Downtown Champaign's oldest bar--as old as the end of Prohibition — is throwing itself a party, with bands, birthday presents and, of course, cheap beer.

Three dollars gets you in to see Dottie and the Rail (a ragtag country band fronted by a smoky-voiced singer whose beau, Foty Backey, is the 'Rail's owner) and The Golden Quality (a rock band with a Brass Rail bartender in the lineup).

If rusty chains, blown-out tubes or any other cycle malady has been keeping you from participating in this week's Bike to Work Week (May 12–16), and you feel like you don't have the tools or know-how for a DIY fix, The Bike Project of Urbana- Champaign can help (and before the big Bike to Work Day tomorrow, May 16).

Late last year, the increasing prices of food and fuel were putting pressure on the Eastern Illinois Foodbank's ability to meet the needs of hungry people through its food pantries in the 14 counties surrounding Champaign County.

Since then, the price of oil hit a record high and the costs of basics such as rice have been soaring higher, too. With the U.S. economy having taken a turn for the worse, the lines at food banks have gotten longer.

Not surprisingly, things haven't gotten any easier for the food banks, either.

"The pressure has gotten much greater,"says Jim Hires, Executive Director at the Eastern Illinois Foodbank. "As lines at pantries have grown, we have not been able to increase our ability to acquire food."

Cupcakes, among life's extravagances, are now available to regularly indulge in at Cakes on Walnut, a cupcake shop at 114 N. Walnut open for business today (April 22) at 7 a.m.

Vanilla, chocolate, classic yellow, red velvet, salted caramel, green tea and strawberry balsamic are the cupcake flavors featured on the shop's opening menu, which will rotate from time to time, according to
owners (and sisters) Trisha Bates and Amanda Bates.

Though not as heinous as the act of rape itself, blaming rape victims is an infuriating practice that, for reasons beyond this writer, has not yet died. (You might ask the Los Angeles Times or Cosmo about that
one — both have run articles since the beginning of the year that did exactly that.)

Locally, we're fortunate to have Rape Crisis Services. Not only are they advocating for and providing services to victims of rape, they're also educating students and community members about sexual harassment, rape and how to support rape victims. And they're out there dispelling rape myths, too (such as that it could be a victim's fault).

This Saturday night, five local bands will come together to raise money to support all of Rape Crisis Services' programs at the fifth annual Rock Against Rape.

After about two years of learning how to build a business, and a year of renovation and construction at 114 Walnut Street in downtown Champaign, Trisha Bates and her sister, Amanda, are almost ready to open Champaign's first cupcake shop, Cakes on Walnut.

The shop, for a time known as Cream & Flutter, is scheduled to have its grand opening party the last week of this month. Cakes on Walnut will have a menu of rotating cupcake flavors — classic flavors like chocolate and vanilla will be served daily with three or four exotic "featured" flavors (such as green tea, for example, or lavender).

"In the 21st century, with all of the chaotic things going on around you, you lose sight of the person standing right beside you," Zev Steinberg, senior in Theater at the University of Illinois says.

Sometimes you need a reminder. An important reminder. A musical reminder.

This weekend at Armory Free Theatre, Steinberg directs a cast of 10 other University of Illinois students in the musical A New Brain, a production by William Finn and James Lapine that tells the story of a young man who is facing near-certain death from a brain condition.

Inner Voices, a University of Illinois social issues theater group, presents the last of three performances of Endangered Black Girls tonight at Armory Free Theater.

The play was written by Ruth Nicole Brown, assistant professor in Gender and Women's Studies and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois. Brown researches the political socialization of African American girls; her interviews with African American girls form the production's narrative backbone.

The University of Illinois hosts the registered-to-capacity Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference this weekend, beginning Friday and running through Sunday.

While it's too late to participate in conference workshops (or see any of the keynote speakers, including Eric Alva, TJ Jourian, and Angela Davis), consolation can be found in what the registered will accomplish: Conference organizers and attendees will be working to organize for and promote LGBTQA activism and awareness (and diversity in general) on Midwestern college campuses.

Outside, but near, the conference, there's still at least one opportunity to get involved – the Illini Union will host Spit Fire, a competitive poetry slam organized for conference attendees and community members alike.

Looking for unbiased information this election year that speaks to you as a voting citizen, rather than as a fraction of a percentage point for some political party?

There’s a non-partisan, citizen-run organization that, for the last 85 years, has been dedicated to educating the voters of Champaign County, engaging them in the political process, and acting as watchdogs over local governmental bodies on their behalf.

The Champaign County League of Women Voters has been active since 1924. As an organization that strives to be neither Democratic nor Republican (or, politically, anything else), promoting informed voting has been its primary focus from the beginning, according to Trisha Crowley, the league’s current president (and Deputy City Attorney for the City of Champaign).

If you’re a religious believer with a holiday to celebrate or a non-believer with a spirit for giving, you’ve likely thought about making a charitable donation this month.

As everyone knows, there is a huge and unknown number of charities that need and deserve more money. That said (as it always is and has to be when talking about charitable giving), consider a donation to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank, regardless of what you’ve already given or plan to give to other organizations.

Free EC Day isn't exactly news anymore, but it's still worth talking about. As the Health Care Consumers reported at their Women's Health Task Force meeting on Nov. 11, 180 people received packs of Plan B that day. Many of us, on the other hand, continue to be at least somewhat unprepared.