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Music, motivationand bonding opportunities highlight what's happening in Springfield this weekend.

No plansand looking for something to do?

Here are eightactivities set in the area this weekend to keep in mind while outand about.

Get your lawn chairs ready for the return of the Levitt Amp music series to downtown thisThursday.Sounds will kick off at the Y Block on Jackson Street between Fourth and Fifth streets at6 p.m.

The Soul Message band will provide jazz for the evenings entertainment and there will also be a 30-minute intermission with performances from local and regional dancetroupes.

Children's activities provided by Springfield Park District will be available during theconcert.Concerts will continue every Thursdayat 6 p.m. through Aug. 4 free ofcost.

For more information, visit LevittAMPSpringfield on Facebook.

Things to do this summer: Downtown Springfield's outdoor festivals are back! See the 10 on our list

The Springfield Area Arts Council is bringing back its Artists on the Plaza series on Fridays. During the series,local artists perform at noon at the Old State Capitol Plaza.

Tom Irwin is the headliner for the firstafternoon performance which is family-friendly andfree.

This year's concerts,sponsored by Springfield Convention and VisitorsBureau,will runevery Friday until Labor Day. For more information, visit http://www.springfieldareaartsco.org

Join theIllinois State Museum on Fridayfor aninteractive art and history experience throughitsEdgewise Exhibit Tour.

The guided tour is part of DowntownSpringfieldsHistory Comes Alive summer series that brings storytelling, performancesand a variety of characters together for atrip into the past.

The Edgewise Exhibit highlights women, queerand nonbinary people whove championed for causes they care about.The exhibit amplifies their personal stories to showcase how theyve made their mark in a male-centric society to inspire generations today.

Tours will be held from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and last one hour.For more information, visit http://www.illinoisstatemueum.orgor call 217-782-6044.

Explore the downtown nightlife at the Legacy of Giving Music Festival thisweekend.

Live performances, vendors, food trucksand more than 60 acts will take over the Old State Capitol Historicsite startingFridayfrom 5 p.m. until midnight.

Performances will run across five stages that will be set up on Fifth Street, Washington Streetand The Old State CapitolPlaza.Anentertainment area for children will be available.

All proceeds from the festival will be donated to local charities. The Saturday event will run from noon until midnight.

For more information visit http://www.logmusicfest.org.

More in Illinois events: Here is what you should know about the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series race in the St. Louis area

Get replenished with Black Lives Matter Springfield at its Melanin and Muffins brunch fundraiser on Saturday.

The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Luminary Kitchenand Provisions, 3121 Hedley Road.

Mimosas, brunchand a presentation by Dr. Wendi El-Amin of SIU Medicine about PTSD will be provided during the event. A minimum $40 donation is required for admission and a free gift will be given to the first 40 attendees.

For more information, contact the Black Lives Matter Springfield Facebook page.

The third annual Kiwanis Club of Springfield Downtown mini golf classic returns thisSaturday.

The classic will include 18 holes of mini golf for $20, covering a two-personteam.

Games will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.at Knights Action Park, 1700 Recreation Drive.All proceeds will go to Kiwanis Club service projects which benefit children of the community.

For more information, contact the Kiwanis Club of Downtown Springfield Facebook page.

Celebrate National Cancer Survivors Day with a tea party at the Village Tea Room, 3301 Robbins Road, onSunday.

There will be music, poetry andart.Members of the Lavender Life Cancer and Lupus Foundation will highlight survivors during theevent.

Tea party attire is encouraged and food and wine will beavailable.The event will be held from 4 to8 p.m. with no covercharge.

For more information, contact theLavender Life Cancer and Lupus Foundation Facebook page.

Join the Chabad Jewish Center of Springfield for a dairy buffet and ice cream party on Sunday.

The celebration marks the day the Jewish people became a nation and received the Torah in historical times known as the "Shavuot."

The event begins at 1 p.m. and a reading of the Ten Commandments will be included. For more information, visit http://www.chabadspringfield.com or call 773-870-7770.

Original post:
Things to do this weekend in Springfield, Illinois - The State Journal-Register

Once every twelve years, candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives head the ticket in New Jersey elections where there are no presidential or United States Senate candidates on the ballot.

These elections produce notoriously low voter turnout and its possible that the 2022 primary will be no exception. There are primaries in ten of New Jerseys twelve congressional districts next week, although not all of them are competitive.

Voter turnout in 2010 was 9% and in 1998 it was 8%.

The most hotly-contested races are to pick Republican challengers to take on Reps. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair). Not all of these races are necessarily close. Primary challenges to Reps. Christopher Smith (R-Manchester) and Donald Payne, Jr. (D-Newark) are uphill at best.

The 2010 primaries featured just two high-profile races: Republican primaries in the 3rd district to pick a challenger for freshman Rep. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) and in the 6th to decide on an opponent for Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-Long Branch).

Both primaries had top GOP recruits staving off Tea Party opponents.

Runyan, a former NFL star who played for the Philadelphia Eagles, defeated Tabernacle Township Committeeman and Gulf War veteran Justin Michel Murphy by a 60%-40% margin. Turnout amounted to 25% of the total number of registered Republicans in the district that year, or 8% of voters eligible to vote in a Republican primary. Runyan wound up defeating Adler in the general election.

Diane Gooch, a local newspaper publisher who had been expected to self-fund her race against Pallone. Instead, she lost the primary by 83 votes to an off-the-line candidate, Anna Little, a former Monmouth County freeholder and Highlands mayor. Turnout was about 10%, or roughly 6% of the eligible Republicans and unaffiliated voters. Pallone won by 11 percentage points.

The only consequential 1998 primary was in the 5th district, where Assemblyman Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) came within 1,717 votes, 53%-47%, of defeating nine-term Rep. Marge Roukema (R-Ridgewood).

The most lethargic primary turnout comes in years where the State Assembly heads the ticket, something that happens twice every other decade: 8% in 2019, 5% in 2015, 6% in 1999 and 10% in 1995.

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2022 is the low-turnout year of the federal election cycle - New Jersey Globe | New Jersey Politics

Donald Trumps bid to win an unelected second term spectacularly failed. But the effort he inspired is winning a longer-term campaign to reshape his party into an organ to advance his belief that Democratic election victories are inherently illegitimate. Trumps success can be seen in the general refusal of Republican officials to acknowledge Joe Bidens legitimate victory and their co-option of stop-the-steal fantasies with vote-suppression laws and new election police forces. Its most dangerous manifestation is probably the creation of an institutionalized movement to disrupt and challenge elections on the ground as they occur.

That movement has been detailed in two recent stories, by the New York Times and Politico. The Times focuses on the role of Cleta Mitchell, a longtime conservative Republican who is recruiting activists inspired by Trumps stop-the-steal crusade to serve as poll watchers. Politico reports both on efforts to flood election sites in Michigan with right-wing volunteers as well as a broader national effort to link up Republican district attorneys who can mount real-time challenges.

Its difficult to forecast with any certainty what effect these new forces will have on future elections. Its entirely possible they will merely harass and annoy voters and poll workers, and perhaps generate more unsuccessful legal challenges, without changing the outcome.

On the other hand, its entirely possible this organizing will overwhelm the systems capacity to function and generate a crisis in which Trumpists are able to prevail. And since the latter possibility is a serious, republic-shattering event, it is worth considering how it might unfold.

The plan is to flood voting sites with Republican volunteers, who largely believe they are witnessing crime scenes. The Republican poll watchers will almost inevitably harass and challenge both voters they suspect of fraud (i.e., ones who have dark skin) and the poll workers processing their votes. These objections can gum up the workers, increase lines, and discourage potential voters. Worse, they can trigger messy disputes, which opens the door for legislatures to override the results and select the winner.

Come Election Day, you create massive failure of certification in Democratic precincts, Nick Penniman, founder and CEO of Issue One, an election-watchdog group, tells Politico. The real hope is that you can throw the choosing of electors to state legislatures.

The risk of such a scenario is enhanced by the responses to Trumps election lies undertaken by Republicans nationally. Several Republican states have enacted laws claiming to crack down on voter fraud, which extend the categories of potential violations and thus multiply the possibilities for objections. Some states have also created special police forces tasked with enforcing election law, and others are installing Trump loyalists into government positions overseeing elections.

All these changes interact with each other: more poll watchers monitoring more election crimes and having more sympathetic officials to act on their demands. These conditions create at least the potential for the party to successfully and legally contest and overturn an unfavorable election outcome.

Trumps defeat obviously played a large role in setting the party on its present course, but the forces he mobilized have existed long before he came onto the scene. Many conservatives have believed for decades, without requiring any evidence for their conviction, that Democrats in cities, especially cities with large non-white populations, engage in massive, undetected voter fraud routinely. Republicans have generally assumed they simply have to win elections by large margins in order to overcome inevitable Democratic cheating. (This was the spirit of Hugh Hewitts 2008 book, If Its Not Close, They Cant Cheat.)

Politico has obtained video of the conservative trainings in Michigan, which predictably reveal a fixation on areas with large numbers of Black voters. In an October meeting, Matthew Seifried, the RNCs election integrity director for Michigan, tells Republican volunteers its priority targets are Detroit, Pontiac, and Southfield. (Those are the ones that we need to focus all our efforts on.) Both Politico and the Times document that the GOP efforts heavily mobilize conservatives who believe Trumps claims to have won the election.

Trump, an avid consumer of conservative media, absorbed the conservative belief in endemic Democratic vote fraud. His main innovation was to take the next step and assume his party should not be weak losers who passively accept this state of affairs, but instead fight.

Another key event that has enabled the partys current response was a little-noticed court order in 2018 lifting a consent decree against the Republican National Committee. In 1982, the RNC had mailed warnings to minority voters and sent off-duty police officers to minority-heavy precincts in a putative effort to deter vote fraud. A lawsuit resulted in the RNC agreeing not to engage in similar activities, but a judge agreed to let it expire after 2018.

The timing could hardly be worse the partys ability to harass minority voters has been unleashed at precisely the moment its interest in doing so has escalated.

Media coverage of Trumps efforts to tighten his grip on the party has focused heavily on his efforts to help his most slavish followers win primaries. These interventions have met at least some internal resistance (and thus produced mixed results) because Trumps nominee-picking adventures have a heavy cost for the party. He frequently endorses more extreme or simply unqualified candidates, decreasing the chance Republicans will win in the general election.

However, the Trumpian campaign to organize election challengers has met virtually no intraparty resistance. Mitchell is a longtime conservative-movement apparatchik with deep party ties, and the groups she has brought together span the breadth of the party infrastructure. They include election deniers as well as mainstream organizations such as the Heritage Foundations political affiliate, Tea Party Patriots and the R.N.C., which has participated in Ms. Mitchells seminars, reports the Times. The effort, called the Election Integrity Network, is a project of the Conservative Partnership Institute, a right-wing think tank with close ties and financial backing from Mr. Trumps political operation.

Just like Christian conservatives and gun owners, election challengers are becoming an entrenched wing of the Republican Party. They are building organizations, training cadres, raising funds, and planning for contingencies. What is happening is the institutionalization of an insurrectionary movement.

Irregular musings from the center left.

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Trump's Insurrection Builds Professionalized Institutions - New York Magazine

Today

Purdue Farmers Market: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday through Oct. 27 at Memorial Mall. The market typically offers a variety of goods, including fresh produce, hot food and desserts.

Lafayette Citizens Band concert: 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., 200 N. 2nd St. (bridge spans the Wabash River from the Plaza to Tapawingo Park), Lafayette. Free.

Today and Friday

Lafayette Aviators baseball at home: Kicks off at 7 p.m. against Terre Haute, Danville and Illinois Valley, respectively, at Loeb Stadium, 1915 Scott St., Lafayette. Tickets are $11.

Saturday

Fte de St Jean le Baptise: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Fort Ouiatenon, 3129 S. River Road, West Lafayette. This event will showcase the material culture, life ways and skills of the French Occupation of Fort Ouiatenon circa 1740-1760. Additionally vignettes and activities of period Midsummer Festivals will be held to showcase what colonial French people may have done to celebrate religious holidays in the time.

Historic Lafayette Farmers Market: 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays through fall, downtown on 5th Street between Main and Columbia streets to Ferry Street.

Rewild Your Back Yard: 10 and 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Wolf Park, 4004 E. 800 N., Battle Ground, through a Follow the Pack Tour with guests from the Wabash River Enhancement Corp., Tippecanoe County Partnership for Water Quality, and the Tippecanoe Invasive Cooperative Taskforce. Youll be guided through the park to learn about the gray wolves, red foxes, gray foxes and bison that call Wolf Park home. Along the way, youll learn how to remove invasive species from your property, how to create a rain garden and how to install a rain barrel. Tickets are $10 for adults.

40th annual Ken Double Variety Show: 7:30 p.m. at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Mars Theatre, 111 N. Sixth St, Lafayette. Ken will be at the Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ with guest artist Audrey Johnson, mezzo soprano. General admission tickets start at $21.

Sunday

Green Expo: Noon to 4 p.m. at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds in the East Pavilion. The Greater Lafayette Climate Action Plan Committee is hosting the event to showcase all things green. Includes: document shredding service noon to 2 p.m.; electric car and bike show; tree planting; organic plants; composting; urban gardens.

Tippecanoe County Flea Market: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 5 at the Tippecanoe County Amphitheater, 4449 State Road 43 N., West Lafayette. Recurring monthly on the first Sunday. Free.

Tuesday

Titanic Tea Party: 6 p.m. at the West Lafayette Public Library. You are a passenger on the maiden voyage of the Titanic and its time for tea. Dress up (if you wish) and take on the persona of a real-life Titanic passenger and join the rest of the passengers for tea. Explore the grand ship via VR technology, a new addition to the librarys collection. At the end of the night, youll discover if your character has lived or died.

Baseball Night at Art in the Park: 5 to 7 p.m. in Columbian Park, Lafayette, featuring the Lafayette Aviators 5 to 6 p.m. for a team meet and greet. At 6 p.m., City Lites will take the Memorial Island amphitheater stage and play classic hits. At 7 p.m., enjoy buy-one-get-one-free tickets for the Aviators game.

Wednesday

West Lafayette Farmers Market: Every week 3:30 to 7 p.m., 3101 N. Salisbury St., West Lafayette.

June 9

Cruise in to the Music: 6 to 8 p.m., Abby & Libby Memorial Park, Indiana 25 and Indiana 218 in Delphi. Bring your chairs and blankets, and enjoy the live music with Tod Baldwin, the Piano Man. Free. Concessions available.

June 10

REO Speedwagon and Styx with Loverboy: Live and UnZoomed, 6:45 p.m. at Ruoff Music Center, 12880 E. 146th St., Noblesville. Tickets $28.50 to $353.50.

June 11

Family Day at The Farm: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Prophetstown State Park, 3534 Prophetstown Road, Battle Ground. Music, fun and games and much more for all ages.

Upcoming

Birds of the Celery Bog: By Dan Miller, June 24 to July 30 at Artists Own, 518 Main st., Lafayette. A captioned, photographic exploration of the birds in a West Lafayette wetland. Reception will be July 1 during First Friday, 6 to 8 p.m.

Lafayette Symphony Orchestra: The B-Side Track 6: Percussion Posse will play at 7:30 p.m. June 16 at Rat Pak Venue, 102 N. 3rd St. Lafayette. Led by Charlie Hamrick, the LSO Percussion Section is back on the B-Side bringing the beats that get you moving and out on the dance floor. Free garage parking around the corner on Columbia Street is available. Cash bar available.

Tippecanoe County Public Library Friends Book Sale: June 10 to 13 at the downtown branch.

TASTE of Tippecanoe: 6 p.m. to midnight June 18 in downtown Lafayette. Local food, music and art. s largest, annual street festival. Join us in celebrating the areas best local food, music and art, including a live light show and video projection performance. General admission tickets $7.50.

Stevie Nicks in concert: 8 p.m. June 21 at Ruoff Music Center, 12880 E. 146th St., Noblesville. Tickets $48.50 to $198.50.

America, Live in Concert: 7:30 p.m. June 30 at Loeb Stadium, 1915 Scott St., Lafayette. tickets are available online for $29, $49 and $69 plus fees. Loeb Stadium is an outdoor and cashless venue. Credit or debit card only for beer and concession sales.

RadKIDS self-defense class: June 20 to 23 at Oakland High School, 1100 Elizabeth St., Lafayette. Sponsored by Lafayette Police Department. There will be two groups: Ages 5 to 7 will attend 1 to 3 p.m., and ages 8 to 12 will attend 3 to 5 p.m. Participants must attend the designated time slots for their age groups. The cost is $10 per child. Register on brown paper tickets using the following links: For ages 5-7: Lpdkidsrad2022.brownpapertickets.com. For ages 8-12: Lpdradkids2022.brownpapertickets.com.

Ongoing

Self-guided tours: 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays at the Haan Museum of Indiana Art, 920 State St., Lafayette. Learn about the rich history of the museum that was once a part of the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair. Youll see Hoosier paintings, ceramics and eccentric sculptures, all while being surrounded by ornate American furniture.

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Looking for something to do? Check this out - Purdue Exponent

You cant have Real Housewives without having shade. Its something that just goes hand in hand. And some housewives bring it much better than others. Naturally, fans who love discussing housewives have their opinions on who is the best of the best. As witnessed by a recent social media debate asking fans, who would win in a shade contest Kenya Moore or Bethenny Frankel?

On a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live, Kenya was asked about it by host Andy Cohen. Andy inquired,By the way, there was speculation online the other day about who would beat who in a shade contest, you or Bethenny Frankel? The Real Housewives of Atlanta star wasted no time with her answer. Kenya laughed,Shady? I say, for sure, me. Andy responded,Alright, well, there you go. Weve settled that. So far, Bethenny, whose shade spanned 8 seasons on Real Housewives of New York, has yet to respond.

The original tweet was posted by a fan on May 8th. It featured a picture of both Bethenny and Kenya, stitched side by side. The tweet read, They get into a verbal fight. Whos clearing? #RHONY #RHOA. Fans jumped into the comments to weigh in. One wrote, The way Kenya would devour that poor woman into a psychotic break. A clear Bethenny fan stated, Bs bank account. Another commented, This has to be a joke. Bethenny cries when she knows shes losing an argument lol. That particular response garnered 196 likes. Someone else commented, Kenya hands down. However they are both quick with their jabs, so itll be a long fight. The responses on the thread overwhelmingly picked Kenya.So should we look at some of Bethenny and Kenyas moments of shade?

Bethenny once said of castmate Kelly Bensimon, I dont think Kelly is a moron. I dont think shes quick. When being invited to a tea party at 3:30 in the afternoon, Bethenny commented, The whole crusty vagina crowd is up here at 3 oclock in the afternoon dressed in pastels and florals. And finally, the ultimate, when Bethenny told a jealous Jill Zarin that she had to get a hobby.

Onto Kenya. Honestly, I dont even know where to begin. When former castmate Kim Zolciak tried to come for Kenya at a white party, Kenya clapped back quick. Referring to a recent tweet made by Kim, Kenya countered,Worry about your life and the daughter that you pimp out for John Legend tickets. She called Sheree Whitfields never ending home build,Chateau She Cant Pay. Finally, my all time favorite. When Kenya brought a whole ass marching band to interrupt enemy Marlo Hamptons wig line debut. The band, along with Kenya, chanted,Kenya! Moore! Hair! Care! Truly, a shade to end all shades.

I think its clear that most of these examples arent really even shade. They are just flat out reads. And Bethennys style is more direct, while Kenyas is more creative. Either way, they both deserve a well-earned spot in Housewives shade history.

TELL US WHO DO YOU THINK IS SHADIER KENYA OR BETHENNY? WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BETHENNY MOMENT? AND YOUR FAVORITE KENYA MOMENT?

[Photo Credit: Bravo]

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Kenya Moore Thinks She Would Win Shade Contest Against Bethenny Frankel - Reality Tea