Mike Ross, director of Urbana’s Krannert Center%uFFFDfor the Performing Arts, is hard-pressed to name his favorite place to be inside the University of Illinois’ celebrated arts space.Ross]]> Illinois Bureau of Tourism Deputy Director Jan Kostner refuses to dwell on the poor economy and its effect on tourism.In mid-February, as she delivered the annual State of the State of Tourism Address]]> “We’re grateful that we still have this nice space to be in. It’s really made a big difference to what we’ve been able to deliver to the community,” says Janet Seitz Carl]]> Just when we thought Rwanda had reinvented itself into a genuine success story in Africa, and that Rwandan president Paul Kagame had become a star of international leadership, along comes the hero of ]]> Historians credit Christopher Columbus for finding the Americas, but Kaba Hiawatha Kamene declares that African descendants lived in what is now the United States many years prior to 1492. Kamene, a s]]> Visitors and residents hungry for good music and good food in Springfield are sure to find some of both this weekend at the 11th annual Taste of Downtown. The popular event is presented this year in c]]> Promotional flyers for Shen Yun — a multimillion-dollar stage production set for Feb. 9 at Sangamon Auditorium — are lavish, four-color photo montages of elaborately costumed dancers, whir]]> Yes, it’s a little boot scootin’ and a little two-steppin,’ but Prairie Land Dance Club (PLDC) in Illiopolis ain’t your mama’s square dance. Folks at PLDC are just as com]]> “To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.”Abraham Lincoln uttered those words in his famous farewell speech to Springfield almost 150 years ago. Since then, Sprin]]> I had seven e-mails from an older gentleman who is the president of a highly respected nonprofit asking me to become his friend on Facebook. It was so unnerving I joined Facebook just to make the e-]]> Architect John Shafer’s new office building at 1230 S. Sixth St. in Springfield recently won an award for sustainable design from the Central Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Archit]]> For the past 25 years, Springfield’s downtown has become a giant party every New Year’s Eve with First Night Springfield, the first and longest-running event of its kind in Illinois. The p]]> Every week, Amy Alkon provides IT readers with her spin on romantic problems in her syndicated column The Advice Goddess. The column, which received the first place award for commentary last month fro]]> Untitled Document One need only look at the roof of the Dana-Thomas House, with its upturned corners, to see Japan’s influence on architect Frank Lloyd Wright. ̶]]> It’s chilly in the packed parking lot of the Eagles Club on Springfield’s far east side. But inside the club’s cavernous concrete ballroom more than 100 novice dancers are shedding s]]> Untitled Document Illinois Humane hosts the Hogs for Dogs dice run for the second year in a row on Saturday, June 16. Money raised at the run “goes directly to animal care ]]> Untitled Document Larry Harnly, a retired State Journal-Register sports editor, was part of a group of 32, about half from Springfield, who spent one week in Jamaica on]]> Untitled Document Don’t get caught stuck to a barstool in lieu of ringing in the new year. The last day of 2006 is a time for changes. Make this year the year you actually remember singing]]> You may only be "haa'dly'kin" (barely able) to understand Anita Singleton-Prather and the Gullah Kinfolk, but you won't want to "tek'e foot een 'e han" (to run, or to leave quickly) once you hear the]]>