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Prince of demagogues
The prospect is in store of two rabble-rousing populists trading insults for the next seven months. Each will try to tap the deep vein of grievance that runs through a middle class convinced that privileged interests (unions or the rich, it hardly matters) have robbed them blind.

Fixing Congress
These are hard times for Congress. Its approval ratings have seen a bump from their historic lows of a few months ago, but it’s a small one. Our representative democracy’s keystone political institution is widely derided as ineffective, unproductive, irrelevant and sadly out of touch.

Finding populism today
In 2011, a serendipitous moment for the populist cause rumbled across our land. That September, hundreds of young people, loosely aligned with an upstart group called Occupy Wall Street, took over Zuccotti Park in New York City and audaciously camped out on the front stoop of the elite banksters who’d crashed our economy.

LETTERS
CONFUSED BY MAYOR I helped elect Mayor Houston. He had experience as the mayor; I thought he would do a good job. After reading “Let the sunshine in” by Bruce Rushton (March 20), I am now very confused. You would think a two-time mayor would know how long citizens are allowed to speak at council meetings.

A more perfect union for Rauner
After bashing public employee union leaders for months as corrupt bosses who buy votes in order to control Springfield, Rauner and his campaign have assiduously avoided the use of the “u-word” since his victory last Tuesday.

Health insurance deadline approaches
Under the federal health reforms of 2010, commonly known as “Obamacare,” most people are required to get health insurance or face a tax penalty. The deadline to get health insurance coverage is March 31 using the health insurance marketplace set up through a partnership between the state and federal governments.

ORPHAN OUTREACH
A house renovation in Springfi eld will soon benefi t orphans in Haiti, thanks to the efforts of volunteers in Springfi eld’s Enos Park neighborhood. The Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association bought the house at 1149 N. Seventh St. and has practically gutted the building, installing a new roof, plumbing and HVAC system.

FAMILY FAST
As national lawmakers consider bills to reform the United States’ immigration laws, a group of immigration reform advocates is using its members’ bodies as a form of protest. Fast For Families, a coalition of proreform religious organizations, asks its members to refrain from eating until Congress passes a reform bill.

A developing story
A parking lot and the former YWCA building near the governor’s mansion that together consume a large city block have seen a lot of proposals come and go over the years.

A chance after four DUIs
State law prohibits a citizen who has been found guilty of DUI four or more times from having any driving privileges. State Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, is pushing a bill in the House that would give those individuals a chance at obtaining a restricted driving permit (RDP).

Supreme Court strikes down recording law
The Illinois Supreme Court decided this very thing last week in a pair of unanimous decisions that invalidated a state law requiring “two-party consent” to record conversations. The decisions bring Illinois in line with the majority of other states and further a lower court’s decision that allowed recording of police in public.

Getting up to speed
The archaic practice, said to date back to the 1950s, can be costly both for license-less motorists forced to obtain state identification cards and for circuit clerks who process paperwork and return licenses once fines are paid.

Ukraine in crisis
The delegates visited Springfield, March 21-29, at the invitation of the Springfield Commission on International Visitors, which is a part of a network where emerging world leaders are brought to U.S. cities with the support of the U.S. Congress.

Eat real. Move more.
As a response to what was being called an epidemic of obesity in America, Dr. Kemia Sarraf felt it was time to take action in Sangamon County. It was 2008.

Sherman scores a hit
The 2014 baseball season marks the 100th year of baseball at storied Wrigley Field. It has been a noteworthy century, marked by great baseball history and one excruciating failure, the failure of the Cubs to win a World Series in the park originally known as Weegham Field, the original home stadium of the Chicago Whales of the Federal League.

Woodley shines in familiar Divergent
Set in Chicago in the near future, we’re treated yet again to a dystopian society that’s looked destruction in the face, having survived yet another cataclysmic war that’s taken the world to the brink. This time out, the powers that be in the Windy City have walled off the metropolis and separated its citizens into five factions.

All hail, kale
Suddenly it seems as if kale is everywhere. The sturdy-leaved member of the Brassica vegetable family, which includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collard greens and others, is showing up on restaurant menus, in cooking magazines and websites; actually in anything food-centric.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Billy Don Burns
Every review about the music of Billy Don Burns compares him with the greats of country music such as Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

PUB CRAWL
Homegrown Folk Show – Pete Sander, Monica Morris, Amy Benton.

Bedrock 66 Live! moves
Some 14 years ago, at the birth of the new millennium (wow, that sounds exciting), Sean and Jamie Burns decided to start a music performance organization.

DANCE | Smooth skating
Springfield Figure Skating Club presents Springfield’s every own ice show on Saturday, March 29, and Sunday, March 30, at Nelson Center Ice Arena in Lincoln Park. More than 50 SFSC members, all ages and skill levels, will perform to musical ice versions of “Lion King,” “Hair Spray” and “Starlight Express.

THE CALENDAR
Mar 29, 8pm Sat. America roots music with Nikki Hill and The DiMaggio Connection. Hoogland Center for the Arts, 420 S. Sixth St., 217-523-2787. Classic Albums Live performs Abbey Road.

MUSIC | Master instrumentalists
From the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco and on a spring tour around the country, SFJAZZ Collective makes an appearance at Sangamon Auditorium, UIS on Sunday, March 30.

BOOKS | Inequality in India
Journalist and author Katherine Boo will discuss her award-winning book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers,.