When Dr. J. Ricardo Loret de Mola headed the MacDonald Fertility and In Vitro Fertilization Program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, he treated couples from around the globe. “People will go to the end of the world for a baby,” he says. “People will not stop until they’ve explored every avenue out there.” […]
Amanda Robert
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Springfield’s first certified green building
As Erin’s Pavilion at Southwind Park approaches completion and its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) designation, it follows the path cleared by another notable Springfield “green” design. Last month the new Illinois Municipal Electric Agency headquarters, located at 3400 Conifer Dr., was awarded LEED silver level certification by the United States Green Building […]
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Will gravel pits do the job?
Allen Wehrmann, the head of the Center for Groundwater Science at the Illinois State Water Survey in Champaign, recently told Illinois Times that he’s not convinced that gravel pits, including the $875,000 Clear Lake Township gravel pit that the city council voted to purchase last week, could provide Springfield with its backup water supply. “There’s […]
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Southwind Park building seeks highest environmental rating
Once just sketches on a blueprint, Erin’s Pavilion has evolved. Since last June workers have structured the exterior walls and poured the concrete floor of the $4 million, 15,000-square-foot multipurpose welcome center situated at Edwin Watts Southwind Park — an 80-acre “all people” recreation area near the intersection of Interstate 55 and Toronto Road. When […]
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How much water does Springfield need?
The proposal to build Hunter Lake has been around for so long that its opponents have come up with plenty of reasons why Springfield can live without it. At a recent hearing held by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, they blasted the proposed 3,010-acre reservoir — conceived in 1965 as a way to buttress Lake […]
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Hyundai asks car crew to increase fuel efficiency fast
Kevin Smith and the crew from Illuminati Motorworks took a detour in their quest for the Progressive Automotive X Prize (AXP), but, as Smith says, “It was an offer we couldn’t refuse.” With Smith at the helm, the local team of engineers, automotive technicians and car enthusiasts began working in August 2007 to design a […]
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Lawsuit opens up more housing options
At first Catherine Dennis seems like any other mother. Every day the Auburn native wakes up, gets her son ready and heads to Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services in Springfield, where she works as a resident nurse. The somewhat considerable difference for Dennis is that her son, Justin, a 30-year-old who has autism, goes with […]
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Sticking together through trouble, this family needs more help
Nearly 13 years ago, Pat Dansby purchased the home across from her own on Lincoln Street in Athens. She asked her daughter, Nellieann Kotty, to move with her two young sons into the home, because there was something about Nellieann’s movement that worried her. Dansby, an employee with the Illinois National Guard, had noticed that […]
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Mayor releases budget, uses blue-ribbon proposals
Last week Mayor Tim Davlin released his fiscal year 2010 budget, announcing that a once-anticipated hike in property or sales taxes is not needed to buoy the city’s projected $12.6 million shortfall. Instead his $117 million proposal relies on new recommendations from the blue ribbon committee on Springfield city finances. The committee — 13 financial […]
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Leaders visit Indianapolis for ideas
Gail Simpson envisions a brighter future for east Springfield, complete with bustling thoroughfares, attractive mixed-income housing, and diverse residents. “There’s a lot of value in that area — it’s convenient, it’s just off downtown, it can be so much more than it is,” the Ward 2 Alderman says. “You have South Grand as a corridor […]
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Final exam
In February 2001, Donald Hanrahan and 18 other Springfield-area residents protested Hunter Lake at a hearing held by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Nearly eight years later, they’re preparing to speak out again. Hanrahan, a local attorney and member of Citizens for Sensible Water Use, has spent the past month organizing arguments against […]
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Net games
In Springfield, a city that hasn’t exactly embraced craigslist, an online classifieds community, there were 54 “women4men” postings in the erotic services section earlier this week. Complete with graphic photographs, these ads feature everything from 25-year-old women promising to “spend some intimate time with you in exchange for a fair donation” to 46-year-old women charging […]
