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When the Crime Stoppers dumpster came to my street
When I first heard about the new Crime Stoppers drug dumpster, I found it amusing. A trash dumpster, welded shut, painted orange, is stenciled with, “A suspected drug house is in this area,” and “Report suspicious activity 788- 8427.

I need medical marijuana
I was born with a defect in my spine [spondylolisthesis] that bothered me all my life and finally, when I was 55, it required a surgery to fuse several of my vertebrae. At this time I also developed peripheral neuropathy. At the age of 58 I was declared totally disabled and am currently surviving on a meager Social Security check.

Fighting back in America’s 30-year class war
With heavy sighs, Brooks expressed great despair that “no new burdens will fall on 95 percent of the American people,” adding with a tsk-tsk that “all the costs will be borne by the rich and all benefits redistributed downward.

friendquote poem # 14
It’s a robin listen you hear them when it’s clouding up or going to rain or at 4:30 in the morning right before the sun comes up.

LETTERS
When the campaign manager stops providing “a booklet listing every nonprofit certified by the state of Illinois,” government workers cannot check the legitimacy of the charities in their own neighborhoods. Individuals might unwittingly designate gifts to a for-profit day care, or a nonviolent trade association without a bank account.

No gain on budget deficit without some pain
Republican State Sen. Bill Brady kicked off his new gubernatorial campaign the other day by claiming that Illinois’ horrific budget deficit can be “managed.” But a new report by the governor’s office makes that claim even less realistic that it already was.

Conns speak out: TIF process needs overhaul
Karen Conn’s voice takes on a buoyant tone as she describes the future of the Maisenbacher House, or what she and her husband Court loyally call the Lindsay House. Now parked in its final resting place at 503 S. Seventh St.

Nice bridge, but would you want to live there?
As bridges go, this one is deluxe. It’s built on a vintage single-span construct donated by the township of Island Grove, and topped with a newly-made pitched roof that, once completed, will feature two cupolas, each lit by a wrought-iron chandelier.

Buckhart hog operation opens while neighbors fume
Last month, Bob and Sandy Young hosted a ribbon-cutting and open house at their hog farm a few miles east of Rochester on Buckhart Road. About 350 people showed up to listen to a few speeches, dine on free pork chops and tour the state-of-the-art shed that will eventually house some 3,740 hogs being fattened for Cargill.

The view from Elkhart Hill
Rearing up nearly 800 feet above sea level, above the flat land all around, Elkhart Hill stands guardian over a place where geography, nature and human history converge. It was here, on her wooded slopes, that an early white settler stood on the lawn of the house he’d built and had a vision of a town laid out before him below.

Price of preservation
A living geologic and natural time capsule, Elkhart Hill shows off her best skirt in April as nature’s paintbrush splashes her slopes with color-drenched prairie wildflowers.

Asian food, and a store of memories
Walking into the original Asian Food Market on Spring Street never failed to put a smile on my face: I knew that Aunt Catherine and Uncle Ray Taintor had to be whirling in their graves.

Wes Craven’s 1972 feature The Last House on the Left
The premise of the film is a textbook example of narrative simplicity, as it lays out every parent’s worst nightmare in a straightforward manner, bolstered by a Technicolor splatter scheme.

Movie times
Kerasotes listings are for Friday, Mar 20 through Thursday, Mar 26. All times are subject to change. Bracketed show times indicate Saturday and Sunday matinees. For updates on Kerasotes films, call 1-800-FANDANGO. Reviews of other films can be found at.

Start a garden with seeds, tools, sun and land
The number of people growing a vegetable garden is on the rise. Some mail order seed companies are reporting a 40 percent increase in sales, while a typical year may see a 15 percent increase in sales. Reasons for this growth spurt include the increase in food prices, food safety issues and concerns for the environment.

You don’t have to have the blues to enjoy the music
Oh man, you just got to love the blues. From this music based on things not being so good, seems to come good things, or at least most folks claim to feel better and act happier after hearing the blues. Funny how that works. Springfield gets its fair share of good blues acts through town.

BAND SPOTLIGHT
When it comes to doing modern country music on the local scene, no one does it quite like Still Kick’n. Since the band’s conception many years ago, various personnel changes altered the face of the group but the concept of delivering exciting entertainment remains the same.

PUB CRAWL
The Final Battle: Dissonent, Buk, What Thou Will, Last Scene Ends.

MUSIC
Two of Springfield’s finest folk musicians, Tom Irwin and Ben Bedford, strum, pick and sing Saturday night at 7:30 for a Prairie Grapevine Folklore Society concert at the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation. These two beloved singer/songwriters are the acoustic kings of the capital city.

THE CALENDAR
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.

DANCE
The Springfield Ballet Company performs the most popular ballet in the world, Swan Lake,.

FILM
The University of Illinois at Springfield series Political Art and the Public Sphere continues with a screening of the film, War Made Easy,.

NATURE
CWLP’s Energy Conservation Manager Bob Croteau speaks on ways to reduce and reuse water in the urban environment during the lunch hour at Lincoln Library, Seventh and Capitol.

PUBLIC NOTICES
NOTICE UNDER ASSUMED BUSINESS NAME ACT STATE OF ILLINOIS COUNTY OF SANGAMON TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Notice is hereby given that on the 25th day of February 2009 a Certificate of Ownership of business was filed in the Office of the County Clerk of...

Real Estate Foreclosures
Attorney I.D. No. 02125994 JTO, Ltd. File No. 08-33075/ig IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A., TRUSTEE SUCCESSOR TO ARGENT MORTGAGE COM- PANY, L.L.C., Plaintiff, vs.

NEWSQUIRKS
Police arrested a man they said bought fake drugs with fake money. Kyle Kochelek, 21, handed an undercover officer in Unicoi County, Tenn., “obviously bad money,” according to investigators, who pointed out to the Johnson City Press that some of the bills were printed on just one side.