Mayor Jim Langfelder is pushing for appointments to the city’s Police Community Review Commission absent a promised overhaul to improve the effectiveness of a board that rarely has met since its establishment 15 years ago. Langfelder is asking the council to approve the appointments of Sunshine Clemons, founder of the Springfield chapter of Black Lives […]
Bruce Rushton
Bruce Rushton is a freelance journalist.
Posted inNews
State buys former Sears space at White Oaks
White Oaks Mall has a new anchor tenant: the state of Illinois. After purchasing space formerly occupied by Sears for $3.5 million last August, the state now plans to move Illinois Environmental Protection Agency headquarters from North Grand Avenue to the mall. The complex now occupied by IEPA is slated for demolition to make room […]
Posted inNews
Public access reduced at city hall
Mayor Jim Langfelder announced today that appointments will be required to meet with any department at city hall starting Monday. “With the potential increasing spread of COVID-19 because of Thanksgiving Day travel and gatherings, we are taking additional precautions while continuing our services to the public,” Langfelder said in a written statement. “The decisions we […]
Posted inOpinion
Be thankful Trump lost
There is a certain calm that has descended since the election, and for that we should be thankful. We still have Trump to kick around for awhile, but fewer and fewer people are listening to what he says about coronavirus or the man on the moon. It’s good that Thanksgiving, especially this year, comes not […]
Posted inNews
Mast takes helm at museum foundation
Making peace is job one – or close to it – for the new head of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, the private foundation that is a fundraising arm for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Erin Carlson Mast, set to begin duties as the foundation’s president and chief executive officer on Jan. […]
Posted inNews
Open for business
Some local restaurants are reopening what looks like indoor dining, with the blessing of the Sangamon County Department of Public Health. “We just got updated from the Health Dept. that since we can open 50% or more of our front windows, like the last outdoor dining sanction months ago, we are able once again to […]
Posted inNews
Hitler posting draws judicial attention
On Tuesday, Nov. 17, Tim Timoney, a Springfield lawyer who runs a west side tavern, posted a doctored photo of Gov. JB Pritzker on his Facebook page that included a toothbrush mustache, a Hitler-style haircut and a reference to “der Fuhrer.” Within a day, judges in the 11th Judicial Circuit, where Timoney is employed as […]
Posted inOpinion
Good riddance
That horrid statue of Lincoln and whozits, removed from the entrance of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum this week, is headed next for Washington, Illinois, where it is scheduled to be displayed for a year at some sort of gathering spot. But after years of floating from one town to the next, the […]
Posted inNews
Reyne to give up reins
Coronavirus has claimed a victim on the Springfield Fire Department. Fire chief Allen Reyne, who has coordinated the city’s response to coronavirus since last spring, says that his retirement, announced at Tuesday’s city council meeting, was hastened by the burden of a pandemic that has claimed at least 76 lives in Sangamon County since last […]
Posted inNews
Bar owner, lawyer depicts governor as Hitler
A local lawyer and tavern owner has compared Gov. JB Pritzker to Adolf Hitler on a Facebook posting that depicts the governor, who is Jewish, as the German dictator. “Achtung!” reads the posting by Tim Timoney, owner of The Corner Pub and Grill, “der Fuhrer has spoken!” The posting includes a doctored photo of Pritzker […]
Posted inNews
Fire chief announces retirement
Springfield Fire Chief Allen Reyne will retire effective Dec.1. The chief, who has led the city response to the pandemic, announced his decision at tonight’s city council meeting. In an interview, Reyne said that the stress of responding to the pandemic hastened his decision to retire, which he said was his decision alone.
Posted inNews
Titans set to depart SJ-R
A pair of heavyweights are leaving the State Journal-Register. Political writer and columnist Bernard Schoenburg and statehouse reporter Doug Finke have accepted buyouts and will be departing the paper on Dec. 1. Finke has worked at the SJ-R since the 1970s; Schoenburg’s first byline appeared in the paper in 1990. Their departures will leave the […]
