A living legacy

Springfield producer revives vacant theater

Everything but the basic framework may be new, but the 60-year-old auditorium at 101 E. Lawrence Avenue will reopen next month with due honor to the past, says Scott Richardson, director with local co

New push for reusable bags

At eight of Springfield’s largest grocery centers, between 80 and 92 percent of customers choose plastic bags at the checkout counter, according to a survey by Springfield’s Better Bag Pro

School Choice waiver dropped

Heirs of FutureGen land oppose project

The heirs to more than 400 acres of land within a 1,000-acre circle identified as the preferred site for FutureGen 2.0’s carbon storage area say they are opposed to the technology and the use of

IDOT overtime excessive

Audit finds lax department oversight

State taps charity funds to pay its bills

Donors thought money would help the homeless, the hungry and disease research

Over the last two years, the state of Illinois in order to pay its basic bills has seized more than $1.6 million from at least 15 different “charity” funds, to which Illinoisans voluntaril

The nuke next door

Is the Clinton nuclear plant prepared for a Fukushima-level disaster?

On Friday, March 11, 2011, an afternoon earthquake with a 9.0 magnitude struck off the coast of Japan, unleashing a 14-meter tsunami that about an hour later would devastate the country’s Fukush

School’s out, but there’s plenty for children to do

For at least a few students, the countdown to summer vacation began last August. Others maybe waited until January, by which time the bitter cold and recent memories of semester finals started giving

District 186 wants to limit ‘Public School Choice’

Seeks wavier from federal rules on high-poverty schools

With four themed magnet schools and one charter school drawing students from across the city regardless of attendance boundaries, School District 186 prides itself on offering “choice” to

Hunted in the Heartland

Illinois native explains close call with serial killer

Bonney Hogue Patterson saw her neighbor’s killer twice in the days surrounding a brutal sexual assault and murder that in 1978 shook the town of Marion, where Mt. Vernon native Patterson had mov