Category > Op-Ed
As was widely reported late last week, and has been known locally for years, the Illini Media Company (IMC) is in dire financial straits. They currently owe at least $250,000 to the News-Gazette (for printing costs) and are late on their mortgage payments. The Daily Illini has been a part of the Champaign-Urbana community for over 141 years. Throughout these years, it has proven a worthy training ground for many great journalists, including Roger Ebert, Hugh Hefner, Will Leitch, and many …
I want Mitt Romney to become president; and I want him to privatize love. I don’t mean the way pimps and Hallmark stores privatize “love.” I am talking about, once and for all, allowing free enterprise to quantify the monetary value of my heart. Clearly, the current supply of love in the world does not meet demand. (That’s even taking into consideration the potentially market-manipulating love hoarders like Benny Hinn, and Usher.) Therefore, I see an embarrassingly untapped opportunity for …
The gun looked big. I suppose it always looks big when it’s pointed at your face. It was silver and shiny. It was a revolver. I don’t know anything about guns, but it looked like the kind the man with no name would wield. I just got off work and walked a friend to her house. I dropped her off and turned down Race and then California. About halfway through the block, by the D.C.F.S. building where my father worked, …
I’ll always remember his response—the then-interim head of the school of journalism at Southern Illinois University, and all around good guy, Bill Freivogel—when I said I had debated the invasion of Iraq with Christopher Hitchens while in Washington D.C. over the summer. He gave me a smile that was equal parts trusting and skeptical and said, “Hitchens? But he’s a pretty smart guy isn’t he?” It was not unlike trying to tell a buddy at work that you had flirted …
Many central Illinois residents, including myself, are very excited about the newly drawn 13th United States Congressional District because its politically diverse characteristics make us a swing district. For the first time in a very long time, we have an actual choice in deciding who will represent our community in Congress. I was excited to meet and hear Democrat David Gill speak at a recent event about his upcoming campaign because I felt that his non-career-politician image would make him …
At a time when our community has been so significantly impacted by the death of a young African-American man at the hands of the Champaign Police, we continue to be mourning and healing. I teach courses on race, gender and cross-cultural understanding at the University of Illinois, and I was shocked to have recruited friends, family and colleagues to serve in a ticket booth at a festival environment that openly tolerates racist and white supremacist symbols. Sadly, I must say …
It's Thursday morning, late June, the basement of the UIUC Undergraduate Library. Rachel Moyer (left), an English teacher from Urbana High School, asks the 25 kindergarten through university educators sitting in front of her, "How can student writing for social action become problematic, particularly when we're bombarded with stories that perpetuate the teacher-as-hero trope?" In her two-hour-long demonstration, she engages the group in designing instruction that empowers students with civic knowledge. Her demonstration, which is part of her work with …
A couple of weeks ago I attended the Merci's Refuge (MR) fundraiser, mostly because I wanted to meet Mike Huckabee. Even after the small, private press conference — and despite all of the reading I'd done about Huckabee's pregnancy politics prior to the event — I couldn't be too negative about the politician I'd just met. Sure, the mass prayer led by MR's staff at the beginning of the actual fundraiser put me off at first, but I had a …
We are teenagers who attend Central, Centennial, Urbana and Mahomet schools, and this week we're proud to participate in Planned Parenthood of Illinois' annual Comprehensive Sex Ed Week of Action, which started on September 20. We're passionate about spreading the message for comprehensive sexuality education, because if we teens don't have accurate information, we can't keep ourselves healthy and safe. The reality is that every year, nearly 750,000 American teens become pregnant, and nearly four million teens contract a sexually …
One of the freedom struggles of our time is undoubtedly the quest to obtain equal rights for Gay Americans. This week (August 16–20, 2010) will witness two landmarks of progress in this struggle. The first landmark will occur at 5:00 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, when (barring the intervention of a higher court ruling), same-sex couples in California will finally be allowed to legally marry. The importance of the overturning of Proposition 8 cannot be overstated. Because of the heroic ruling …
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hey, if hair ain’t gon’ be over your head, my jokes may as well be.
Okay, almost 24 hours later and I finally got Issac’s Summer joke. I’m an idiot.
Swap the dog for a fire pit and it sounds like you’re writing about my back yard. Very nice.
funny, as your summer begins, another Summer ends.
And that, my friend, is love. Bob, I think I still owe you for my wedding cake, served in 1998. But nevermind.
I believe the kiss between Rob and I was documented on low-quality videotape in the mid-ninties porn classic, Dirty Harry…and Sticky.
“Do I have to sign some forms, or am I just considered ‘in.’” You’re in!
Got damn, Coulter. You are the greatest.
I have no specific memory of it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d kissed Mike, too—once we’d both drunk ourselves gay. And earlier this week I gave Clarence Shelley a back rub. Do I have to sign some forms, or am I just considered “in.”
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Most Recent Comments
As a liberal conservative, and a person who favors taxes & services ... and also a sense of proportion; I savor the comic potential that still exists in this comments section. I’m pretty sure we can goad more anti-government rhetoric from confirmed progressives and government employees. If…
Did the Crave Truck get a permit to park in city metered spots and city right of way? Or did they just get a permit? The city clerk’s office seems to be a suspect here, but it’s not clear they did anything wrong. Did the Crave Truck…
High-profile whining. AKA Lobbying.
it’s quite choice. looking forward to seeing how it and its patronage grow and develop over the course of the year. could be a neat little ecosystem.
“It was at this point, before he started his business, that working with city employees should’ve raised red flags…” But they didn’t because: 1) The City Clerk’s office originally mis-interpreted the rules, or are indeed re-interpreting them. 2) Champaign’s brick-n-mortar merchants hadn’t yet started whining about The Crave Truck.
Super cool! Excellent track, Excellent band.
Looking forward to trying this place!
I’m in the middle (or the beginning or end, depending on how you look at it) of re-reading Slaughterhouse Five. What a great companion column.
Get yours early. The Rave’s CD will be available at Exile and at The C-U Flea on Saturday. C-U Flea details here: http://www.smilepolitely.com/news/sp_radio_podcast_c-u_flea_arrives/
I don’t know about Gerard and a random police sargeant. My (mild) outrage is based on this: “...he worked closely with Champaign City Clerk Marilyn Banks to make sure he was licensed properly as a transient food peddler, filling out the necessary paperwork and paying a $225…
Local Yocal pretty much nails it here. I suspect there will be merchants who oppose food trucks because they arguably don’t pay their fair share to locate their trucks in high traffic (high rent) areas. The food trucks take away business from rent payers, park in city…
Oh nice! I’d totally vote for Matt Campbell!
“Smile Politely sports writer announces candidacy for city government.”
I also got to visit Big Grove Tavern during the soft open and definitely enjoyed the pork belly the most of all the dishes I sampled. The cheesy grits and the vinegary pickled vegetables were a perfect compliment to the rich pork belly.
The Alan Partridge lookalike on the right in the first small photo has nothing to condescend to anyone about. AH HA!
Snell and the little Hitlers of the neighborhood association need to chill out. Legitimate businesses should have the freedom to exist without having to endure the slings and arrows of ignorant and misguided opposition.
represent, Matt.
Yeah, I’d agree that Transporter Room 3 is the worst house venue I’ve ever seen.
Food trucks are the start-up, small businesses of the future for those unable to afford real estate. No surprise, that merchants who pay rent, utilities, and maintenance on a property would despise the traveling competition. Or developers who build more empty retail spaces would want to close…
Not so much far-right Tea Party as a balanced, moderate viewpoint between letting businesses succeed and protecting society with reasonable regulations. In spite of what the city reps are saying, the interpretation of policy on this issue certainly has changed. Letting a business start up under one…
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I’m in the middle (or the beginning or end, depending on how you look at it) of re-reading Slaughterhouse Five. What a great companion column.