Feature | Thursday, May 6,2004

Packed house

Springfield shelters are strained by demand, as the mayor’s task force on homelessness struggles to get off the ground

Every emergency and transitional shelter in Springfield remains filled beyond capacity despite the warm temperatures that signal the onset of spring. The names of men, women, and children are sc

News | Thursday, May 6,2004

Rest in pieces

By Todd Spivak

This weekend some 30,000 people are expected to stroll the expansive, rolling hills of Oak Ridge Cemetery for Mother's Day. And if someone is injured while visiting a loved one's gravesite, Springfiel

News | Thursday, April 29,2004

Tombstone blues

By Todd Spivak

The city of Springfield calls it a freak accident, but the family of 8-year-old Andrew Richards says the several hundred-pound tombstone that broke the boy's leg was an accident waiting to happ

News | Thursday, April 29,2004

Don’t be cruel

By Todd Spivak

A new animal welfare organization has formed in Springfield to investigate incidents of animal neglect or abuse and establish spay/neuter assistance programs. Illinois Humane, a non-profit group

News | Friday, April 23,2004

Ready, aim, misfire

By Todd Spivak

Jack Ryan is making good on his promise. On the night he won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, the former investment banker vowed to "be on the offensive" against his Democratic rival,

News | Friday, April 23,2004

Talking trash

By Todd Spivak

The semi-wooded, vacant lots at Melrose and Wirt, a residential intersection on Springfield's southeast side, are a kind of cemetery for worn-out, broken-down furniture. Splintered chairs and

News | Friday, April 23,2004

Unfinished business

By Todd Spivak

University of Chicago Law School professor Tracey Meares will return to her hometown of Springfield on Thursday as the featured speaker celebrating the 50th anniversary of the landmark court ca

News | Thursday, April 15,2004

Economy class

By Todd Spivak

Veteran state employee Marge Heissinger may be out of a job come July. For 16 years Heissinger has run the Central Illinois Tourism Development Office, which would be axed under Gov. Rod Blagojevic

News | Thursday, April 8,2004

Banking on change

By Todd Spivak

Springfield NAACP President Rudy Davenport will travel to Chicago later this month to testify against the $58 billion merger of Bank One Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Davenport plans to urg

Feature | Thursday, April 8,2004

To the rescue

Jerry Jacobson’s uphill battle to preserve Springfield’s heritage

By Todd Spivak

Jerry Jacobson enters the battered old mansion at 12th Street and Cass Avenue through a makeshift side door of bent nails and corkboard. He drops his head and stoops low, steps up over piles of broke