Come fall, it will be 30 years since the City of Springfield’s new aldermanized city council first convened. I voted for it, and I wrote about it. A new system of representation had been forced by a lawsuit alleging that voters’ choices were ineluctably driven by race.

I am in agreement with President Donald Trump on at least one thing. He is quoted as telling Republican senators that the House’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) was “mean” and whatever Senate Republicans come up with needed to be “more generous, more kind.

But right-wing, corporate-funded ideologues have fabricated a new negative notion of “freedoms” derived from individual choice. You’re free to be poor, free to be politically powerless or free to be ill and uncared for – it’s all a matter of decisions you freely make in life, and our larger society has no business interfering with your free will.

In every story written about this DHS records “scandal,” no one has bothered to define exactly what it is that is being kept and why it has any value equal to the cost of its retention. My first post-college job was in records management/forms control for what was then public aid.

Heck, the far-right Illinois Policy Institute is even running Facebook ads whacking Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative Republicans for their “$5 billion tax hike.” Rauner used to be a large contributor and often sought advice from and palled around with the group’s leader.

At least one death has been linked to a gun stolen in Springfield last year, when 64 guns were taken in two gun store burglaries. Gun shop burglaries have soared both nationwide and within Illinois, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

“Fire science in the’80s and ’90s was more of an art form than a science,” said Lauren Kaeseberg, legal director of the Illinois Innocence Project’s Chicago office. “Today it is much more scientific.” Illinois Innocence Project is a program of University of Illinois Springfield.

To see the old Marbold Farmstead is to want to see more. The imposing brick residence on Illinois Route 29 20 miles north of Springfield dates to the 1850s and has been uninhabited since the 1960s. Passing by its grand edifice, tattered but majestic, you want to pull over and see it up close.

The Springfield Art Association is currently in high gear with a unique exhibit featuring nearly 300 specimens of modernist furniture and décor. The SAA is also now hosting the first two visiting artists to participate in the recently established Enos Park residency program for visual artists.

My obsession with cooking outdoors over fire must have been carried forth in the DNA from my primal ancestors. Grilling adds depth and complexity to vegetables in a way that can’t be achieved by steaming or boiling.

Grandparents and beleaguered moms and dads will be able to relate to the movie’s core message more readily than the youngsters it’s pitched to. Seems Lighting McQueen (voice by Owen Wilson) just ain’t the car he used to be. He feels great, looks great and thinks he has a lot of racing left in him.

Generally, I try to cover lots of stuff going on each week, but every once in awhile, something begs for my entire space. This column is fully dedicated to singer, songwriter, pianist and musician A.J. Croce, who is performing this Saturday in the Studio Theatre at Sangamon Auditorium.

Casey Cantrall’s Jukebox Open Jam.

Hailing from the river town of Quincy, this blues, country, Southern rock and classic rock quintet takes on songs familiar to average Midwest music lovers, then gives the tunes a slight twist to make ‘em their own with tight vocal harmonies and experienced music-making.

As part of their mission to offer programs and spaces where teens and children can explore and engage with history in a fun way, the Springfield and Central Illinois African-American History Museum’s education committee is hosting a Teen Poetry Slam Friday, June 23, from 6-10 p.

FAIRS & FESTIVALS Back to the Blue Auto Show.

On Friday, June 23, the Elijah Iles House kicks off its annual “Summer Porch Chat” series with a roundtable discussion centering on Abraham Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln. Two conflicting schools of thought regarding Thomas Lincoln’s character have been laid out by scholars since the first Abraham Lincoln biography was penned in 1865.

Don’t miss War Games, a one-day event organized by Lizzie Roehrs, a junior communication major at the University of Illinois at Springfield and current intern at the Illinois State Military Museum.