This time of year, when you can offend one person by saying “Merry Christmas” and tick off the next with “Happy Holidays,” it’s nice to know you can still count on karma, that spiritual version of what goes around, comes around. Take, for example, Dorothy Milford, first introduced to Illinois Times.

The purpose of Hunter Lake, or any other proposed alternative, is not only to use it in the case of a severe drought. The proposed plan by CWLP is to supplement Lake Springfield any time they cannot maintain the normal seasonal pool levels by pumping water out of the South Fork of the Sangamon River.

In keeping with the biblical adage that it’s better to give than to receive, I came up with a delightful sleighful of holiday goodies this year to dispense to some of our nation’s most special people. It was not easy to shop for these folks.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich better run and hide. The comedians at Donnie B’s Funny Bone in Springfield have him in their sights. The Gov, the minimum wage, fast food, the economy, the Cubs and marriage seem to be the most popular topics at the comedy club’s monthly open-mic contest.

In the world of film, 2008 will be remembered as the year in which the industry proved it could thrive even when the economy did not. Never before were there so many films that grossed over $200 million (six) at the box office, with three of them going past $300 million, one of them becoming the second highest-grossing feature of all time.

Here’s a book you’ll love. I’m stating up front it’s by a good friend, Rosie Roach Miller, who grew up in Belleville, graduated from Millikin, married a vet from Springfield who joined his father’s business, Capital City Paper Company, raised...

It’s been over three years since we last checked in with the Midnight Swinger, when the brash and blonde comedian headlined the sixth anniversary of Springfield’s Funny Bone Comedy Club back in September of 2005. Then he was peddling a new self-produced DVD, Swingin’ thru America.

A bank robber who had a 10-minute head start on sheriff’s deputies on Merritt Island, Fla., was arrested only a block away, with the stolen cash concealed in his prosthetic leg. Paraplegic Christopher Reed made his getaway on a motorized wheelchair, according to Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Lt.