I watched with fascination the two recent nationally televised Republican debates. No, I am not a Republican nor is my allegiance to President Obama slipping. Perhaps I am drawn to these debates because, having recently run a political campaign, I, in some very small way, feel a kinship with these candidates.

I left one question unanswered when I wrote recently that the Horace Mann Educators Corp. building in downtown Springfield was one of four in the capital city designed by a world-famous architecture firm. (“Architectural dreams,” Aug. 4, 2011.) Why did a growing but still small insurance company in a notgrowing and small Midwestern city hire a no doubt very expensive firm such as Minoru Yamasaki & Associates for the job? The answer is that the project was not intended to be a mere office building. It was designed to be a corporate headquarters, and as such was intended to impress as well as to facilitate work.

Presidential wannabe Rick Perry is flitting all around the country – hither, thither and yon – spreading little “Perry Tales” about himself and the many wonders he has worked as governor of Texas.

Let’s call it what it is – a tax on people who own cats. The Sangamon County Board needs money for its budget and this is the way they plan to get it. The requirement to register a cat and have it inoculated each year for rabies is ridiculous. For statistics on rabies, I had to go to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

My point here is not to heap criticism on Mayor Houston. I believe Mayor Houston wants to make a positive difference for Springfield. But most people familiar with politics and government know that after the campaign is over and the catchy rhetoric fades from memory, the hard reality of governance awaits. Mayor Houston claims now that he didn’t realize how difficult things were going to be when he was campaigning and is now striking a much more measured and moderate tone. Definitely smart politics, but honest politics? I’m not so sure.

I began to reminisce during Gov. Pat Quinn’s Chicago press conference last week. Quinn had called the media together to announce he was closing seven state facilities and laying off almost 2,000 state employees because the General Assembly had passed an inadequate budget.

A few weeks ago, after concerned citizens told the Illinois Department of Natural Resources that Hillsboro Energy, LLC, had started building an 80-foot tall coal slurry impoundment without an approved permit, the state agency in charge of regulating mines ordered the company to stop construction or face enforcement action.

The Springfield Historic Sites Commission on Oct. 10 will unveil its Lincoln Era Plaque Recognition Program, which includes the distribution of frame-worthy certificates to anyone who owns a structure that stood while Lincoln lived here, between 1837 and 1861.

Bird Brain, which manufactured the ceramic firepot and an accompanying gel fuel, was slow to act after more than 50 explosions nationwide since December 2009, according to the lawsuit filed last month in Sangamon County Circuit Court by the parents of Alec Poos, who reportedly suffered second and third-degree burns on July 15.

As part of an effort to revitalize Springfield’s 41-year-old zoo, volunteers representing the park district, the general public and the zoo itself have gathered regularly for the past several months to work on what will eventually become the facility’s new master plan.

Linda Sexton knows about promises. Promises to replace her Brady-Bunch-era kitchen cabinets. Promises for a new living room carpet. Promises for a backyard patio behind her apartment, one of more than 170 units just off MacArthur Boulevard, next to Jerome.

can’t recall whether they’ve been a couple for 18 years or just 16. Whichever, Sexton and Sours are together for the long haul, talking openly about their love for one another in front of a stranger who knocked on their door a half-hour ago, asking about what it is like to live here.

The claims were buttressed by a notice of code violations issued by Rich Mersinger, Bethalto zoning administrator, who declared the apartment unfit for human occupancy.

“They don’t have $750,000, never did have, never would have – Green knew this,” Carey said. “Essentially, he told my clients that this is just a formality in order to keep these projects going. … My clients were just duped. They should not have signed a note which they could never have repaid.

Steve Combs, president of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association and chairman of Inner City Older Neighborhoods (ICON), a consortium of community activists throughout the city, sent a congratulatory email to corporation counsel Mark Cullen when city building inspectors served a search warrant at MacArthur Park last month.

The $8 million note is one of a series of loans of as much as $10 million that have been made on Green’s properties over the past 18 years, with MacArthur Park assigned a value of slightly more than $2.4 million in loan documents issued in 1998. Under terms of the current mortgage, Green must maintain the property in a rentable condition and promptly perform repairs and maintenance to preserve its value.

“The judge gave you carte blanche, and you only went into seven unoccupied buildings?” Simpson says. “That doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s not about privacy, it’s about living conditions. It’s about making sure those individuals who are living there have a quality of life.

Louis in which Musial was hitless, a crowd of kids waited at his car for autographs. A rookie Cardinal who was there commented to Musial’s friend Red Schoendienst, “He won’t be signing today.” Red replied, “Just watch.” Musial appeared and signed autographs for 45 minutes.

The promise of the women’s liberation movement was that women everywhere would be able to have it all. Being a mother, wife and having a career would all be within their reach, once male perceptions were changed and inequalities in the workplace were addressed.

Off we go into the fall festival season with events galore. Sometimes it’s nice to write about one thing (like next week’s return of Tonguesnatcher Revue on Sept. 24), but when so much stuff comes across the desk (if I had a desk) what’s a feller to do but attempt to fit in all in, so you, our dear reader, won’t miss a thing.

Would Izard return to Chicago? If she did, what kind of restaurant would she have? Formal or casual? Small/intimate or big/bustling? (That she would open a restaurant was never in doubt; it’s pretty much a given for Top Chef winners.) Izard is an Evanston native, but spent most of her childhood in Connecticut.

Boehm is a Springfield native whose first full-scale restaurant was Indigo. “Springfield was a great place to learn the restaurant business,” he says. For the last decade, he and Katz, have opened five hugely successful Chicago restaurants, including Izard’s The Girl and The Goat, which opened in the summer of 2010.

Renae Reunion w/ RVINS, Sidelined & The Manchurian Incident.

Raised outside of Knoxville, Tenn., John Paul Keith took the hard road to getting heard in the music business. His dad gave him a guitar at age 10 with lessons coming from studying records by the likes of Chuck Berry and BB King. Next, JPK landed in Nashville ready to take on the world at age 21 with a major label deal.

Screamin’ Vatos, Trippin Billies - Fall Festival.

For almost a quarter century the Springfield Art Association has hosted a fine art fair the third weekend in September on the Edwards Place Historic Home lawn. This year it promises to be just as enchanting as in previous years. Meet 75 artists from Illinois and the nation.

Abraham Lincoln National Railsplitting Festival.

“The Lincoln Poems,” talks about early frontier life in Illinois. The Sly Fox Bookstore, 123 N. Springfield St (Route 4), Virden, 217-965-3641..

THEATER | Bowling for hoots & hollers.

View feature documentary about the new wave of protest music sweeping across America. Capital City Bar & Grill, 3149 S. Dirksen Pkwy, 529-8580. Springfield/Central Illinois Film Commission Meeting.

activities and more. Illinois State Museum, 502 S. Spring St, 782- 5993..

The Pleasant Plains Historical Society has made progress in their job of restoring this historical old stagecoach stop village. Sept.

Iroquois Peace Maker Legend and U.S. Constitution.

Adult Asperger/Autism Support Group.

Watch 62 of the best independent films from 11 countries and 16 states, as well as Illinois, during this three-day film festival held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts.

Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, talks at Laurel United Methodist Church on Sunday, Sept. 18. This is a September Days of Compassion Event and is sponsored by Laurel Peacemakers. Like his grandfather, Rajmohan Gandhi is and has been engaged in efforts against corruption and inequalities.

International Day of Peace Interfaith Prayer Service.

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE SEV- ENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS ESTATE OF: ORIN CHASTAIN, Deceased, No.: 2011-P-503 CLAIM NOTICE AND NOTICE TO UNKNOWN HEIRS NOTICE IS GIVEN of the death of Orin Chastain.

When Chicago police investigating reports of shots fired stopped a car that Shandra Kidd, 22, was riding in, she bolted. After an officer caught her, she stuck a gun in the officer’s chest and pulled the trigger. The gun didn’t fire. She tried again, but again the gun didn’t go off.

When my boyfriend moved across the country to Manhattan for two years, we pledged we’d be faithful. We talk and text daily, and he tells me he loves me and that I’m the only person for him.