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A pause to reflect
This week’s column is the 1,000th to appear under my name in this paper, and I’ve decided it’s time to take a break from weekly opinionmongering. After so many essays, even I am getting tired of hearing myself talk.

King’s speech in Springfield
Speaking to the 4,000-plus delegates at the Illinois AFL-CIO’s annual convention in the State Armory at Second and Monroe, King favorably compared the labor and civil rights movements, calling on labor to join with the civil rights movement to find the better life sought by both.

Inequality is feeding America
With the labor market tightening, why don’t they just hop down the street to another franchise offering a better deal? Many try that, only to be rejected again and again, unaware that most fast-food chains have hidden within their franchising contracts “no-hire agreements,” prohibiting one franchisee from hiring another’s employees.

LETTERS
APPROVE THE DOWNTOWN DEAL Bright New Day Investments, LLC, Rick Lawrence’s downtown project on the corner of Sixth Street and Monroe, is before the City Council with a TIF request. Mistakes have been made in the initial phase of this project, and Mr. Lawrence has admitted this.

To use the chief of police for political motives
And that brings us to last week’s comments by Chris Kennedy. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate shocked just about everyone by claiming that a deliberate “strategic gentrification plan” exists to push black people out of Chicago and make the city “whiter.

Grim numbers, real people
Consider the 63-year-old man found dead last March in his basement apartment on South Fifth Street. An experienced junkie, he recently had declined an offer of a meal from a neighbor, explaining that he’d had his fix for the day, so he didn’t need food.

HIGH SCHOOL PEEK
Families with current eighth-grade students are encouraged to attend high school preview night events being held at 6 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 11, at Lanphier, Southeast and Springfield high schools. Visitors will learn about courses, tour the applicable school and meet teachers and administrators.

RAUNER THE TRANSPARENT
Jump into the Wayback Machine and you can hear Gov. Bruce Rauner, then a candidate, make his point loud and clear: “I want to make Illinois government the most efficient, transparent (state government) in America,” Rauner said in 2014. After winning office, Rauner doubled down.

The best-laid plans
Concerned that the draft plan would curb development, particularly on the city’s west side, developers convinced the city to postpone a vote on the plan that had been expected in December. The move to stall a vote prompted worries among the plan’s authors and neighborhood activists opposed to sprawl.

A building for belonging
“The coolest thing is that so many students participated in big and small ways,” says John Tienken, a former University of Illinois Springfield student trustee who is now a law student at the University of Chicago. Tienken is one of those students who contributed in a big way and was a driving force behind development of the UIS Student Union.

Hybrid vigor
This past weekend, two of Springfield’s most vibrant creative organizations joined forces for a unique two-day show.

MLK’s legacy honored at museum
The museum itself is well worth a visit, featuring several impressive displays covering subjects such as the middle passage and the history of black U.S. marshals. The King exhibit is handsomely mounted, presenting a chronological breakdown of the man’s life and legacy.

A date to change your life
Growing up, I had a wealthy, eccentric greataunt whom I’d never met. She was a widow who lived with her eight Yorkshire Terriers in a pink mansion on the beach in Malibu.

The Post a timely tale of power of the press
Curiously, Spielberg initially takes his time, as the film gets off to a rather slow start. Granted, a great deal of background must be covered before the meat of the matter takes center stage. With Spielberg at the helm, Meryl Streep as Washington Post.

Warm up to live music
Hardly anything (other than maybe a friendly animal, or a pile of quilts, or a blazing fire) can warm the bones like a good musical performance. Since hauling any of the aforementioned things around could be considered cumbersome, silly or dangerous, go see some live music to heat things up and beat the winter blahs.

PUB CRAWL
Casey Cantrall’s Jukebox Open Jam.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Jared Grabb
This Peoria native is making a splash in the folk-indie-Americana mold by breaking the mold and simply playing good, original music in a sensible and poetic way.

THE CALENDAR
Art & Architecture Adult + Child Paint: Minecraft.

HISTORY | Honoring MLK
The keynote speaker for the 43 rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast, hosted by Frontiers International of Springfield, is W.J. Michael Cody, a practicing attorney in Memphis, Tennessee, with Burch, Porter & Johnson PLLC. During the Memphis sanitation worker strike of 1968, Mr.

THEATER & COMEDY | A comedic thriller
The story centers on Sidney, a playwright who hasn’t penned a hit in years. When a young author introduces Sidney to a new thriller, Sidney begins scheming murder, and a fun-filled fright night ensues. Deathtrap.