area and that will take pride in their property. In recent decades, many single-family homes have been converted into multi-family residences, which now make up about 38 percent of Enos Park’s housing stock.

Bruschetta, the right way
One of the most interesting things in the five years since I began writing this column has been readers’ responses. I’ve learned a lot from them and, hopefully, that’s been a two-way street as I’ve responded to inquiries. Apart from individual comments, though, it’s been intriguing to see which columns and topics generate the most comments.

Number Four is familiar fun
John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) and his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant) never get too comfortable living in one place as they’re not of this earth. Exiled from their own planet, they must remain in hiding from the Mongadorains, a malevolent race of beings who are intent on wiping out the last nine of the Loriens.

When Valentine’s Day gangsters cooled off in Springfield. Or not.
On Feb. 14, 1929, four men, some dressed as Chicago cops, stormed a north side garage near Lincoln Park which was a hangout and illegal booze distribution center for Bugsy Moran’s gang, a longtime rival to Al Capone and his gang. Both were trying to take over the city’s bootlegging biz during Prohibition, as well as other criminal rackets.

BAND SPOTLIGHT |
Long a staple on the Springfield music scene, Frank Trompeter continues his marvelous musical march accompanied by a mass of musicians and a bevy of bands. The configuration of the current combo features Trompeter (saxophones, vocals, percussion, sax synthesizer), Chris Miller (piano, organ), Chris Warren (bass), Dion Doss (drums) and A.

PUB CRAWL
Dates, times and locations are subject to change, so we suggest calling before attending an event..

Brian Smith and Seven Red
Stand United, Dead Icons, Pound For Pound, More Than Conquerors.

A few friendly folks
This past weekend I spent a whirlwind couple of days in Memphis, Tenn., at the Folk Alliance International music conference. This is my fourth consecutive year of attending and my sixth conference overall and number 23 for the organization once known as the International Folk and Dance Alliance.

GLOBAL POVERTY |
Marsha Wallace of Greenville, S.C., started the group Dining for Women in 2003 after reading about a group of friends who met for potluck dinners and collected money for needy families.

THE CALENDAR
Dates, times and locations are subject to last-minute changes, so we suggest calling before attending the event..

AUTHOR
A guy who’s climbed mountains literally and figuratively to improve the world, and on top of that carries unbelievably interesting tales about how he got there and what he’s gone through, is humanitarian and New York Times.

THE CALENDAR
world’s premier undergraduate vocal ensembles that tours the world, sings for royalty and garners praise from critics. 245- 3248. Illinois College Rammelkamp Chapel, 1101 W. College Ave, Jacksonville, 245- 3248..

Springfield Youth Performance Group
today’s society. Menard Hall, Room 2209. 786-4968. Lincoln Land Community College, 5250 Shepherd Rd, 217-786-2200..

POLITICS | Chief conversation
The primary is over. Head out March 2 to the first Mayoral Candidates Forum in Lincoln Library’s Carnegie Room hosted by the Faith Coalition for the Common Good. This is another important conversation between the four contenders left who will vie for Springfield’s top post in April.

Springfield Picassos
What makes this month-long installment of three artists impressive is the individual power of each artist’s work and the combination of their unique presentations -- each, to use a musical metaphor, sung in a different key.

SCIENCE
Feb 24-28, Mar 01-09, Meetings daily. For times and locations visit aaspringfield.org. 24-hour answering service 525-5795, 1-866-525-5795..

NEWSQUIRKS
Even though arson-for-hire suspect Ismael Ortiz, 24, wore latex gloves when he started a house fire in Titusville, Fla., police found his fingerprint, plus the finger that left it. While fleeing the scene, Ortiz “slammed his finger in the door,” Detective Jessica Edens said, “and cut the tip off his finger.

PUBLICNOTICES
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS IN PROBATE In the Matter of the Estate of: John C. Cisna, deceased. Case No. 2010P656 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to Claimants of the Estate of John C. Cisna, deceased. Letters of Office were issued on November 22, 2010, to Gloria Cisna, Executor, whose attorney is David R.

AMY ALKON
I fear my husband has some disability in regard to apologizing. Monday was his birthday. I had a terrible cold, but put myself on enough meds to cook him a wonderful meal and dessert. I felt too sick for sex, so I offered up a, um, very personal massage, but he refused.