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This small business needs health care reform
But, getting older, I’ve started worrying more about my health. A few years ago, we decided we needed to get insurance. Obtaining policies for my husband, Jay, and my employee went smoothly, but I was rejected for a pre-existing condition I’ve had since birth – a genetic condition called psoriasis.

Sputnik moments
The race was on therefore to build a gaudy propaganda platform of our own in space. While engineers worked feverishly in Texas, Florida and California to convert yesterday’s weapons into today’s prestige technology, our schoolteachers were enlisted to convert today’s youngsters into tomorrow’s scientists.

GOP presidential contenders’ goofy greed
This one is even stupider than Perry’s failure to remember his own lines in a presidential debate. It has to do with his fierce opposition to spending taxpayers’ money and his firm stand for rootie-toot-toot rugged individualism.

LETTERS
CHICK FIGHT Maybe if Chic-fil-A moves to Springfield we should all move out. [See “What would Col. Sanders do? Chick-fil-A generates controversy at UIS,” by Bruce Rushton, posted April 11.] This politically correct stuff has got to stop. Most of this is the media’s fault.

Lyons of the House
Lyons successfully fought off five hostile floor amendments to his bill requiring that women seeking abortions be offered a look at an ultrasound test before having an abortion. The proposal has been a matter of much contention for the past three years, and it came to a head in March.

Not playing in Peoria
Union representatives for newsroom and circulation employees say that the bargaining unit that stood at 120 workers when GateHouse bought the paper in 2007 has shrunk to 76, and management wants deeper cuts by outsourcing circulation at the cost of...

Where are all the paychecks going?
The Department of Labor last month agreed with workers facing layoffs in the newspaper’s ad design department that they were losing their jobs to workers outside the United States. As a result, the displaced local workers are entitled to federal benefits, including employment training and weekly payments.

Reformers: sex offender mandate would hurt Illinois
As Illinois lawmakers debate a bill to increase registration requirements for sex offenders under a federal mandate, reform advocates say it would cost the state too much. They say many other states have declined to enact the federal law for the same reason.

Don’t lie to your doctor
A middle-aged man sits in a chair in a Springfield exam room, facing Dr. Joshua Ellison of North Dirksen Medical Associates, a division of Memorial Physician Services. As Ellison looks through the man’s medical charts, he asks a few questions to get to the root of the man’s health problems.

Early release would save $153 million
Gov. Pat Quinn suspended good conduct credits for prisoners in December 2009 following reports of a supposedly secret program that let inmates out after serving only a few weeks in prison, and he has largely stayed silent about the issue since then.

Illinois sues Sangamon County over records
DCFS sued the county last month, asking a judge to order the county to comply with a subpoena issued in December. In the subpoena, the state demands documentation regarding suicide checks for the boy on Oct. 8, when he suffered a serious injury while on suicide watch at the detention center, according to the lawsuit filed March 12.

Save the flags
Behind the high barbed wire of Camp Lincoln in Springfield, in a nondescript brick building and sealed in a row of large, white metal cabinets sits a delicate, tattered silk flag bearing familiar gold stars on a field of blue with red and white stripes.

Earth Day and garden event calendar
Be green – help keep the earth healthy. View more details and listings in our online calendar at www.illinoistimes.com.

Earth Day and garden event calendar
Illinois Herb Association SummerFest 2012.

Plant rhubarb for decades of desserts
Rhubarb grows best where plants will receive full sun in fertile, well-drained soils that have good organic matter. Plant rhubarb in the early spring while plants are dormant. Avoid harvesting the plants the first year, and only lightly harvest for one to two weeks during the second year.

Community gardens for a healthier city
In eras past, gardens were ubiquitous in America. During both world wars, gardens were wielded like a weapon, with millions of “Victory Gardens” planted in both private and public spaces across the U.S., relieving pressure on food supplies needed for war.

Feeding the soil builds sustainable lawns
Spraying chemical fertilizers and pesticides on lawns is like giving kids junk food, says landscape designer Cathy Bilow. They’ll be invigorated for a while, but eventually they’ll crash and burn.

Recycling opportunities grow
Not sure what can be recycled? Mahoney suggests visiting the city of Springfield’s website (www.springfield.il.us/recycle.htm), which features a “Room to Room Guide” offering information and tips about recycling specific items in the typical home. The guide was cre ated in 2008 and is currently being updated.

Green houses
Homeowners can’t escape to-do lists – weekend chores, long-term DIY projects, or even plans and designs for building a dream home from the ground up. A growing number of homeowners are adding “make my home greener” to those to-do lists, and they can pick from a variety of projects that fit any budget, goal and home-improvement ability.

Green lighting
Starting in July, the U.S. Department of Energy has new regulations to upgrade old, inefficient, mercury-laden fluorescent light bulbs. About 500 million of the lights, called T12, need to be replaced. The change will save $10 billion a year in energy costs nationwide.

Central Illinois hosts international art symposium
Better known for straight talk and growing corn than delving into obscure and intense visual art works, central Illinois may not seem like an ideal location for a symposium on the 19th century European art movement known as Symbolism. But inspiration knows no bounds and art reaches to the corners of the globe with a language all comprehend.

Exploring Midwest roadfood
The folks at Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance are at it again! In years past, the GMFA, an organization dedicated to “celebrating, exploring, and preserving unique food traditions and their cultural contexts in the American Midwest,” has held...

Cabin turns horror genre inside out
Whedon and director Drew Goddard, who cowrote the script, let us know from the get-go that everything is not as it seems and that they’ll be doling out key pieces of necessary information when they feel like it, thank you very much. I wish they had played things a bit closer to the vest.

Celebrate your record store
From the humble efforts of a few who believed in honoring our independent record stores, we now have an internationally celebrated and recognized day known as Record Store Day.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Thin Ice
Joe Cooke, a staple as one the area’s finest classic-rocking blues guitarists for decades, joins Rick Wass on bass and Steve Kelton on drums, former members of the Havana Ducks and other bands, for a rocking country trio, called Thin Ice.

PUB CRAWL
Craig Campbell w/ Bucky Covington, Chelsea Bain, Tyler Hartry.

THE CALENDAR
nominated musical comedy. Hoogland Center for the Arts, 420 S. Sixth St..

POETRY | Word masters
Poetry and slam poetry lovers will not want to miss two significant visits this week by two important men in each genre. Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein (pictured right) reads at the Vachel Lindsay Home Saturday, April 21 at 2 p.m.

COMEDY | Large on laughter
One-of-the most popular and beloved comedians in the country pounds into Sangamon Auditorium, UIS this Friday, April 20. Ralphie May is on his Too Big to Ignore tour. Don’t ignore this show. After debuting on season one of “Last Comic Standing,” May was voted one of Variety’s.

THEATER | Wedded bliss
Gus Gordon and Cynda Wrightsman play Michael and Agnes in the musical comedy, I Do! I Do!.

THE CALENDAR
3T: Fluffy Floppy Bunnies! (And the Golden Egg).

THEATER | Monsterly marvelous
The musical comedy Young Frankenstein,.

THE CALENDAR
small appliances, decor, wire hangers, used/broken crayons, paper, paper bags, glass (clear and colored), plastics, aerosol cans, old medicine, recyclable batteries, cardboard, packing peanuts, bubble wrap. 483- 2424. Glenwood High School, 1501 Plummer Boulevard, Chatham, 483-2424.

THE CALENDAR
Apr 20-21, 10am-2pm Fri-Sat, Also luncheon, 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. $8. 787-0617. Springfield Ceramics and Crafts Club, 2626 S. Pasfield St..

ART | Refined design
Saturday, April 21, the Springfield Art Association congratulates this year’s group of locals who created art for its annual fundraising exhibit and reception. This year as the program went green, artists were presented with the challenge of creating art from discarded or recycled materials.

PUBLICNOTICES
CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SEVENTH JUDI- CIAL CIRCUIT SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS ESTATE OF: MARILYN R. GARVEY, Deceased No.2012-P-170 CLAIM NOTICE Notice is given of the death of Marilyn R. Garvey. Letters of office were issued on April 5, 2012 to Holly Siemert, 232 County Road 2290, Cleveland, TX 77327 and Cynthia L.