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Springfield tourism needs state support
During the fall veto session there is the potential the state Tourism Promotion Funds (TPF) could once again be targeted for cuts. Though there may be no immediate direct threat to this fund, it is best for those who support tourism to be proactive in their advocacy.

Poor housing
If its aldermen were running Springfield’s fire stations, the city would have burned down years ago. On Oct. 18 the Springfield City Council passed a complex new ordinance that stiffened the penalties for owners of dilapidated buildings. The vote came a mere nine years.

‘We the People,’ not ‘We the Corporations’
For the first time ever, most of this ad blizzard will not come from the candidates, but from ads secretly funded by huge corporations. This is because a five-man cabal on the Supreme Court issued an edict last year that perverts nature itself.

LETTERS
We will also miss the Trout Lily Cafe, which closed its doors this week after 12 years in downtown Springfield. A sad day, but a joyous one too, for the TLC nourished us, engaged us, inspired us, and was a haven for artists and musicians looking for hope and a place to create.

Climbing through a giant loophole
State campaign finance reform laws that capped campaign contributions went into effect this past Jan. 1. One provision of the new law set a $50,000 cap on what political action committees could receive from other political action committees during a calendar year.

Occupy Springfield survives a scare
The admonition had mostly worked, with almost everyone moving to sidewalks around the plaza, leaving Jason Maggard nearly alone in the Occupy Springfield protest zone that has a 10 p.m. closing time, according to a two-week permit issued by the city. Maggard said that he would leave only if removed by police.

RENAME HIGH-SPEED RAIL
It is according to the government, which is spending more than $1 billion to improve Union Pacific track in hopes of making the journey in a bit more than four hours, thirty minutes – not much faster than a car and considerably slower than bullet trains in Europe and Asia.

GUARANTEED GREEN
The Springfield Green Business Network, formed a year ago, has developed a “green” certification program that allows businesses to track their progress toward becoming more environmentally friendly. If businesses reach certain benchmarks, they are rewarded with the right to use one of four progressively greener SGBN certification seals.

Should Cousin Bob get a city job?
The answer depends on the alderman. The crux is whether the proposal sponsored by Ward 9 Ald. Steve Dove would have given the council the power to reject hires of close relatives of city officials. Two weeks ago, Dove in an interview said that his proposal would do just that, and he also predicted the measure would pass.

Andi’s Run to benefit children’s tumor research foundation
“She loves with everything that she has.” Ivy Brog says of her daughter, Andrea Heath. “She gives anything that you ask and more than that. I think that somebody that endures as much as she does on a regular basis, who doesn’t make excuses, that’s the type of person you want around you because they light up any situation.

Project Censored
In an age of blogs, tweets, hacks and piles of beans spilled by Wikileaks, the notion of media censorship may seem dated. But the rundown of stories Project Censored calls attention to this year serves as a reminder that mainstream media outlets favoring the superficial over the substantive don’t give us all the information we need.

Project Censored
The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) secured a contract with a Los Angeles-based tech company to develop the program, which enables U.S. service workers to use fake online personas on social media sites to influence online chatter. Using up to 10 false identities, they can counter charged political dialogue with pro-military propaganda.

Project Censored
Despite this prominent press treatment of targeted assassinations under the Obama administration, Project Censored deems this an underreported news story because “a moral, ethical and legal analysis of the assassinations seems to be significantly lacking inside the corporate media.

Project Censored
#6 Google spies? A flurry of stories aired in the spring of 2010 when it became apparent that Google Street View vehicles, in the process of collecting data for its mapping service, also picked up consumer “payload” data on Wi-Fi networks, including email messages, website data, user names and passwords.

Project Censored
This one stretches credulity, and it’s probably the best example of why Project Censored has gained detractors even on the left in recent years.

Cajun vs. Creole: It’s all good in Louisiana
I’m just back from what has become an annual trip to southwestern Louisiana, a.k.a. Acadiana or Cajun Country. This time, we didn’t stay at Lafayette’s Blue Moon Saloon, a music venue cum guesthouse. Instead, we were in Eunice, a small town 30 minutes away, at Black Pot Camp, a three-day event with Cajun music and dance workshops.

In Time, a clever look at modern economics
Niccol’s script is scant on the details of how this came about, but we’re quickly told that everyone is genetically engineered to stop aging at the age of 25. At that point, a year is granted to you in the form of a digital readout on your forearm, which begins its fatal countdown to zero.

A Venice visit
“I feel like I’m living the dream. We’ve played to thousands of people in the U.S. and Europe. We’re going through South America this winter, then come back here for a summer tour,” says Kipp. “We’re hanging out with Roger Waters hearing his personal stories about guys like Jimi Hendrix.

PUB CRAWL

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Pete Anderson
When Pete Anderson, along with fellow musicians Greg Hanna (bass), Jack Maeby (organ and keys) and Jesper Kristensen (drums), rocks Boone’s on Saturday, folks will get to see the show of a lifetime.

PUB CRAWL

THE CALENDAR

MUSIC | Ukulele master
Here’s a guy who plays ukulele like no one else. Witness Jake Shimabukuro’s amazing skill at the University of Illinois Springfield Studio Theater on Nov. 8. All Music Guide.

THE CALENDAR

MUSIC | Choice metal
The Metal Gods, aka, Judas Priest, rise from the dread to rush Springfield’s Prairie Capital Convention Center on Nov. 9. The Priest’s worldwide, end-of-the-band Epitaph Tour and farewell excursion is on the sabbath of their compilation album, The Chosen Few,.

THE CALENDAR

THE CALENDAR

THE CALENDAR

BOOKS | Everlasting cells
Rebecca Skloot is one of the younger chicks in the henhouse, but her debut book proves she’s one of the smarter chicks in the coop. The Chicago award-winning science writer, now New York Times.

THE CALENDAR

PUBLIC NOTICES
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT SPRINGFIELD, SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF: ARLENE A. FLYNN, Deceased. No.2011-P-557 CLAIM NOTICE NOTICE IS GIVEN of the death of ARLENE A. FLYNN. Letters of Office were issued on the 12TH DAY OF OCTOBER, A.

PUBLIC NOTICES
A SUBDIVISION OF PART OF THE WEST HALF OF THE SOUTHEAST QUARTER OF SECTION 3, TOWNSHIP 15 NORTH, RANGE 5 WEST OF THE THIRD PRINCI- PAL MERIDIAN, EXCEPT THE COAL AND OTHER MINERALS UNDERLYING THE SURFACE OF SAID LAND AND ALL RIGHTS AND EASEMENTS IN FAVOR OF THE ESTATE OF SAID COAL AND OTHER MINERALS, SITUATED IN SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

PUBLIC NOTICES
Corporation, UNKNOWN OWNERS and NON-RECORD CLAIMANTS, Defendant(s) No. 2011-MR-551 NOTICE BY PUBLICATION NOTICE IS GIVEN YOU, Edward E.

NEWS QUIRKS
Police charged Johnny Lee Walker, 21, with shooting another man in Orange Park, Fla., after he left his cellphone at the scene of the crime. Investigators said the phone contained text messages about a $300 marijuana deal believed to be the motive for the shooting.

THE ADVICE GODDESS
I have a good relationship with my boyfriend of a year except for how he ignores me when he’s stressed. The first time this happened, he disappeared for a week and didn’t respond to texts or voice mails. He later explained he’d been swamped with work and apologized repeatedly.