Promoting safe and livable neighborhoods throughout our community should be the number one priority of city government. Embracing that priority must not only include the wise investment of our limited

I am a criminal justice graduate student whose professor assigns students the task of investigating and hunting down the whereabouts of the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 moon rocks, given to the 50 states,

Becoming law in July 2009, the Illinois Video Gambling Act allowed Illinois more gambling and more video gambling/slot machines (VGMs) than Nevada. This legislation permitted any licensed establishmen

One simple test could end up saving thousands of women’s lives. Yet, for those without health insurance, the test comes too late. According to the American Cancer Society, this year alone an est

This past August, I came to Springfield, beginning my life as a college student at UIS. One of the first things my English class did was take a field trip to the Old Capitol Farmers’ Market. I w

I am six months into an involuntary sojourn outside the full-time compensated workforce … and I gotta tell you, I don’t like it.Oh, sure. Some may think I am living high on the hog, thank

The financial, economic and environmental crises are alarm signals to the world, and particularly to us in the U.S. The crises arose because we rushed into unsustainable and destructive practices. Yet

Glaciers that provide drinking water for hundreds of millions of people are disappearing more rapidly than originally predicted. According to the United Nations, 325 million people are already affecte

We usually overlook the mind, body and spirit connection when it comes to our wellness and health care. A lot of people don’t believe it works, but it does work. We are just now beginning to und

Since the Green Movement began to kick into high gear about three years ago, we are becoming aware of the importance of protecting the earth’s fragile ecosystem. Mayor Tim Davlin has pointed with pride to Springfield being rated fourth in the country among medium cities in the National Resources Defense Council’s Smarter Cities project. Cited in this designation is the 2006 agreement between the Sierra Club and the city for the construction of the new Dallman 4 power plant, heralded as the cleanest in the country. Other reasons given were the city’s refrigerator and TV recycling and downtown recycling containers programs.