Rosetta Stone Bookstore will host an opening reception in their art gallery for local artist Brett Hunter.  The reception will take place at Rosetta Stone Bookstore from 8 to 10 p.m. on Friday, September 1.  The show will run through the month of September.  Rosetta Stone Bookstore is located at 214 West Freeman Street in the Campus Shopping Center in Carbondale. The opening reception will feature music by the Carbondale-based “Broke String Band,” refreshments, and is free and open to the public. 

Brett Hunter says of his art and life, “This show will be a collection of stuff composed mostly of work done since the first of the year.  I made a new year’s resolution to paint more and did, and I even sent some paintings to California for a couple of shows in San Francisco.  I was painting almost every day, that is, until one day in early March I decided, on a whim, to buy a mobile home for 300 bucks.  “Fixer upper” is a major understatement.  The idea was to fix it up so I can have a place to be alone and without distraction when I want to work on things.  It has been a lot more work than I expected and taking up most of my free time.  In the last month I have been painting again in my newly renovated s***hole (still without indoor plumbing, sadly) and will have a few of those pieces included in the show, one of which is the modified door to my new tin-shack of a front porch.  A couple of these new pieces have ventured into the third dimension, having limbs protruding from the flat surface.

Over 100 Pairs of Combat Boots Representing U. S. Soldiers from Illinois who have fallen in the Iraq War; Iraqi Civilian Casualties Memorialized

Allied Media Conference

June 23-25, 2006

Bowling Green, Ohio

The theme of the 8th annual Allied Media Conference is "From Truth To Power... because being right is not enough." In other words, if you want to use media to build grassroots power and advance social justice, this is the place for you. The AMC will feature hands on workshops, panels with some of the most visionary independent media organizers, awesome music performances and a bowling party. For the full conference schedule and to register, visit the AMC website at http://www.amc2006.org

Students young and old showed their school spirit by arguing for a right to participate in decisions regarding how their money is spent. Topics ranged from Saluki Way, to housing issues, to student empowerment. The event began at approximately 2 pm Monday, May 1, and featured student speakers, music, and a petition. Around 4:30 pm, Chancellor Wendler exited Anthony Hall, and, upon seeing the crowd of students that waited outside, retreated, notifying the police of the proceedings. The students were allowed to remain, however, so long as they did not obstruct anyone's path or become too unruly.

On Saturday, April 8th, a few members of Southern IL NOW took it upon themselves to educate the pharmacies of the city of Carbondale regarding a new piece of Illinois legislation that the Governor signed on March 27th. This piece of legislation requires ALL pharmacies/pharmacists in Illinois to display a poster informing patients of their rights concerning the receipt of filled BC(Birth Control)/EC(Emergency Contraceptive) prescriptions.

Keep the Faith! Live Music Coffeehouse and Open Mic In benefit of the Interfaith Center. This Weeks Artists: Guitarist Uncle Bob and Keyboardist Ed Van Awken

Where: Corner of Grand and University, Carbondale

When: 7PM Saturday April 8th, 2006 (doors open 6:30-ish)

Sunday April 9, 7pm @214 North Washington Street, Carbondale --- Ultra-red is a media arts collective operating where public space, performance art, activist politics, and sound art intersect. Each performance is the unique result of work with HIV/AIDS affected communities: people living with AIDS/HIV and their families, health care workers, and other service providers. The collective offers a powerful model of a politically and theoretically engaged contemporary arts practice evidencing how socially engaged and community-based art practices relevant to specific political conditions can also be aesthetically and conceptually complex.

SIUC Cinema and Photography has organized a visit by this Los Angeles/New York based collective Ultra-Red this semester. Ultra-Red
will be in residence at SIU for a week to work intensively with students to prepare a new iteration of their ongoing performance series SILENT/LISTEN," a sound performance that live-mixes sound and interviews regarding the ongoing AIDS/HIV crisis. The piece seeks to explore questions like "Where has the AIDS crisis been?" and "Where might it be going?" by listening to the voices of people who have themselves been affected by the pandemic and the shifting politics surrounding it or active in confronting them. Ultra-Red has conducted iterations of the project across the U.S. and Canada and we are excited to welcome them to SIU.

Rosetta Stone Bookstore will host an opening reception in their art gallery for the Women's Center of Carbondale’s “Art of Survival: Women, Healing, and the Arts.” The reception will take place at Rosetta Stone Bookstore from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, April 7. Rosetta Stone Bookstore is located at 214 West Freeman Street in the Campus Shopping Center in Carbondale.

The opening reception will feature an open house, refreshments, and is free and open to the public.

The exhibition will last for the entire month of April in two locations: Rosetta Stone Bookstore in Carbondale and Perk Place in West Frankfort. Perk Place Espresso Bar and Café in West Frankfort is located at 105 East Main Street. Admission is free, and the art works will be available for purchase. All profit from the sales will support “Art for Empowerment Program” at The Women's Center.

“When we arrived in Adobeland, we expected to find a close-knit community, but instead found a quiet echo of a once-thriving wimmin’s land.

An opening reception will be held Saturday, March 25, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Gallery 1101 in the SIUC Cinema and Photography Department Office - Communications Building, Room 1101. Sara and Jesse will be present to answer questions and receive feedback. Refreshments will be served. The exhibition dates are Monday, March 27, through Friday, March 31, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The opening reception and exhibit are free and open to the public.

The Jackson County Board and several local politicians believe that the people of Jackson County are ignorant enough to pay for mandates from Springfield that the Administrative and Legislative branches decided not to fund. They feel that we citizens should pay an additional .25% sales tax each time we make a purchase. Obviously, the sales tax is the most regressive method of raising public funds. Like the Carbondale street paving tax, the working class, the poor, and the itinerant students pay for it, in other words, this will impact most upon the poorest citizens.

The press releases about the tax claim it will be utilized to hire six additional road deputies and one investigator at a cost of $650,000 over a period of three years. The cost includes pension payments, benefits, contractual pay raises that may be incurred and a fully equipped patrol vehicle per officer.

An additional telecommunicator will be hired for $47,493, which includes the same fringe items as the patrol officers. Over a period of two years, the sheriff is hoping to hire two new jail officers at a cost of $162,468, including benefits.

Additionally, the department hopes to hire one part-time civil process server for $14,107.

Finally, the department would like to expand its jail, because it claims to continually operate at its capacity of 117 inmates. A dollar figure has not yet been assigned to this expansion, but is being studied by an engineering firm. Interestingly enough, this is the same firm that is doing a reexamination of the EPA study of the Koppers Wood Treatment site in Carbondale. Does this firm have a bit of clout? Also, this is the jail that has been sinking into the landfil it was built on since its creation.

These Press releases sound quite well and good but they do not reflect the discussion that occurred at the actual Board meeting. Breton O'Neill, chairwoman of the county board's judicial and law committee, who is pushing for the tax, said the committee involved the community through meetings with township governments, civic group meetings and editorial boards to better educate the public about the need for the tax.

However, this same County Board Member during the committee meeting regarding the tax said that Jackson County Sheriff Bob Burns talked about the "unfunded mandates" for the sheriff's department that are coming out of Springfield, adding he said, "the department is severely understaffed and under-equipped to handle those mandates". So, what is the real purpose of the tax? Isn’t it simply to pay for those mandates?