Dusty Rhodes: Fresh Ink | Wednesday, December 17,2008

No, it’s not like this everywhere

When will Illinois stop making excuses for bad behavior?

I should’ve known there was something sick about this state. After all, this is Illinois; it isn’t Wellinois. Ever since I moved here, two phrases have grated on my ears like

News | Wednesday, December 17,2008

Restricting transfers could improve schools

Southeast High School loses 80 white students every year

By Dusty Rhodes

The event was advertised as a “policy breakfast,” but the Citizens Club of Springfield didn’t provide sweet rolls or donuts, much less any sizzling pork. The only refresh

News | Wednesday, December 17,2008

Southern View police pick up female fugitive

Former Springfield officer Lea Joy likes being ‘wanted’ LAW

By Dusty Rhodes

As chief of police in the village of Southern View, Kurt Taraba sometimes has to get creative to track down a wanted person. Take, for example, a certain 60-year-old black female who had

Feature | Wednesday, December 10,2008

Fringe voices

The fading promise of public access TV

By Dusty Rhodes

It’s been about three years since John Anderson stumbled into cable access TV. He got a phone call from Micah Roderick — a man he had met briefly as his wife’s co-worker

News | Wednesday, December 3,2008

Tow jam

Can police seize a car before getting a warrant?

By Dusty Rhodes

If your car is parked in your own driveway, next to your house, can police officers have it towed away without first obtaining a search warrant? That’s the question troubling Bruce Loch

News | Tuesday, November 25,2008

Route of dispute

Hope Institute files suit again in long-running row with neighbors

By Dusty Rhodes

When it comes right down to it, the much-publicized lawsuit filed this week by noted attorney Bill Roberts on behalf of The Hope Institute is about three orange traffic cones. Set along t

Dusty Rhodes: Fresh Ink | Tuesday, November 25,2008

Smiles across the miles

In all kinds of families, connections run deep

By Dusty Rhodes

My baby Evan has always had a million dollar smile. I’m not saying that because I’m his mom; everybody with normal eyesight notices. It’s not just his perfectly aligned milk-white te

News | Wednesday, November 12,2008

Democrat turnout here not so hot

Obama was a sure thing, so east side voters stayed home

By Dusty Rhodes

President-elect Barack Obama may be Illinois’ new favorite son, but his coattails didn’t extend to Sangamon County races. All but one Democratic contender for a county office lost to Repu

News | Wednesday, November 12,2008

Borrowed judges leave county courts shorthanded

Even judges and lawyers can’t understand the system

By Dusty Rhodes

The announcement earlier this month that a Menard County judge had been tapped for the Fourth District Appellate Court brought a ray of hope to the back corridors at the Sangamon County Courthouse.

News | Wednesday, November 5,2008

A World Series champ and his phenomenal family

Hard work and good genes got Jayson Werth to the top of his game.

By Dusty Rhodes

The Werth family doesn't mind if you call them stupid, as long as it's the right brand of stupid. "We're baseball stupid," dad Dennis Werth says. "That was the only thing I t