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Editor’s note
While refiling our archives, we revisited some Illinois Times issues from 1990, reminding us that we’ve been working on some stories for a good long while. On June 21, 1990, the cover story by Don Sevener was “Clinton calamity: Illinois Power used to be a profitable company.

The citizen survey beneath the surface
The recently released Sangamon County Citizen Survey offers an interesting glimpse into the attitudes, perceptions and conditions that help shape our local community. Since surveys like this are not intended to determine fact, using the findings to draw definitive conclusions about complex issues is dangerous.

Taxing work
In 2011, the General Assembly, kicking and screaming, did what was good for it and ate its spinach. Members raised the rate at which the State of Illinois taxes the income of its citizens, thus forestalling a revenue crisis.

Texas GOP unleashes political quackery
A few years ago, during consideration of a bill being pushed by a Republican elder in the Texas Senate, first-term Sen. Wendy Davis asked him a question about it. Rather than respond to this Democrat, this woman, the old bull replied dismissively, “I have trouble hearing women’s voices.

LETTERS
Would Mr. Krohe prefer remnants of the Jefferson Mall slab and decaying signage, adjacent to a flood plain/ contaminated landfill which has sat decrepitly for decades, continue to exist as it is? Would a redeveloped site, featuring aesthetic...

TORNADO TREES
www.museum.state.il.us.

Sprinkler proposal raises builders’ ire
Illinois State Fire Marshal Larry Matkaitis has asked a panel of state legislators to adopt a national fire standard that mandates residential sprinkler systems.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
Four. That’s how many are in place in council chambers (maximum occupancy 140) to keep track of who voted which way on ordinances and resolution. And they have hardly been up to snuff since being installed last year to replace a much smaller doo-hickey with colored lights beside each alderman’s name – red meant no, green meant yes.

Parolee accused of murder has long criminal record
On June 1, 47-year-old homeless woman Rebecca Cleaton was found beaten and strangled to death in an abandoned house on North Ninth Street. It’s unclear how long Cleaton was homeless, but Sangamon County Coroner Cinda Edwards said her family is from Georgia and her emergency room records go back about 12 years in Springfield.

Smackdown
Outlawed since 1924, heroin bumped along from the Jazz Age through the Vietnam War, mostly as someone else’s problem, at least so far as most folks outside large metropolitan areas were concerned. Penalties are tough. Heroin possession in Illinois can fetch four to 60 years in prison, depending on the amount.

Something old, something new
There’s a new quilt coming to town and you’re invited to have your name embroidered on it. The Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic site and Vachel Lindsay Association are re-creating a century-old signature quilt that has 520 names of Springfield folk from 1912 on it.

Wonderful watermelon
It’s the very essence of summer. As a kid, I’d hang on to the green rind as I plowed my way through a half-moon slice or wedge, or sometimes even a canoe-shaped lateral hunk, hunched over so that the juice wouldn’t drip on my clothes – which it inevitably did, regardless.

Ranger undone by schizophrenic tone
The opening of the film serves as a microcosm of all that’s right and wrong with the project. The setting is a carnival in 1933 San Francisco. A young boy, replete in cowboy regalia and a black mask, wanders into a sideshow that promises to recount the history of the Wild West.

Tasting, tasting, one, two, three
Many other glorious events fill our entertainment calendar this weekend, but none can compare to the shindig of the season, Taste of Downtown Springfield. Years in the making, the Taste combines three of humankind’s favorite activities, proven through centuries of on-hand research – eating, drinking and making music.

PUB CRAWL
Meredosia, Free At Last, Baldknobber, Aporia, Bo Mellado.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Rockin’ Johnny Burgin Band
The blues speaks to all and Rockin’ Johnny knows the language better than most. The Chicago-based singing guitarist plays the blues with an edge, not over the top or in your face, but in the groove and to your soul.

FESTIVAL | Local chow
Here’s a festival that’s all about local chow with 12 downtown restaurants participating. A hint of the scrumptious menu to entice you – fried oyster po’boys, cucumber basil watermelon sangria, crab cake sandwiches, deep-fried brownies, lemon berry ice cream, hummus sandwich, hoisin crusted pork belly and Chinese noodles.

THE CALENDAR
Fairgrounds, Petersburg, 217-632-3848. Morgan County Fair.

ART | Group specs
The Pharmacy art collective opens its latest one-night show on Saturday, July 13 featuring member works and the work of two Peoria artists, Josh Cox and Sarah Nesbit. Cox will show his multimedia installation fashioned out of cardboard and light, The Immediate is No Longer Than Impression.

THEATER | Girl power
Springfield Municipal Opera (The Muni) and Illini Bank will present the musical masterpiece Dreamgirls,.