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The anti-welcome lady
Rosanna Pulido was nearly unknown in Springfield until last fall when she emerged as the strongest citizen voice opposing the city council resolution to make Springfield a “Welcoming City.

Marching with the kids for gun law reform
Seeing groups of high school students at Midway Airport on March 23 gave me a feeling that the March for Our Lives event the next day in Washington, D.C., would be big. Indeed, as I took the Metro train to the event, I soon found myself with thousands of others making our way to the march.

How low can the barons of high finance go?
Her claim to be first among the worst has been buttressed by her bizarre eagerness to shill for one of the ugliest parts of the financial services industry – the Wall Streetbacked corporations that lure people into highinterest, financially-ruinous student loans to attend rip-off for-profit colleges.

LETTERS
FAIR ELECTION ACT From questions surrounding the NRA’s use of foreign funds for election purposes to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s $50-pernight rental agreement for a Washington, D.C., townhouse that is owned by the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist, it seems that stories about money and politics are dominating our headlines.

Lopez tournament in limbo
The decision comes after Frank Vala met with district officials, including Superintendent Jennifer Gill, then publicly accused Lopez of abusing his power as school board president to promote himself and his financial services company via the annual...

CLEANING HOUSE
Hit the road, Manufactured Home Quality Assurance Board. These are just some of the government bodies created by the Illinois General Assembly that are heretofore no more, thanks to Gov. Bruce Rauner, who last week eliminated 19 state boards and commissions by executive order.

COMCAST GIVES BACK
In a ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Springfi eld, the Comcast Foundation made $10,000 donations to Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Illinois Capital Region and Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Illinois, to help them carry out their missions to help young people reach their potential.

Master farmers
You need to be really good at what you do. You’ve got to be an innovator while respecting tradition. An inspirational leader and a public servant. A mechanic, conservationist, lobbyist, financial planner, gambler, philanthropist and working-class hero..

Southtown expands its reach with an art show
This Saturday marked the fifth annual Black Sheep Art Show held at the longstanding independent music venue Black Sheep Café, usually associated more with raucous punk rock concerts than visual art. This is the third year Black Sheep Café co-owner Clare Frachey has acted as primary coordinator for the show.

Morel mushrooms
Around mid-April, after the roaring March winds have yielded to the mild rains of spring, seemingly normal people begin to disappear into the woods.

Quiet Place’s lack of logic is its undoing
I have no hard facts or figures to back this up, but I’m pretty sure the science fiction setting of a dystrophic future beset by an alien threat or plague is now as overused as Westerns were in the 1950s.

April music showers
Start your weekly music mission off with a bang and a visit to The Alamo on Thursday for the jamming reggae-blues sounds of Aaron Kamm & the One Drops. Well-known as a tip-top band in the St.

PUB CRAWL
Kate Laine and Arlin Peebles, Alice Currie, Ellyn Thorson, Erin Darnell.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Bruce Katz Band
When so many blues cats play guitar while the blues master is on keyboards, the music is that much more special. When the dude on the keys is Bruce Katz, you are indeed in for a very special, special treat. Bruce is one of the world’s best performers of blues on the Hammond B-3 organ and has a lifetime of street cred to back up the hype.

New director plans changes for Sangamon Auditorium
Bryan Rives took over as director of Sangamon Auditorium in October 2017 and has been busy for the past six months reimagining the 40-yearold, 2,005-seat venue both physically and conceptually. His plans include a revamped approach to booking and some long-overdue renovations as well as an upcoming overall rebranding.

THE CALENDAR
Dr. Gonzo: Dirty Jokes and Road Stories.

ART | Artistic renderings of Abe
On Friday, April 6, from 5-7 p.m., join Illinois Times.

CHILDREN’S CORNER | Bingo, crafts and more
On March 23, Disney Junior launched “Muppet Babies,” a CGI-animated television series that features younger incantations of classic Muppet characters from the “Muppet Babies” television series that aired on CBS from 1984 to 1991.

THEATER & COMEDY | An illustrious Illinoisan
Enjoy actor Walt Willey’s one-man tribute to James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok on Saturday, April 7, at 7 p.m., or on Sunday, April 8, at 4 p.m.