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Hoping for a humdinger
We can only hope. It can’t be easy for a politician to plainly state any kind of truth after a career of avoiding it. Readers usually must be happy to get an anecdote or two of the sort that is told only at private fundraising dinners, and maybe some good gossip.

Don’t blame ISU. Here’s what’s wrong with teaching.
I would like to comment on the article by James Krohe Jr. called “Manufacturing mediocrity” (July 18). First, regarding Illinois State University (ISU). I am a graduate of there with a bachelor’s and almost a graduate of their Ph.D. program in mathematics education.

Editor’s note
Even after police chief Rob Williams and corporation counsel Mark Cullen have stepped down, the scandal known as shredgate continues to leave a bad taste. That’s because Mayor Mike Houston has been largely missing in action, leaving too many questions unanswered – his spokesman said Monday that he was on a weeklong canoe trip.

The ‘helping hands’ helping themselves
I’ll bet they did! We all know how altruistic, beneficent and kindhearted Wall Street lobbyists are – when it comes to helping themselves, that is.

LETTERS
DEAD ON ARRIVAL The purpose of this message is to offer a prediction concerning your feature, “Building bigger, better hospitals” (Patrick Yeagle, July 18). Hospitals are obsolete and will soon go the way of the Bell telephone.

The good, the bad and the potential ugly
The poll of 1,394 likely Democratic primary voters found Quinn leading Daley by five points, 38-33. That’s exactly where the two stood in a January poll.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Six months after regulators warned they were going to get serious about groundwater contamination at a Carlinville area mine, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has referred a pollution case to the state attorney general’s offi ce for enforcement.

OLD OLDS
It had just fi ve horsepower and could attain a top speed of only 20 mph, but back in the early 1900s, that was pretty impressive. The 1901 Oldsmobile Curved Dash was the fi rst mass-produced automobile in the U.S., and the 1902 model is in Springfi eld for the Oldsmobile Club of America’s National Meet at Springfi eld’s Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Interview with a sailor at sea
Somewhere in the Coral Sea, off the northeast coast of Australia, a U.S. aircraft carrier is conducting training exercises with the Royal Australian Navy. Aboard that 1,092-foot carrier, named USS George Washington, a young Springfield native serving in the U.

Jeffrey Parsons accused of lying
Jeffrey Richardson, the trustee, says that Parsons underreported income in sworn statements and concealed more than $1 million from hundreds of creditors that include the Internal Revenue Service, vendors, landlords and customers who went unpaid after selling gold and other valuables to THR and Associates, Parsons’ Springfield-based company.

Rail consolidation design under way
Jim Moll, project manager for Hanson Professional Services, is overseeing the consolidation designs under a contract with the City of Springfield. Moll says the project has yet to be fully funded, but engineers are already analyzing soil samples and other conditions along the 10 th Street corridor.

Davis and Schock under pressure on immigration
Leaders from the religious, law enforcement and business realms met in Springfield last week to put public pressure on Illinois Republican congressmen regarding immigration reform. They said fixing the “horribly broken system” is a moral obligation and an economic necessity.

Citizen rockers
Playing in a rock and roll band is never a casual proposition. Investments of time and money for rehearsal and equipment can be sizable, while financial rewards are often slow to arrive, if they appear at all.

Familiar frights haunt The Conjuring
In the fall of 1971, Roger and Carolyn Perron (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) got a fantastic deal on a sprawling home in rural Rhode Island.

If you knew sushi
It seems as if sushi is everywhere these days – in eclectic restaurants and Chinese mega-buffets that offer a bewildering (and too often badly executed) mix of cuisines as well as prefab offerings in grocery stores. I’ve even seen sushi on display in gas stations, though not in Springfield or central Illinois.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Reverend Raven and the Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys
With enough playing under their respective belts to make an old bluesman weep and moan, you would be hard pressed to find a more a traditional sounding, Chicago electric blues band at work today than this group of blues veterans.

PUB CRAWL
Dates, times and locations are subject to change, so we suggest calling before attending an event..

Music to the rescue
Have you noticed whenever someone thinks about doing a benefit for something, live music is the main draw? Auctions, raffles and donations may make the cash, but the music magnet gets ’em there.

THE CALENDAR
Dates, times and locations are subject to last-minute changes, so we suggest calling before attending events..

NATURE | The plot thickens
Sunday, July 28, will be a great time to visit one or all of Springfield’s community vegetable gardens in the University of Illinois Extension’s Roots to Rooftop tour.

PRESENTATIONS | Entertaining info
The venue has changed, but all the spectacular, inspiring and fun knowledge that spills from the minds of Springfield folk at this event remains the same. PechaKucha comes to the Hoogland Center for the Arts on Aug. 1. Corral your friends for an evening of drinks and entertainment.

THEATER | Most excellent adventure
Meet Ben Viele and Alexander Rodriguez. They are co-hosts of Los Angeles’s Universal Broadcasting Network Internet radio show “Happy Hour with Ben and Alexander.