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Refined, delicate and urban
Last week, in “Getting it right this time,” I proposed that the State of Illinois commemorate the bicentennial of its founding in 1818 not with celebration but with remediation, in the form of a communal attempt to fix what we did wrong in the 100 years since 1918.

Message to students as school starts
Dear students, I’ve been welcoming you to my class for 13 years now and somehow the beginning of a new school year never gets any easier. I suppose I should feel polished and professional as I stand before you, explaining rules and outlining expectations.

Why can’t our economy promote equality?
That’s exactly why our Land of Opportunity has become today’s Land of Inequality. Corporate elites have bought their way into the policy-making backrooms of Washington, where they’ve rigged the rules to let them feast freely on our jobs, devour our country’s wealth and impoverish the middle class.

LETTERS
Open up lake land The city began land acquisition for Hunter Lake in 1965. As of August, 2015 when Mayor Langfelder and IDNR Director Rosenthal signed the Memorandum of Cooperation for the Lake, the city had already purchased 7,138 acres of land to build it.

Tougher penalties for gun crimes
Rauner was referring to legislation currently being drafted by state Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, to increase penalties for people who are busted with guns but aren’t legally authorized to possess them because of, for instance, prior felony convictions.

NOT SO FAST
Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John “Mo” Madonia is giving the parties a chance to fi gure things out for themselves in the Wyndham Hotel foreclosure case. With a loan servicing company playing a lead role, lenders foreclosed earlier this year even though the hotel’s owners were current with all payments on a $17.

ANTI-RACISM AWARD
They certainly didn’t do it for the recognition, but the Dominican Sisters of Springfield recently won a national award recognizing their anti-racism efforts. Illinois Times profiled the Sisters’ program last year. (See “Rooting out systemic racism,” Jan.

Can Springfield elect a Democrat to the House?
No Democrat has held the seat since 1992, when Vickie Moseley, who’d never before run for office, shocked experts by defeating a sitting Sangamon County sheriff despite a huge financial disadvantage.

Lawyers eye bench opening
Both Rick Verticchio of Carlinville, a Democrat, and Ryan Cadagin of Springfield, a Republican, are sons of judges who also served as state’s attorneys. Verticchio’s father, the late Paul Verticchio, was a Sangamon County Circuit Court judge from 1964 to 1976 after having been state’s attorney in Macoupin County.

Health insurance rates increase on public exchange
The federal Affordable Care Act of 2010 – nicknamed “Obamacare” by opponents – proposed state-level health insurance exchanges as a way for individuals and small businesses to easily shop for private insurance that meets certain standards.

Levine and the divine
Levine, who spoke in Springfield last week, says religion is actually based on love, and love isn’t logical. Her lecture at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Springfield addressed why Jews and Christians read the Bible differently, and what everyone – regardless of belief or skepticism – can learn from religion.

A budding industry
Aside from the barbed wire perimeter, you’d never know from its appearance that this low, gray warehouse on a rural road lined with soybeans is anything noteworthy. Inside, however, are hundreds of marijuana plants, a sophisticated research laboratory and security measures on par with a nuclear power station.

Culinary labors
Again it’s Labor Day, when, without a hint of irony, we celebrate our country’s workers by taking a day off from work. For most professionals, a day off is assumed to entail doing pretty much anything other than their job.

High Water targets corporate greed
Brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) find themselves with their backs against the wall after their mother dies. Having taken out a reverse mortgage through a bank to accommodate her, the woman has unwittingly put the family’s ranch in jeopardy.

September songs
Many of you may have heard by now that the venerable Crow’s Mill building, home to food, drink and live music for some four decades, caught fire Monday. As of my deadline, I’ve heard no word on the extent of the damage, but we do know no one was physically injured.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | The Junior Varsity
From 2002-07, The Junior Varsity (Asa Dawson of Griggsville, Andy Wildrick of Jacksonville, Sergio Coronado of Danville, Nick Dodson of Jacksonville and Chris Birch of Edwardsville) joined forces as a “rock band in the alternative/progressive/emo touring circuit” to make quite a splash in the music world.

PUB CRAWL
Open Mic with Roger Whitsell and Bob Jemison.

THE CALENDAR
THEATER & COMEDY Comedy Hypnotist Jeff Harpring.

CHARITY | Ale have another
Clams and cold ones. Bivalves and brews. Mollusks and mead. No matter how you say it, the Springfield Oyster and Beer Festival sounds like heaven. Now in its seventh year, this charity event features fresh oysters served in a variety of ways, alongside more than 100 craft beers from around the nation.

CRIME | Cutting crime with cool cars
It’s not often you get to help improve public safety by going to a party and looking at amazing cars, but that’s the idea behind the Crime Stoppers Hangar Party on Sept. 4. Crime Stoppers of Sangamon and Mendard Counties is a nonprofit focusing on partnerships between law enforcement and the public to solve and prevent crimes.

SPORTS | Rolling along
If you’ve ever been curious about roller derby, here’s your chance to check it out. MidState Mayhem Roller Derby holds a training program every Tuesday evening for newbies – a.k.a “fresh meat” – to try out this fast-paced sport. It’s open to men and women ages 18 and up, including all sizes and abilities, with no experience necessary.