Linda Ketchum clutches photographs of five smiling kids decked out in costumes that span the colors of the rainbow. She fights off tears as she flips through them, stopping each time one evokes a favorite story or memory. She remembers when her two oldest daughters, Halley and Hannah, danced in their first recital, happily fumbling […]
Amanda Robert
Posted inNews
Going the distance
Untitled Document It’s 8:05 a.m. Evan Northrup tosses his backpack aside and runs onto a makeshift track cordoned off by small orange cones. ’Round and ’round he goes, stopping briefly after each lap to collect a straw from Iles Elementary physical-education teacher Copache Tyler. Soon other kids join Northrup on the track, each with the […]
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Budget hearings scheduled
Untitled Document The city of Springfield released its fiscal year 2009 budget to aldermen Tuesday and announced that its first budget hearing will be held after the meeting of the finance committee on Tuesday, Jan. 15. The proposed budget, totaling $205.6 million, is referred to by the city as “a no-frills, bare-bones budget.” Personnel services […]
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Homecoming
Untitled Document Despite a minor setback last month, Abundant Faith Christian Center is moving forward with its affordable housing projects and will host the grand opening of Timberlake Estates — its first independent senior living facility — at noon Tuesday, Jan. 15. Project manager Sheleda Doss says the ceremony will feature keynote speaker Deshana Forney, […]
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For the birds
Untitled Document After weeks of too many questions and too few answers, Ward 8 Ald. Kris Theilen decided that it was time for action. He proposed an emergency ordinance Monday to terminate the city’s contract with James Soules, known as the “Bird Whisperer.” The freshman alderman was confident that his fellow aldermen would support him. […]
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Corn row
Untitled Document It’s virtually impossible to travel in any direction from Springfield and not encounter acre upon acre of the state’s beloved yellow crop. According to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, 11.1 million acres of corn was harvested in 2006 in Illinois — more than 238,000 acres of it in Sangamon County alone — but […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Warm up, cool down
Untitled Document Tim Butler used to run in high school and college, but he says it’s nothing compared to what he’s been up to for the past 13 years. “If I ran two miles, it seemed like a long way,” Butler says. “Now I’ve run probably 20 half-marathons and even ran the Chicago Marathon once.” […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Those mighty mites
Untitled Document Dr. Glennon Paul has worked with Springfield asthma patients for 33 years, but even he admits that he doesn’t have all the answers. Asthma, a respiratory condition in which the airway constricts, becomes inflamed, or fills with excessive amounts of mucus, strikes people of different ages and for different reasons — and, as […]
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Out of sight
Untitled Document Just two months after the City Council passed a new-and-improved trash ordinance, garbage is already back on the table. An ordinance proposed by Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman — who expects it to come before the Jan. 7 meeting of the City Council’s Public Affairs and Safety Committee — states that garbage receptacles […]
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Focused
Untitled Document Clare Lynd-Porter never thought she would be interested in high school artwork. As the founder of Jacksonville’s Imagine Foundation, she was accustomed to curating paintings and photographs from the Midwest’s finest artists. But, through an incident that she calls pure fate, Lynd-Porter met Jake Sorrill — a Routt Catholic sophomore whose only experience […]
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Springfield in 2007
In the capital city, the more things change, the more they stay the same. At Illinois Times, we started 2007 with a look at racial issues in Springfield; we pretty much ended on the same note. Expect more of the same in 2008 as we mark a sad anniversary of a dark chapter in Springfield’s […]
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Tax pass
Untitled Document As Ward 10 Ald. Tim Griffin headed to City Council Tuesday night, he was still receiving phone calls from residents worried about a property-tax increase. His constituents’ concerns, coupled with his and six other aldermen’s unfamiliarity with the city’s budget process, Griffin said, convinced him that raising property taxes next year was not […]
