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Walmart’s small wage increase is not enough
You don’t need a Walmart front-door greeter to find the flaw in the company’s recently announced boost in worker wages: it’s not enough. Not enough to pull its lowest-paid workers out of poverty, and therefore not enough to get American taxpayers off the hook for subsidizing the giant retailer’s lowwage payroll.

Last rights
Balancing a budget on the backs of poor people who are on their backs seems cold even for a member of the New Republican Party. In early April, Mr. Bruce Rauner suspended reimbursements paid by the state to funeral homes that bury dead public-aid recipients.

Presidential hopefuls address inequality
Congress had previously paid no attention to the ever-widening chasm between the rich and the rest of us, but that inequality has recently emerged as a top political topic in the race for such Republican presidential contenders as Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.

LETTERS
MED SCHOOL MINORITIES Kudos to Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, which has extremely competitive admission requirements, for achieving a 15 percent minority medical student enrollment, which is much better than any other institution in our country with similarly competitive admission requirements.

Street fight
The proposal would eliminate the sales tax on gasoline and diesel fuel, instead raising the separate motor fuel tax. A group of oil industry interests and gas station owners last week announced their opposition to any motor fuel tax increase ahead of the Illinois General Assembly returning from its spring recess this week.

NO ROOM AT THE INN
The Sangamon County Juvenile Detention Center once had such a paucity of prisoners that the county shut down a 24-bed wing in 2009, housed detainees from other counties and at one point considered converting space to house adult inmates. No longer.

HABITAT’S HUNDREDTH
Building a house with all volunteer labor is impressive, but building 100 houses that way is an accomplishment. Habitat for Humanity of Sangamon County is planning its 100th building project this summer at 1252 Rutledge St. in Springfi eld.

Rauner’s playbook
While Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner doesn’t namedrop the controversial conservative think tank known as the American Legislative Exchange Council, his major policy proposals so far seem to follow the group’s playbook.

Jeffrey Parsons walks
Despite fibbing in court documents, violating a court order and stiffing debtors, embattled entrepreneur Jeffrey Parsons got a break last week from a judge who could have jailed him for making inconsistent statements in court and failing to pay former employees who have successfully sued him.

Car trouble
The actual language of the bill says that vehicles purchased by the state or local governments must have a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) that starts with 1, 2, 4 or 5. The first digit in a car’s VIN identifies its country of manufacture. The U.S. is identified with a 1, 4 or 5.

Paying for downtown
The city would provide $700,000 in tax increment financing under a proposal by the developer of a proposed complex for student housing that would be built on a parking lot at the intersection of Fourth and Madison streets, according to Michael Farmer, city economic development director.

Home & garden events calendar
Ani-Mall Mega Pet Expo and Adoption Event.

Save your basement with an overhead sewer line
Like many cities, Springfield has a combined sewer system in some places, which means that rainwater is collected into the same underground pipes that carry sewage. During heavy rains, the volume of water can exceed the capacity of the sewers, causing the water level to rise and back up into homes – sometimes bringing along raw sewage.

The Greenest of Springfield Awards
Sustainable Springfield Incorporated has announced its newest sustainability program for area small businesses, The Greenest of Springfield Awards.

Add value to your home with these renovations
Homeowners choose renovation projects for a variety of reasons. Although many improvements are made to increase functionality and comfort of a home, several others are seen as worthwhile investments. These investments can add up to a higher resale value when the time comes to sell a home.

Dos and don’ts of kitchen remodels
DON’T design just for today, but look to the future as well. Unless you are willing to spend $50,000 every five years, look for styles and materials that will last for the long haul. Older homeowners may want to make adjustments now that address potential mobility issues down the road.

Renovating a historic home
Living in an historic home can be a labor of love. The history and the distinct architecture of historic homes draw buyers to such properties, but what historic homes have in regard to history they often lack in the conveniences of modern life, forcing many historic-home owners to make renovations to bring their homes into the 21st century.

The benefits of hiring a landscaper
The flowers are blooming, and the grass has begun to grow anew, making spring a great time for homeowners to once again turn their attention to landscaping. Those who aren’t looking forward to dusting off their lawnmowers and rethreading their string trimmers may want to hire professional landscapers to tend to their lawns and gardens.

A haven for Japanese maples
Davidsan’s offers 400 different varieties, including unusual types of beeches, larches, ginkgos, oaks and other obscure cultivars. They have 6,000 trees in stock currently. “Our customers come from Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, even California,’” David Myers said.

Transplanting trees is no small task
An alluring landscape can make a home that much more enjoyable. Many homeowners devote considerable time to their lawns and gardens, and that devotion can pay both instant and long-term dividends.

How to build a disaster-resilient house
The frequency of severe storms is giving us one more reason to build with the strongest materials and the smartest technology available. Concrete walls, instead of wood, are a good start, but as it turns out, they are also far more energy efficient, healthier for residents, cost effective and ecofriendly.

Explore Rockford’s family-friendly museums
As soon as they arrived, our grandsons Ryan and Evan headed straight to the Simple Machines, a colorful interactive exhibit of pulleys, inclined planes, levers, balls, screws, wheels and axles. They were hooked, and so were their parents, my husband and me.

Slow Food morel dinner
Spring and morels. For mushroom aficionados the two are inseparable. For the last five years, morel mushrooms have also been linked locally to Springfield’s Slow Food chapter, thanks to their annual fundraising morel dinners at Maldaner’s Restaurant..

BAND SPOTLIGHT | The Boxmasters
So you’ve never heard of a band called The Boxmasters? How about an actor known as Billy Bob Thornton? Ah, there we go. He’s in the band as singer and shaker, making the group an accessible entity to thousands of folks across the country. Teddy Andreadis, J.

PUB CRAWL
James Armstrong Presents: Mary Jo Curry & Tombstone Bullet.

Cory’s story and more
On Thursday, the Bedrock 66 Live! concert series hosts another show for the 2015 season at Homespun Republic (formerly Donnie’s Homespun). This event features Cory Branan and Tim Easton, two well known, singer-songwriter guys out on the roots-rock, Americana market.

Mirren anchors powerful Woman in Gold
In 1999, Maria Altmann filed suit against the Austrian government in an effort to regain ownership of five paintings done by Gustav Klimt that once belonged to her family but had been stolen by the Nazis and housed in that country’s museums. It was but the first step of a long, arduous process that would take her and her attorney E.

THE CALENDAR
Sangamon Auditorium, UIS, 1 University Plaza, 217-206-6160..

SCIENCE | Starry Springfield night
University of Illinois Springfield announces the return of their annual Friday Night Star Parties, which will be held, weather permitting, every Friday night during April from 8 to 10 p.m., at UIS Observatory, located off the southeast corner of Brookens Library.

ART, AUTHORS | A collaboration spanning a century
On Saturday, April 18, the Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site hosts a publication event to celebrate A Net to Snare the Moonlight,.

ART | Art en plein air
On Saturday, April 18, join the Prairie Art Alliance and Springfield Audubon Society to paint, draw, photograph, create and explore the beautiful grounds of Adams Wildlife Sanctuary. The second installment of Art at Adams Wildlife Sanctuary is open to artists of all ages, abilities and mediums.