Mike Eyer has a beautiful spread in Jacksonville at the intersection of Poor Farm and Sugar Hollow Roads. A little dirt road off of Sugar Hollow leads to Eyer’s cute little farmhouse, replete with a trailer and mini-excavator, swirling gnats, a massive pasture out back and a backhoe parked off to the side of the […]
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 inSummerguide
Inspiring people to take action
Most people train all year to run a marathon. Tomasz Sobania runs one every day. Since May 10, the Polish endurance runner began a quest to run 26 miles – the official length of a marathon – every day. But wait, there’s more: he’s doing it in a new state every day. Sobania started the […]
Posted inNews
A losing proposition
When customers came to Capitol Teletrack on May 2 for the Kentucky Derby, a yearly event that still packed them in at 1776 Wabash Ave., a real estate broker’s phone number on a sign was the only proof that anyone has been inside of late. Sandwiched between a Salvation Army store and a plasma donation […]
Posted inNews
ABC loses State Fair contract
Since the first term of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, one organization – the American Business Club of Springfield – has volunteered to serve beer and other concessions at the Illinois State Fair, with their share of money earned funding grants to dozens of local charities. For the first time since 1954, ABC will no longer […]
Posted inNews
If you build it, they will come
The ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb did not emerge from a cornfield Tuesday afternoon at Scheels Sports Park at Legacy Pointe. But Springfield’s version of Field of Dreams became another step closer to reality when Gov. JB Pritzker came to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $70 million development just off MacArthur Boulevard. […]
Posted inNews
A welcoming place
By 2024, Greg Kanter had been out as a gay, ordained rabbi for nearly three decades, a pioneer of sorts, who had been leading a congregation in Charleston, South Carolina, for about eight years. Life had been good there for him, his husband, and two adopted daughters. Then came a new presidential administration, and the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A welcoming place
By 2024, Greg Kanter had been out as a gay, ordained rabbi for nearly three decades, a pioneer of sorts, who had been leading a congregation in Charleston, South Carolina, for about eight years. Life had been good there for him, his husband, and two adopted daughters. Then came a new presidential administration, and the […]
Posted inNews
WICS slated to be sold again
Springfield’s main television station, NewsChannel 20 WICS, will soon be under new ownership for the second time in a little more than a year if the Federal Communications Commission approves a sale from Rincon Broadcasting to Community News Media LLC. In March of last year, Rincon Broadcasting bought WICS as part of a $29.5 million […]
Posted inNews
“Business as usual” at BUNN, for now
When BUNN, in business in Springfield since 1840, announced on March 11 that it had been sold to food service conglomerate Ali Group, the new owner said in its own press release that it would be “business as usual” for its latest acquisition. For BUNN’s roughly 850 Springfield employees, hearing such words was no doubt […]
Posted inNews
BUNN bought by Chicago-based conglomerate
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 […]
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 […]
Posted inNews
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 […]
