Untitled Document A Sangamon County public official gets caught in a cocaine scandal. The state’s attorney can’t handle such a high-profile case hims]]> ]]> Gene and Betty Hoots bought a successful ice-cream stand in Mattoon in the early 1950s. A few years later, the young couple decided to expand the business by adding hamburgers, french fries and ]]> Jim Kontio knows what it’s like to lose. After he and his wife Meganne married, the couple quickly decided that they wanted a baby. They were both older, Kontio says, and realized ]]> What do you do with 156 years of photos, programs, ribbons, exhibits and other memorabilia collected from the annual Illinois State Fair?]]> Abraham Lincoln surrounds visitors to and residents of central Illinois. The Lincoln image the region presents and sells to the world, however, is often a caricature. Tourists may encount]]> Untitled Document The first Springfield screening of the movie Stomp the Yard had a certain air of excitement about it. The audience, filling maybe half the seats in the the]]> BEST BAKERY Panera Bread 3101 W. White Oaks Dr., 217-726-5070; 3019 S. Dirksen Parkway, 217-529-6200 It's hard to dispute the popularity of Panera Bread. Nearly any time of day, a line of peo]]> On the morning of April 11, 2007, David Lewis appeared before a Vermilion County grand jury in response to a subpoena. As a part-time police officer for the village of Belgium, Il]]> In August 2005, former Republican Gov. George Ryan awaited trial on federal corruption charges, Democrats held almost every constitutional office in the state and a majority of se]]> "Sure they stop, but it ain't to eat. . . . An' when you stop you got to buy sompin so you can sling the bull with the broad behind the counter. So you get a cup a coffee and a piece of pie. Kind of ]]> ROGIN, Belarus — On the night of April 26, 1986, one of the crews on duty at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant received special instructions from Moscow to conduct an e]]> In 1986, with Bill Shoemaker as his jockey, the steed Ferdinand won the Kentucky Derby in a race that's still considered one of the greatest ever. For Shoemaker, who died on Oct. 12, it was his fourth]]> "Populations” and “communities” are ecological terms describing scientific premises, but the large groups of waterfowl resting on Lake DePue, chattering among themselves, s]]> What price would you put on the smile of a child? How much would you pay for the pitter-patter of little feet? What about the singular sensation of a baby instinctively squeezing your finger]]> Untitled Document Early one morning, about a quarter till seven, Larry Washington heard a knock at his front door. When he looked out, he saw a phalanx of Springfield police offi]]> Springfield is bursting with new urbanists. While the phrase “new urbanism,” coined in the 1980s, often frightens people who think that new urbanism entails mandating an organi]]>