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The hog and I
I had to disappoint Lewis by telling him that I knew nothing much about hogs, having grown up in my living room on Manor Avenue in Springfield watching TV from New York City. The only place I ever saw pork being slaughtered was in our kitchen after it was already dead, when Mom cooked our pork chops into leather.

In defense of arts funding
In reality, there is nothing wasteful about funding the arts. In fact, in terms of sheer bang for the economic buck, spending $148 million per year (or .004 percent of the federal budget) on the arts is one of the single best investments our government can make in its economy and its people.

How can we stop banksters from robbing us?
The fountain pens are doing the serious stealing these days. For example, while you would get hard time in prison for robbing a bank at gunpoint, bankers who rob customers with a flick of their fountain pens (or a click of their computer mouse) get multimillion-dollar payouts, and they usually escape their crimes unpunished.

LETTERS
UNDOING PLANNED PARENTHOOD It seems quite clear that President Trump and much of Congress are heck-bent on getting rid of the funding for Planned Parenthood. The recent order signed by the president allows states to block Title X funding from going to Planned Parenthood or any abortion providers.

Tuning up the band
As you know by now, Gov. Bruce Rauner toured the state for two days last week. He denied that the tour had anything to do with the 2018 election, but it was pretty darned clear that he and his team were tuning up the band for the big show down the road.

Alice Cooper comes to Springfield
The artist formerly known as Vincent Furnier didn’t hit it big way back when because he was lucky. That was a matter of talent, showmanship and sheer audacity. If Alice Cooper sounded weird to the silent majority when Nixon was in the White House, it was more palatable than the Earwigs, which Cooper and some high school chums dubbed their first band.

PRESERVE HEALTH BENEFITS
During Statewide Healthcare Day of Action April 18, a coalition of Affordable Care Act advocates organized outside U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood’s Springfi eld offi ce to ask for support of a pledge to protect health care insurance coverage and prevent the removal of ACA benefi ts.

GRANDSTAND LINEUP
On Thursday, Aug. 10, fairgoers with paid admission to the fair will be treated to a free concert by the legendary rock band Foghat. Best known for their hit songs “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “Slow Ride,” Foghat has earned eight Gold records, one Platinum record and one Double-Platinum record.

Manar: School funding system “completely rotten”
A bill sponsored by Manar requires that students would be allotted aid individually by need instead of the current formula of $6,119 per student. “This law that we currently have in the school code is simply the direction to spend billions of dollars, which leads to incredible inequity among our citizens,” he said.

Both SIU and patients benefit from current health care law
Iris Wesley, administrative director at the SIU School of Medicine, said the percent of uninsured patients at the SIU Center for Family Medicine decreased from 15 percent to 3 percent after the ACA was enacted. This was a result of people obtaining health insurance coverage, and the expansion of Medicaid in Illinois.

Rauner targets hate crime
Rauner said that the program will be developed by the Illinois State Police and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish organization which fights anti-Semitism, and will be evaluated for approval by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB).

A crazy system
In Rusher’s final days, relatives gathered at St. John’s Hospital. Her mother, Kelli Andrews, rubbed Rusher’s stomach and feet in the intensive care unit, hoping to evoke a response, if only a twitch, from a daughter on life support whose last of many suicide attempts would ultimately prove successful.

Don’t be afraid to cook with cast iron
It’s rare these days to buy anything that will truly last 100 years, much less generations. Cast-iron cookware, when properly cared for, can last indefinitely. I have a set of cast-iron skillets that are true workhorses of my kitchen. Some I found at garage sales and the others I inherited from my greatgrandmother.

Wine meets fun on Walnut Street
Loren Shanle is living the dream. Sell the business, move to the sunny coast, start a winery…except, he hasn’t moved to the sunny coast. He’s still in Rochester, accepting all four seasons like the rest of us. But the other parts are true; he sold his business and started a winery in his former office.

Fun Fate a worthy Furious entry
Starting with a thrilling street race in Havana, Cuba, we find our hero, Dom Toretto (one-expression thespian Vin Diesel), stuck between a rock and a hard place. Blackmailed with a secret from his past by the cyberterrorist known as Cipher (Charlize Theron), he’s forced to help steal a wayward EMP device as well as a set of nuclear codes.

Many music choices made
I know, I know; I keep complaining about having so many things to go and see in town that one (or more) can hardly find the time to see the sights and hear the sounds. Well, you know, it could be worse (and it has been), so let’s just step it up and go.

PUB CRAWL
Casey Cantrall’s Live Jukebox Jam.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Kofi Baker’s Cream Experience
What does the son of legendary, iconic drummer Ginger Baker do with the drumming gene? He plays music on the drums, and that’s what Kofi Baker does.

FAIRS & FESTIVALS | Illinois’ longest-running Earth Day celebration
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the first Earth Day was introduced in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson as a way to promote legal and regulatory mechanisms that protect the environment onto the national agenda.

THE CALENDAR
Books & Authors Author Claudia Quigg.

FAIRS & FESTIVALS | Be part of history
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to volunteer at one of Springfield’s many historical sites, these volunteer recruitment fairs are for you.