Sangamon County’s largest manufacturer was sold today to an out-of-town conglomerate, marking the end of five generations of control by the Bunn family. Bunn is now in the hands of the Ali Group, a Chicago-based foodservice international company that “designs, manufactures, markets and services a broad line of commercial and institutional foodservice equipment used by […]
Adrian Dater
Adrian Dater, a longtime former sportswriter in Denver and author of seven books, moved to Springfield in 2023 to get his first taste of life in the Midwest.
Posted inNews
A lucky shot
Eleven minutes’ worth. That’s all the 16-millimeter color film Alan Dater had in the canister of his handheld camera on the night of Feb. 22, 1980, inside the Field House International Ice Rink (now named Herb Brooks Arena) in Lake Placid, New York. The U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team was to play the Soviet Union […]
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New dispensary planned on South Dirksen
If he had his druthers, Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams Jr. would rather see something besides a proposed new recreational cannabis dispensary going into 1401 S. Dirksen Parkway, a currently abandoned property in his ward. “But I don’t like empty buildings or empty houses,” Williams said. So, albeit with some reluctance, Williams said he would […]
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New craft grow operation in the works
Justin Conder is only 40 years old with a sturdy build and firm handshake, but gray already specks his otherwise brown hair. It’s quite possible a frustrating, eight-year odyssey to obtain a state craft-grow cannabis license has something to do with that. “I ask myself that sometimes,” Conder says with a weary laugh when asked […]
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Roundabout slated for West White Oaks
If you’ve ever tried to make a left-hand turn out of the parking lot of the West White Oaks shopping center that includes Harvest Market, then onto Wabash Avenue, you know the pulse-pounding, head-swiveling moments of trepidation as the turn begins. With often heavy traffic moving in both directions on West White Oaks Avenue and […]
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Capital Airport could be cutting edge
Mark Hanna knew the first question at the Citizens Club of Springfield’s Dec. 19 public policy forum regarding the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport would be something along the lines of, “Any new commercial airline routes coming soon?” Not much to report, Hanna said, although there have been some preliminary talks about possible Allegiant Airlines routes […]
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The cost of free speech
Larry Criscione has it pretty good by most people’s standards. He’s a nuclear engineer who paid off his house many years ago. The Springfield resident owns 17 rental properties in the area and, at the age of 57, recently took an early retirement pension package from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at $3,350 a month. That […]
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Women’s Professional Baseball coming to Springfield
Springfield, the site of the very first paid professional women’s baseball game of any kind, will soon be home again to women’s professional baseball. The inaugural season of the Women’s Professional Baseball League will be played at Robin Roberts Stadium starting Aug. 1. Four teams, from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and New York, will […]
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The “American experiment itself” at stake
Steven Herman, the former White House and chief national correspondent for Voice of America, gave a 45-minute speech at Illini Country Club Wednesday night that that the Trump Administration surely wouldn’t have liked. In a packed room that included U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Herman chastised the government’s incursions on freedom of the press that have […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A redneck ruckus
Below its muddy banks, the water is as quiet as the village of Bath itself, which is just how the easily spooked invasive Asian silver carp that pour down from the chutes of the Illinois River like it. Normally, the voracious carp that plague the ecosystem of the rivers and lakes of the Midwest would […]
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Route 66
The 100th birthday of Route 66 is Nov. 11, 2026, and the Mother Road has obviously seen better days. Once chock-full of busy, neon-lit motels, gas stations and greasy spoons, good portions of the original 2,448-mile Chicago to Santa Monica, California, route are now tumbleweed ghost towns. But if it’s true that, at some point, […]
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Great Race coming to Springfield
Springfield traffic court is usually a very crowded place, as the city has a well-known reputation for being tough on speeders. On June 23, a lot of old cars will come speeding into town, but perhaps in their cases, the radar guns will be more forgiving for going 50 in a 35 that day around […]
