Tied up at the moment

Cuffed priest granted leave

Rev. Bernard Thomas Donovan at St. Aloysius Church in Springfield makes a 911 call to request help escaping from his handcuffs.

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Remembering | Thursday, December 27,2012

End of a newspaper era

DAVID C. COPLEY Jan. 31, 1952-Nov. 20, 2012

By Bruce Rushton

David Copley was last.He presided over Copley Press, one of the last large family-owned newspaper chains in America, and had no heirs. The company got its start in Illinois in 1905, when Ira Copley, h

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Remembering | Thursday, December 27,2012

A second chance ends

SHARY ELIZABETH ALWARDT March 4, 1989-Nov. 16, 2012

By Bruce Rushton

Shary Elizabeth Alwardt never gave up.She was born with a hole in her heart, which was bad enough. She also had pulmonary hypertension, a rare condition in which arteries that carry blood to the lungs

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Remembering | Thursday, December 27,2012

The cycle of life

GROVER E. EVERETT Nov. 3, 1941-Nov. 15, 2012

By Bruce Rushton

Grover Everett had at least one James Bond moment.It came at a Lincoln air show in 1988, while Everett was still in his skydiving phase. He was second in line, jumping right after someone who was goin

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Remembering | Thursday, December 27,2012

Champion for the masses

MARY LEE LEAHY April 28, 1940-Dec. 12, 2012

By Bruce Rushton

Mary Lee Leahy fought for underdogs.Best known for representing state workers in a landmark Supreme Court decision that ended overt patronage in government, the Springfield attorney who succumbed to p

News | Thursday, December 20,2012

No joking matter

Police sued after cops laugh

By Bruce Rushton

A Springfield man has sued officers from Springfield and Jerome, claiming that police used excessive force while arresting him a year ago.A police microphone captures officers Michael Brown and Chance

News | Thursday, December 20,2012

The sky’s the limit

Airports are cash cows, except for Grandpa’s Farm

By Bruce Rushton

As the nation hurtles toward a fiscal cliff, the Illinois Department of Transportation has released a study showing that airports are economic catalysts.The study’s authors, it seems, have never

News | Thursday, December 13,2012

Can I get a witness?

After witness doesn’t get to testify, city loses case

By Bruce Rushton

There are more questions than answers in the wake of an arbitrator’s decision rescinding the termination of a City Water, Light and Power employee who cut down a relative’s tree on city ti

News | Thursday, December 13,2012

Rats!

Henson-Robinson Zoo gets a fascinating new species. It’s not a panda.

By Bruce Rushton

Imagine being impervious to pain, immune to cancer and darn near immortal.Then imagine, as one scribe once put it, looking like a penis with buck teeth.That is the conundrum of the naked mole-rat, the

News | Thursday, December 6,2012

Not so fast

Chemical dumping at Clinton challenged

By Bruce Rushton

A consortium of local governments stretching from Urbana to Bloomington is suing a Peoria-based waste company in hopes of killing a hazardous waste landfill near Clinton in DeWitt County.The plaintiff