Every day, the rusty steel rails of the 10th Street railroad tracks carry trainload after trainload of coal, manufactured items and raw materials through Springfield. But those tracks carry more than ]]> The year was 1969 and Sheila Simon remembers fidgeting in her seat as her father, the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, was sworn in as lieutenant governor of Illinois. Nearly eight years old at the time, Sh]]> We meet at a trendy little café on Main Street in Peoria on a cold, sunny Monday afternoon. State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is on the campaign trail, and he has agreed to meet me to talk abou]]> The year 2008 went out with a big bang for Microsoft. On Dec. 31, a court in China’s southern city of Shenzhen convicted 11 people of violating national copyright laws for manufactu]]> David Gill is an unabashed liberal, even in a time when “liberal” is a dirty word.Gill is running for Congress in the 13th Congressional District as a Democrat, hoping to finally secure th]]> Ward 1: Young newcomer challenges a familiar faceIn 2008, Ward 1 got a Wal-Mart on South Sixth Street. Meanwhile, Mike Crews and Frank Edwards got an election issue. Both alderman candidates highlight]]> Five candidates are running, but only one will win the race to represent parts of Springfield and Decatur in the new 96th Representative District. The first leg of the race is the March 20 primary ele]]> The Republican legislative hegemony in Springfield is in peril. For the first time in almost 20 years, Springfield seems poised to help elect at least one – maybe even two – Democrats to r]]> I had a decision to make. I’d been in Tampa for all of 15 minutes, and I was already late for something, anything, everything – a white rabbit with OCD, searching for Mad Hatters. Of cours]]> Ward 1 Ald. Frank Edwards, never known for holding his tongue, was just getting warmed up.“We should set the goals,” the alderman declared two weeks ago as the city council pondered Mayor ]]> The last time a statewide referendum went before the Illinois electorate, 1978, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt had just been shot and paralyzed, perennial Hall of Fame reject Pete Rose c]]> November 2006 was a month that historians will study in minute detail, day by day and headline by headline, when they attempt to reconstruct the iron chain of misery the United States has been forging]]>