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Raise federal minimum wage now
On Jan. 1, the minimum wage increased in Rhode Island and in nine states that adjust their minimum wage to match the rise in inflation: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. In Illinois, the minimum wage is $8.

Editor’s note
On Jan. 3 we posted on our website a story by Bruce Rushton that Father Tom Donovan, pastor at St. Aloysius, was granted a leave of absence after a Nov. 28 incident in which he called 911 at 4:45 a.m. because he was trapped in handcuffs inside the church rectory.

A new Jerusalem
Published by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the 56-page guide must have left many a reader with the itch to head out for the Midwestern skies. The operative words are fun, adventure, magic. (Don’t laugh. Magic happens in Springfield. In high school I got kissed in Douglas Park.

Small town USA averts police state takeover
No doubt you had a lot on your mind in December – the dancing of sugar plum fairies, America stumbling toward the fiscal cliff, the outcome of the classic Beef O’Brady’s Bowl game and whatnot – so you might have missed this bit of big news that got very little news coverage: Our Constitution had a hole burned in it.

LETTERS
ROUND UP FOR HOMELESS Before paying your City Water, Light and Power bill this month, please look for the Round Up insert with your bill. By signing up, you can join other residents who help the homeless by giving just a few cents a month. These inserts only arrive in our bills two months a year.

The day the bills stood still
Last Thursday was not exactly a banner day for the Illinois Senate Democratic leadership. In high profile moves, leadership’s attempts to pass a bill legalizing gay marriage stalled, as did bills on gun control. Even a much-needed spending bill was unable to move out of committee.

DEAD DROP SPRINGFIELD
If you know where to look in an alleyway across from the downtown post offi ce in Springfi eld, you’ll fi nd something familiar in an unfamiliar place. Sticking out of a wall near a gutter downspout is the business end of a USB memory stick.

Priestly predilections continue
The diocese in 2005 hired a Methodist to figure things out when a priest was severely beaten after soliciting sex in Douglas Park. Accusations of homosexual conduct rose to the very top of the diocese, with one man claiming to have bedded a half-dozen men of the cloth, including then bishop George Lucas.

SNAKES ALIVE
Penguins might have cause to worry but rat snakes are in good shape when it comes to global warming, according to University of Illinois researchers who spent a dozen years studying rat snakes in Texas, southern Illinois and Canada to determine where they go and what they do when it gets hot.

City approves benefits for civil-union partners
The council’s vote this week to extend benefits came after approval by a committee composed of union and city officials that meets in secret. The city says that the Joint Labor/ Management Health Committee is not subject to the state Open Meetings Act.

The Lanphier lion learns to roar
The halls of Lanphier High School are strangely quiet. About 1,100 students file through the school’s maze of corridors several times each day, bringing the usual sounds of slamming lockers, chatty children and a shrill bell announcing the start and end of every period.

Deborah Madison’s recipe for what’s hot in vegetables
And I use Madison’s other cookbooks – 11 in all – throughout the year; many of her well-written and always reliable recipes have become standards in my kitchen, from a fantastic black bean chili (not Springfield chilli, to be sure, but equally good in its own way) in Madison’s first cookbook, The Greens Cookbook,.

Zero’s cold, efficient look at hunt for bin Laden
The film gets off to a gripping start as we hear the audio of many frantic phone calls made by people trapped in the World Trade Center during the attacks on 9/11.

Re-solutions recommended
Certain commitments known as New Year’s resolutions are commonly concocted around the beginning of a calendar year and generally concern a makeover of the self, often dealing with all kinds of ways to feel, act, look and be better.

PUB CRAWL
Our Lady, The Disappearing Man, The Business Fairy, Brandon Carnes.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | SPREAD
From origins as a college jam band formed at SIU-Carbondale in 2008 of friends drawn together by intellectual and interesting likes, SPREAD continues in a progressive march across the Midwest sharing magic in music with audiences everywhere.

THE CALENDAR
Jan 19, 1-4pm, Theme is the creative process. Phone 753-2137 for info and directions. Winter Book and Bake Sale.

THEATER | Rocking musical
Only 50 seats are available for each showing of the critically acclaimed off-Broadway rock musical hit, Hedwig and the Angry Inch..

MUSIC | Dynamic duo
Featured are local favorites Kamen Petkov and Russel Brazzel on violin and classical guitar, respectively. Kamen and Russel are well known in Springfield, both for their talent and for their advocacy for the arts. They have been performing as a duo for the past year.

THEATER | Heartfelt musical
THEATER | Heartfelt musical.

SPORTS | Breaking the ice
January is national skating month and the Springfield Figure Skating Club, Springfield Youth Hockey and the Springfield Park District are hosting a It’s Great to Skate event Saturday, Jan. 12. Watch figure and hockey skaters demonstrate skills from the United States Figure Skating Basic Skills program and take part in a 20-minute skating lesson.