News | Thursday, June 24,2004

Ryan’s hope

Jack Ryan's bid for the U.S. Senate may be toast, as some Republican Party leaders began calling on him to quit the race after the release of his divorce files on Monday. The documents includ

Feature | Thursday, June 17,2004

Little big man

By Todd Spivak

Stifling their yawns and wiping sleep from their eyes, a steady flow of slightly disheveled lawmakers shuffled into the Capitol. Most were still recovering from the previous night's marathon leg

News | Thursday, June 10,2004

Polishing a jewel

By Todd Spivak

The grassroots effort to renovate the two-acre area playground at Washington Park is in full swing. With nearly half the $450,000 needed for the project raised in just six months, planners predi

News | Thursday, June 10,2004

Room for pork

By Todd Spivak

Among Rod Blagojevich's first acts as governor was to freeze the controversial pork-barrel spending that flowed so freely during George Ryan's administration. Blagojevich trimmed pork funding in

Feature | Thursday, June 3,2004

Chi-town

By Todd Spivak

"Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring." So wrote the late author Nelson Algren, who chronicled the city's vast underworld of street hustlers, ward bosses, and mob heavies. But in

News | Thursday, May 27,2004

Land grab

By Todd Spivak

Memorial Medical Center has quietly acquired at least a dozen residential properties in the historic Enos Park and Oak Ridge neighborhoods since the end of February. The hospital apparently has

News | Thursday, May 20,2004

Bo knows

By Todd Spivak

Actress Bo Derek side-saddled into Springfield this week to promote legislation that would ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. The Hollywood horse lover's plea came just as Cavel

Feature | Thursday, May 20,2004

Portraits from the street

By Todd Spivak

Remarkably, Pamela Gray considers herself fortunate. She beams at the thought of her two daughters in college, her son's good-paying job, and her baby granddaughter just five-months-old. They come

Feature | Thursday, May 13,2004

The price of salvation

By Todd Spivak

Since taking the reins of The Salvation Army last July, Captain Deon Oliver has concluded the agency's shelter fails to meet the needs of the city's swelling homeless population. Now he's tryi

Feature | Thursday, May 13,2004

Limited safety net

By Todd Spivak

Though built like a bouncer, social worker Robert Brooks can't help but wipe his eyes at the mere thought of the homeless man who froze to death in Springfield last winter. Brooks, now the director