Good news, bad news
The Kidzeum of Health and Sciences on Adams Street isn’t turning out as hoped when doors opened in 2018. Attendance hasn’t met projections. Revenue has lagged and debt is being restructured. Premises include 5,000 square feet of empty space. The business plan is being revisited.

Stop denying adoption rights to same-sex couples
In my mid-20s I worked as a child welfare case worker. The work changed me, variably and deeply and permanently. There have been moments when I regretted the changes, wished I could ever again feel light-hearted, simple, fun. Never mind.

Emails show inner workings of the Madigan machine
Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ recently published a story about emails between House Speaker Michael Madigan’s former consigliere Mike McClain and top staffers in Madigan’s office. Federal investigators raided the former ComEd lobbyist’s home last year.

LETTERS
The bill to make Daylight Saving Time the year-round time has passed in the Illinois Senate and is headed for the House. I am all for stopping the clock-changing twice a year, but as a retired teacher, I am very concerned about making Daylight Saving Time the yearround time.

Dim Art House breaks ground
From the outside, Dim Art House looks like any other bungalow along MacArthur Avenue, save for the signpost on the lawn, which has already been creating a buzz, as artist Joey Wallace can attest.

FOOD FIGHT!
If there’s one constant at city hall, it’s cage fights, jello wrestling, mud slinging – call it what you will – inside city council chambers, and this week proved no exception as Ward 6 Ald. Kristin “Terminator” DiCenso went up against Ward 7 Ald. Joe “Master of Disaster” McMenamin for the championship belt in a contest not worth winning.

THE MAYBE HOTEL
March 6 is the deadline for the developer of a proposed downtown hotel to prove that more than $73 million in private financing has been secured for the project. Otherwise, a city agreement to provide $450,000 for property acquisition, and more than $7 million in public money down the line, could be in jeopardy.

Rainbow connections
Gay members of the central Illinois community are working to better include other LGBTQ people in events and organizing.

Politics and powerlessness
It was a special board meeting of the Heartland Continuum of Care, a consortium of public and private agencies required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to serve as a money conduit.

Hail the humble lentil
We’ve heard it time and time again, but Hippocrates’ words seem to ring especially true now, during these last frigid months of winter. It’s easy to feel out of balance when sunshine is fleeting and comfort is what we crave.

Civil war letters
Mark Flotow of Springfield, an independent researcher, is retired as the director of the Illinois Center for Health Statistics and currently serves as an adjunct anthropology research associate at the Illinois State Museum. He began reading soldiers’ letters, housed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, due to his interest in the Civil War.

Lack of urgency trips up Invisible Man
In 2017, in an effort to replicate the success of Marvel Films, Universal Studios attempted to create their own shared universe featuring their seminal monsters in a series of movies in which they would all interact.

March music making
Thursdays continue to shine and this week we have a couple of standard bearers holding down the music beats as Frank Parker presents his Jambalaya Jam at Buzz Bomb and Johnnie Owens brings his band of friends into Pease’s at Bunn Gourmet.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | Kurt Crandall
Considered a master of the blues harp, this bluesman does devilish duty on the chromatic harp, as well as the more commonly played diatonic harmonica.

LIVE MUSIC
Midnight River Choir + Jon-Mark Robb.

Blues in the schools
The blues man begins by looking over the students in the room. It’s dead silent. James Armstrong is cool, presenting himself in a John Lee Hooker style three-piece suit and black shades. He talks to the kids about music, the instrument he plays, the places he’s traveled and why he plays blues music.

THE CALENDAR
Hoogland Center for the Arts LRS Theatre 1, 420 S. Sixth St., 217-523-2787..

COMEDY | America’s favorite clown
Richard “Red” Skelton (1913-1997) was an American comedian known for his work on national radio and television shows. He also had his own television comedy and variety show, “The Red Skelton Show,” which aired from 1951-1971 and won three Emmys.

ART | Ink as a medium
Explore the medium of ink at the opening reception for a collaborative group exhibition at The Pharmacy Gallery & Art Space. It will feature the work of artists who specialize in ink, plus a henna artist offering designs, screen printing installation and performances on both Friday and Saturday nights.