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The meaning of Lincoln’s funeral
The planned re-creation of the Lincoln funeral train and reenacting of the funeral ceremonies in Springfield scheduled for May mark a remembrance of a great president and an inspirational world figure. That is how he is widely regarded today. But it wasn’t always so.

An overdue policy on the library
Is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum a museum with a library attached? Or is it a library with a museum attached? The two institutions are like conjoined twins, one of whom has a wonky heart; the best chance for each might be to separate them, in spite of the risks that surgery poses.

Chicagoans are reclaiming their city
Chicago! City of broad shoulders. Plutocratic hog butcher. Toolmaker for progressive change. Stacker of the wheat of grassroots power, wheat separated from the chaff of corporate politicians. Stormy, husky, brawling. Planning, building, breaking, rebuilding.

LETTERS
MORE REASON TO VACCINATE In her Feb. 12 Guestwork, “Why historians vaccinate their kids,” Erika Holst provides an excellent explanation why the historians she knows fall into the provaccine camp.

Another reckless, delusional budget
Set aside the fact that both Rep. Elaine Nekritz and Sen. Daniel Biss, who both worked very hard on the legislature’s pension reform law, cannot fathom how Rauner’s proposal to move every state employee and public school teacher into the lower-cost...

Contract law
The Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor’s office has at least two former employees who are still at work while collecting pensions. The agency has moved them to contractual status so that they can collect pensions while still earning as much as $5,200 a month under contracts with the office.

Oversight? What oversight?
Neither of the Loudens returned a phone call for comment, but the couple owes nearly $200,000 in delinquent federal taxes dating back to 2007. Tower of Refuge lost its headquarters to foreclosure in 2013, with the Loudens ending up on the wrong end of a judgment totaling nearly $55,000.

Menard County board says ‘no’ to hog farm
The Menard County Board of Commissioners voted not to recommend approval of a proposed hog farm near Petersburg on Tuesday night. The recommendation is nonbinding, however, and the farm may still be approved by the Illinois Department of Agriculture..

iPods for Alzheimer’s
James is one of the patients in Springfield who received donated iPods from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine as part of an informal program exploring the power of music in dealing with Alzheimer’s disease.

Illinois governors in trouble
Illinois was deeply in debt and its financial outlook was bleak. After a close gubernatorial race, the people of Illinois elected a wealthy Chicago-area businessman as their governor, hoping that his talent for making money would steer the state away from a looming fiscal crisis.

The case for more and stronger unions
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s first six weeks in office have been an interesting time for Illinois citizens wondering what the next four years portend. His first formal appearance before the Illinois legislature, the State of the State address, even though delivered in an apparently newly minted downhome twang, was not reassuring to many.

McFarland runs a winning course
Adding insult to injury is the fact that the players on his new football team are undisciplined and rude, though he does notice that many of them are very good runners.

Surviving winter’s end
I am officially sick of winter. Living in a place that has changing seasons is actually something I prize. That even includes winter. True, I don’t get quite as excited as I did when I was a child about the first snowfall of the season. But I enjoy its beauty, as well as the plethora of birds at the feeders.

New Madrid makes the earth shake
Perhaps most intriguing, though, is the inclusion on the bill of psychedelic rockers New Madrid [they pronounce it muh-DRID]. Hailing from Athens, Georgia – home of such disparate legends as The B-52’s, R.E.M., the Elephant 6 collective and Drive-By Truckers – New Madrid plays simultaneously tight and loose, trippy and poppy.

Weather the weather
Definitely the hot topic last week was the coldness in the air. I know making the trek out into the mighty Midwest tundra seems unbearable, but for heaven’s sake, is it really all that bad? What could be a better diversion than a night of fine...

BAND SPOTLIGHT | The Tossers
Boasting the largest population of Irish descendents in the Midwest, Chicago’s a good place to come from if your thing is playing Irish music. That’s exactly the case for The Tossers, a south side, Windy City, six-piece, punk-folk Celtic band featuring Tony “T.

PUB CRAWL
Mystery Gift, Say Something, WARRS, Milchjunge, Southern Roots.

THE CALENDAR
Collaboraton between Sangamon Valley Civic Orchestra and Central Illinois Film Commission. Orchestra performs musical selections from fi lms while scenes from the fi lms play plus live performances from Film Commission actors. $15-$5. 217-753-8000. Hoogland Center for the Arts LRS Theatre 1, 420 S.

FILM & MUSIC | Cinematic concert
Cinematography meets the symphony on Sunday, March 4, from 4-6:30 p.m., at the Hoogland Center for the Arts.

ART | Abstract expressionism at UIS
ART | Abstract expressionism at UIS.

AUDITIONS | Attention area thespians
If you dream of seeing your name in lights, consider auditioning for a role in the 2015 season at New Salem’s Theatre in the Park. Open auditions for children will occur at 9 a.m., and open auditions for adults will occur at 1 p.m., on Saturday, Feb. 28, at Western Oaks Baptist Church.