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Unionizing moms and dads
Chicago-area resident Pamela Harris is the mother who cares at home for her 25-yearold son who’s had severe intellectual and developmental disabilities from birth, with the help of a stipend from the Illinois Medicaid program.

What’s the market doing?
If you are around people involved in agriculture, the question “What’s the market doing?” will eventually come up. While there may be variations – “How’s the market?” or “Anything going on in the markets?” – the question is really about prices for corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle and other commodities of interest to the questioner.

Koch boys killing democracy
Thus, the two brothers have always felt very special, and they also expect those of us in the down-to-Earth world to treat them special, even heroic. The boys were born rich and right-wing, and they parlayed Daddy Fred Koch’s millions into a huge industrial conglomerate that has made each of them uberbillionaires.

LETTERS
The law states that the government cannot place “undue burden” on an individual for the exercise of his or her religious freedom. The government was forcing Hobby Lobby to violate the religious beliefs of the owners forcing them to provide abortion pills.

Illinois Supreme Court rules in favor of retirees
In a sweeping 6-1 decision, the Illinois Supreme Court last week struck down an attempt to force government retirees to pay more for their subsidized state health insurance.

A lackluster report card
The institution lacks a strategic plan that establishes priorities, according to the June 25 report prepared by Karen Witter, a consultant who worked under a contract with the institution’s private fundraising foundation. The institution is missing out on chances to procure grants due to a lack of long-range planning, she says.

HE’S BACK
Father Thomas Donovan, perhaps the planet’s best-known practitioner of non-sexual self-bondage, is back at work as a priest, this time at St. Peter Parish in Quincy. Donovan got himself in a bind in November 2012, when he called 911 from the rectory of St.

HELP WANTED
Looking for work? There are apparently more than 800 jobs available in Springfi eld, if you have the right qualifi cations. The Illinois Department of Employment Security operates a job search website called Illinois Joblink, containing thousands of available jobs around the state.

City wins lawsuit
Christian sued after he was arrested more than two years ago by city police who reported that he came to their attention by playing his car stereo at excessive volume.

Science to solve tomorrow’s problems
It looks like an overgrown garbage disposal from a kitchen sink, but the large metal cylinder sitting in B.K. Sharma’s laboratory is doing something incredible. It’s a reactor of sorts, turning plastic shopping bags – the kind that more often end up in landfills and empty fields than in the recycling bin – into crude oil.

Sweet on sweet corn
Are there any sights, sounds and smells more evocative of a Midwest summer than those of fresh corn on the cob waiting to be shucked? The leaves are still crisp and green; the aroma’s corny and delicious; the husks squeak when they’re ripped away to reveal the tender kernels.

Tasting, tasting 1, 2, 3
As we move into our second year of mostly local artists as our Taste of Downtown entertainment, look for more jazz, soul, funk, Latin, blues and less Americana roots-styles. In a very nice grouping of area favorites, the Downtown Springfield, Inc. folks are catering the music to fit the food: so eat, listen, dance and drink – local.

Snowpiercer chilling
Joon-ho Bong’s Snowpiercer is the sort of film in which the director asks you to buy into his premise and trust that the trip he’s taking you on will be worthy of your time.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | The Driftaways
Music travels beyond the boundaries of regions, allowing for things like this: One of the best reggae-influenced bands in the Midwest comes from the St. Louis area.

PUB CRAWL
Adam Balbo, Borealis, Austin Connelly, Like ... With Jetpacks.

THE CALENDAR
Spoken Word Springfield Poets and Writers Open Mic.

FESTIVAL | Meal and music
Taste of Downtown is calling your.

THEATER | Elvis-like energy
The Muni’s 2014 season got off to a great start with The Sound of Music.

THEATER | Divine drama
You may remember the gripping film with Meg Tilly and Ann Bancroft. The stage drama follows the same storyline about a novice nun who gives birth and insists that the dead child was the result of a virgin conception. The psychological play stars Sherri Mitchell, Anna Booher and Mary Young and is directed by John Paris.

ART | Pricing pieces
The Springfield Art Association is hosting two interesting and informative events on the weekend of July 11-12. The first one on Friday night, July 11, is a free talk about downsizing by getting rid of your collections.