News | Thursday, January 20,2011

State education funding woefully inadequate

Properly educating a schoolchild in Illinois takes upwards of $2,200 more per pupil than the state currently ensures, according to the latest report from Illinois’ Education Funding Advisory Boa

News | Thursday, January 13,2011

Schools ‘wrap’ troubled kids

Behavior program’s fate uncertain

By Rachel Wells

In the fall of 2009, one Springfield elementary student was sent to the office for discipline 30 different times. The next semester, that number was down to 12 visits, with only three before he became

News | Thursday, January 13,2011

Coal ash disposal draws ire

By Rachel Wells

Strolling along Macoupin Creek in October, environmentalists observed in the middle of the day flowing water the color of a moonless night sky. While the samples they grabbed weren’t analyzed at

News | Thursday, January 6,2011

Historic Buffalo house still standing, for now

By Rachel Wells

The survival of a mid-19th century structure, part of which could date as far back as the 1830s, is hardly assured, but the historic house located on the edge of Buffalo may not meet a fiery end as on

News | Thursday, January 6,2011

Plan to preserve Enos Elementary

By Rachel Wells

A Springfield school slated for demolition in 2013 might end up with an extended life, if an idea for turning Enos Elementary School into residential lofts becomes a reality.Springfield School Distric

Remembering | Wednesday, December 29,2010

‘Instead, my unending love’

ALBERT R. LINK Sept. 1, 1925 – Dec. 7, 2010

By Rachel Wells

It always seemed to take Albert Link a little longer than most to break down and make a part of his life the simple conveniences of everyday modern life. As often as he told his family, “I love

Visual Art | Wednesday, December 22,2010

The starving arts

Springfield arts scene struggles, but survives

By Rachel Wells

Fred Jarosz is a talker. To meet him, the executive director of the Hoogland Center for the Arts, and ask him about the health of the arts in Springfield is to be taken on a whirlwind aural tour of bo

News | Wednesday, December 22,2010

A bigger and better First Night

By Rachel Wells

After last year presenting the fewest stages in its soon-to-be 24-year history, organizers behind First Night 2011, Springfield’s New Year’s Eve celebration of the arts, are gearing up for

Books | Thursday, December 16,2010

Uncovering the history buried by King Coal

By Rachel Wells

Coal, to Jeff Biggers, is a symbol of lives lost, land destroyed and the worst of big business with too much political clout. But, to him, the black and dusty rock is also a symbol of his and so many

News | Thursday, December 16,2010

Why Macon County’s school tax passed

Neighboring county had more money and better organization

By Rachel Wells

Money and organization were the biggest differences between winners and losers in two neighboring counties’ school sales tax referendums, say those on both sides of the debates in Macon and Sang