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Planning a mess
It sounded like a Seinfeld episode. The Salvation Army buys a building on Ninth Street for a new homeless shelter and spends half a mill fixing it up, only for Mayor Jim Langfelder to tell them, Oh, by the way, we will need the land for a proposed transit center.

The fight over the Illinois State Museum
One of the many casualties of the state budget disaster has been the closure of the Illinois State Museum, which is scheduled to reopen next month, with an admission charge. It is not the only time in its history that the state museum has been subjected to such treatment.

Is there an iota of courage in the GOP?
The “Mexican” is Gonzalo Curiel. He’s a federal judge who was actually born in Indiana, raised and educated as a Hoosier, and is presently presiding over a U.S. district court in San Diego. The German is Donald Drumpf, soon to be the Republican nominee for America’s highest office.

LETTERS
Illinois is at grave risk of losing its status as one of America’s clean energy leaders. If it shuts down two of its highperforming nuclear plants, they will be replaced by out-of-state methane gas from fracking. (“After the atom,” by Patrick Yeagle, June 16.

Many more “heroics” may be required
State and federal courts have ordered about 90 percent of state spending since the General Assembly’s Democrats and the Republican governor deadlocked on a budget last year because they couldn’t come to terms on the governor’s pro-business/ anti-union Turnaround Agenda.

Return of the residency requirement
The controversial issue created a split among some unions, with police, fire and lineman unions opposing the measure and 15 other unions already adopting residency requirements in their contracts. The new ordinance also has potential to affect the city’s minority recruitment efforts when it takes effect next year.

WHERE’S JULIO?
Springfi eld’s offi cial “Salsa Ambassador” moved to California in 2012, but he’s still working to better his hometown, a city that welcomed him as a young Peruvian immigrant 26 years ago. Barrenzuela’s passion is using salsa dancing as therapy and a tool to teach cultural understanding.

Let’s make a deal
The proposal comes after the Springfield Police Department last fall offered to patrol parks at an annual cost of more than $780,000.

To tell the truth
The trial ended with a $300,000 jury verdict in favor of Vincent Trimble, an inmate who claimed that he had received poor medical care at Taylorville Correctional Center (“Pay up,” May 19, 2016). The case, however, has lived on as U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough is demanding answers from Dr.

Illinois’ historic problem
Mansions, museums and monuments that showcase Illinois’ past, and honor famous luminaries, ranging from President Abraham Lincoln to famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, have been battered by years of fiscal decline and subsequent state-imposed austerity measures, according to a BGA Rescuing Illinois investigation.

Johnson, Hart generate vital chemistry in Intelligence
One of the most surprising developments in American popular film over the last decade is the emergence of Dwayne Johnson as a major star.

In the kitchen at Chicago’s Elizabeth
Among this year’s 11 honorees is Chicago chef Iliana Regan. Chef Regan’s four-year-old restaurant, Elizabeth, has already been awarded a Michelin star three years in a row, earning its first star in its second year of operation. Chef Regan has also been named a semifinalist for the 2016 James Beard Awards.

PUD CRAWL
Open Mic with Roger Whitsell and Bob Jemison.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Joel DaSilva & the Midnight Howl
Using Chicago and Florida as home bases, this traveling, genre-hopping roots rocker is calling the road home these last few months. Fresh from an Alamo Blue Monday show, Joel and the boys made a run to Canada last Sunday and now are working back south.

June bugs me
Crowdsourced funding is all the rage these days, and for good reason – it works. People help out when they are asked politely and logically to donate money in return for a reward. The Springfield Art Association used Kickstarter (the first and, arguably, the best organization of this type) to help finance restoration of the old piano in Edwards Place.

THE CALENDAR
Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?.

FAIRS AND FESTIVALS | Free family fun close to home
The annual street party and carnival known as Assumption Fest will take place June 23-25. Admission and parking are free all three days. The festival begins Thursday on the main stage with an opening ceremony followed by the Little Miss Assumption, Junior Miss Assumption and Miss Assumption pageants, then a pet show at 8 p.

BULLETIN BOARD | A celebration of amateur radio
Join the Sangamon Valley Radio Club, Springfield Community MakerSpace, former WAND-TV chief meteorologist Lee Davis and other technological experts for a Field Day and Family Day celebration to cap off 2016’s Amateur Radio Week on Saturday, June 24, from 11 a.

THEATER | An old-fashioned traveling road show
The live music capital of the world meets Springfield this weekend during two special performances of Branson on the Road,.