Page 1

Hoop dreams
Kelly Graves was a sophomore basketball player at Glenwood High School. “She was upset because they’d had an away game the night before and she hadn’t had a chance to get her homework done,” her father remembers. Girls played in the small gym, usually on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings or afternoons, while boys got the big gym on Friday nights.

The other half of the Kidzeum story
Leah and I acknowledged Kidzeum’s fiscal challenges and some reasons why. We are committed to transparency and are not hiding our challenges. I was quoted as saying it would be easy for Kidzeum to fail. Left out was what I said next. The challenge to succeed and rise up to that challenge are the reasons I agreed to become board president in January.

State board to cap drug prices stalls
“Thaddeus Jones voted against lowering the cost of prescription drugs,” the DeAndre Tillman mailer proclaims. “All the while pocketing thousands of dollars.” The claim is printed just above an image of two shaking hands, a bunch of hundred-dollar bills and several blister-packs of pharmaceuticals.

LETTERS
NO SCREENING FOR CORONAVIRUS My husband and I are in selfquarantine for the next two weeks in our Leland Grove home following a vacation that included time spent in Venice and other parts of northern Italy. Warnings regarding travel to Italy began after we were there.

New ag director says flooding, broadband among top priorities
Costello’s appointment came after Pritzker requested the resignation of previous ag director John Sullivan, who was ousted for failing to disclose the contents of a 2012 email that pointed to a possible coverup of a “rape in Champaign” and “ghost workers” in Gov.

SINKING SUCKS
Yachting season is nearly upon us, and what better place to escape the slings and arrows of coronavirus, and other misfortunes, than the bounding main, or, at least the waters of Lake Springfield? Lakes and rivers, though, can be dangerous, which is why the state of Illinois requires that anyone born after Jan.

NO MEANS YES
Confusion might reign on St. Patrick’s Day, fear backers of a referendum aimed at allowing alcohol sales in Gardner Township, which has remained dry despite repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933.

Housing wars
Individual Advocacy Group, a nonprofit organization that operates the home, and a relative of a resident sued in 2016, two days after the city council voted 8-2 to deny a permit to allow the three disabled residents to live in the home two years after a lease was signed.

Women on the march
Or so many thought, anyway, as CNN preemptively called the race that night in Dirksen Londrigan’s favor. Doris Turner, chair of the Sangamon County Democratic Party, was one of the supporters stationed with Dirksen Londrigan at Cafe Moxo in downtown Springfield.

A murder mystery set in St. Louis
In addition to his writing career, William Stage’s personal biography includes a unique life. In addition to military service in Vietnam, Stage served with the United States Air Force Reserve during Operation Desert Storm.

Rethinking hummus
Todd Snider is an American singer-songwriter whose music has been described as a combination of Americana, alt-country and folk. I met Todd in 2017 when he was lead singer of the Hard Working Americans, a side project of some of the members of the rock band Widespread Panic.

Way Back an exceptional look at grief and recovery
Some of us go through life in a haze. A seemingly insurmountable pain is everpresent, a relentless feeling that is ultimately accepted; one that, inexplicably, would be missed were it to disappear. Friends and loved ones give well-meaning suggestions that are heard and sometimes acted upon but ultimately, they are of no use.

Get your green on
Yes, my friends, it’s that time of year where many of us become beguiled with all things related to the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration centered around our local parade which starts on Saturday “promptly at noon” on the streets of lovely downtown Springfield.

LIVE MUSIC
Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters.

BAND SPOTLIGHT | The Emerald Underground
For nearly two decades, this group of kilt-wearing cohorts has combined forces to be the hardestworking band during the High Holy Days of the Celtic party centered around St. Patrick’s Day and Springfield’s long-running downtown parade.

THE CALENDAR
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

MUSIC | Music at the Museum
Panamanian and Colombian duo Calle Sur performs a broad range of Latin musical traditions, from joropo and cumbia to samba and punto. Tight harmonies and instrumental precision mixed with energy and beauty and interwoven with interesting stories and humor create a dynamic mix of acoustic flavors from Latin America.

ART | The artwork of Peter Lazare
From the silly to the political, Pete Lazare’s folk-artsy banners outside of Grab-a-Java were always sure to stoke a conversation.