News | Wednesday, March 25,2009

High-tech healthcare

SIU’s videoconferencing network beams specialists to rural areas

The Southern Illinois University School of Medicine has long been the heart of healthcare in the central Illinois region, and now thanks to über-modern medicine, it’s circulatin

News | Wednesday, March 18,2009

Conns speak out: TIF process needs overhaul

Owners of Lindsay/Maisenbacher House reveal plans for building

By Amanda Robert

Karen Conn’s voice takes on a buoyant tone as she describes the future of the Maisenbacher House, or what she and her husband Court loyally call the Lindsay House. Now parked in its

News | Wednesday, March 11,2009

Women helping women, here and around the world

International Women’s Day panel discusses local services, global links

By Amanda Robert

In 2006, LaVern McNeese initiated the Springfield chapter of Priscilla’s Lost and Found, a faith-based mentoring program for women that serves just six other cities in the nation. Si

News | Wednesday, March 11,2009

Opponents try again to

Illinois has freed more innocents than it has executed

By Amanda Robert

In the nine years since Gov. George Ryan imposed a statewide moratorium on capital punishment, death penalty opponents have pushed and prodded legislators to abolish the practice. This year, due to

Feature | Wednesday, March 4,2009

The Outlaws can’t stop playing football

Springfield’s semi-pros play at home March 8

By Amanda Robert

Some guys hunt, some guys golf. Brent Bordenkircher plays football. He’s not just talking about throwing the pigskin around the backyard or calling up some buddies f

News | Wednesday, March 4,2009

Uninsured to get free healthcare

With medical society’s access program, doctors share the load

By Amanda Robert

At a recent healthcare forum, Dr. Janet Albers, chairman of the Sangamon County Medical Society’s community health committee, told the audience that even though the United States sp

News | Wednesday, February 25,2009

Advisory council aims to make Springfield bicycle-friendly

One proposal would link existing trails into a network

By Amanda Robert

David Sykuta and his wife, Marcia, have ridden their bright yellow tandem recumbent bicycle all across the Midwest. They’re not speed riders, he says — they just enjoy riding a

News | Wednesday, February 25,2009

Caring for Creation

Sr. Sharon Zayac joins others in the faith community to spread the word about climate change

By Amanda Robert

Last October, Sr. Sharon Zayac, the director of Jubilee Farm and a local environmental advocate, was chosen to represent the Dominican Sisters of Springfield at The Climate Project’s first-eve

Feature | Wednesday, February 18,2009

Cleaning up Springfield’s garbage

Meet Alexander Harris-Taylor, trash cop

By Amanda Robert

Alexander Harris-Taylor deftly navigates his city-issued red sedan through the network of streets and snug alleyways in Enos Park, finally stopping in front of 315 E. Rafter. Bund

News | Wednesday, February 11,2009

Marijuana fines to help city finances

Minor drug offenses no longer criminal

By Amanda Robert

Now that Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson pushed through an ordinance that classifies minor drug charges as city code violations instead of as criminal offenses, what effect will it have on Springfield?