Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

Urbana City Council did not provide many answers concerning the proposed cell phone ban scheduled for a vote on Monday. Plenty of questions, however, were put forward. Should cyclists be prohibited from riding and talking? How will a cell phone ban affect our twin cities? And the fundamental question, should the ordinance be for hand-held cell phones only or should it include hands-free units?

City Attorney Ronald O'Neal asked for more time to draft the ordinance.

Now that spring seems to have officially sprung, students at the University of Illinois are rediscovering the quad. More than a dozen organizations lined the walkway just outside the south end of the Illini Union this afternoon, and hundreds of students found places to relax in the grass. Look for temperatures near 80 for the next few days, but storms and chillier weather are just around the corner. Monday's forecast? A high of 48 and plenty wet.

At 4:35 a.m., an earthquake rumbled through Champaign-Urbana. WCIA Newsroom corroborated that over fifteen people in their viewing area had already called in to claim the movement. After a few minutes, the U.S. Geological Survey posted the information to their website, listing the earthquake's magnitude as a 5.2 and it's center was near West Salem, Ill.

It is assumed that the tremor was caused by the New Madrid Seismic Zone that runs between St. Louis, Mo., and Memphis, Tenn. In 1811, the fault moved for almost three months during the wintertime. The quake was felt as far away as North Carolina.

UPDATE: Aftershocks were felt in Urbana, Ill., at 10:15 a.m. A seismographic reading could not yet be identified. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified this one as a 2.5 on the Richter Scale.

When Council Member Michael LaDue walks around his Campustown neighborhood after a particularly successful football game things can get pretty rowdy on Green Street — more raucous, in fact, than the 2008 Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day, a two-day brew-ha-ha devoted to drinking, which LaDue called “uneventful.”

The event cooled its heels a bit this year after the City of Champaign and University of Illinois implemented new restrictions, including a “No Visitor” policy at the dormitories and a strong police enforcement on the street. And although the morning after included piles of puke on the sidewalk and bottles littering the lawns, statistics for arrests were down.

But Mayor Gerald Schweighart, also acting Liquor Commissioner, felt the City of Champaign needed to do more to curb underage drinking on campus. In a 6-3 vote last night, the council passed an ordinance granting Schweighart emergency powers to enforce a 21 and up limit on bar entrance for special events, particularly looking at next year’s “Unofficial” celebration.

Last night — to an overflowing council chamber — Urbana City Council held a discussion to hear the opinions of the public concerning Urbana Public Television’s airing of an anti-Semitic show that many residents at the meeting deemed hate speech towards the Jewish community.

The extreme program spews hateful propaganda about the Jewish community and was provided to a local resident by an out-of-town source.

One resident called the situation “heartbreaking." A second dubbed the proposed revisions to UPTV’s manual concerning airing public-access programs “an empty disclaimer.”

UPTV revised some of their policies and procedures including a disclaimer at the beginning and end of all public access programming that states, “the City of Urbana does not condone or endorse speech that promotes fear, hatred, prejudice or discrimination toward any group based on religion, ethnicity, race, gender or sexual orientation, Kate Gorman, Station Manager of UPTV says.

After a windy weekend rife with threats of snow (which never quite materialized), the weather is beginning to return to its springtime form. Still a little chilly, sure, but this morning's benevolent skies above St. Matthew Catholic Church in Champaign will usher in afternoon temperatures in the lower 50s. By Thursday, the thermometer will be climbing toward 70.

The City of Urbana will be introducing a new type of sign to the landscape of the ever-growing Philo and Windsor developments: an electronic message board with business advertisements changing every 10 seconds.

The sign, soon to post in front of the Pines at Stonecreek Commons shopping center, veers away from the current ordinance which allows electronic messages to adjust once every three minutes.

Bob McChesney, host of the WILL-AM show Media Matters, hosts this semester's Racial & Social Justice Book Club, organized by the YWCA of the University of Illinois. The discussion takes place today at 7 p.m. in Murphy Lounge at the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street in Champaign.

Featured books for the discussion include The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office by David Lindorff and Barbara Olshanksy and Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda by Noam Chomsky.

McChesney, a leading media scholar and activist, is a Research Professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois. He has penned several books on media including his most recent venture, Communication Revolution, released in 2007.

John Currey, director of Champaign Central High School Jazz Ensemble, along with members of the group, collected a proclamation from Deputy Mayor Michael LaDue declaring April as Jazz Appreciation Month in the City of Champaign.

While Currey accepted the certificate, he had some news of his own: Champaign Central High School Jazz Ensemble was chosen as one of 15 schools across North America to participate in the prestigious high school band festival dubbed Essentially Ellington.

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).