The Barrel Head, a popular tavern at 1577 W. Wabash in Jerome, has shut down amid a foreclosure battle with Illinois National Bank. A closed sign appeared on the tavern door on Labor Day weekend and remained there on Tuesday. Owner Kevin Davlin, brother of the late Springfield mayor, could not be reached for comment. […]
Bruce Rushton
Bruce Rushton is a freelance journalist.
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State’s new definition makes crowded prisons sound OK
State prisons are not overcrowded if you ask the Illinois Department of Corrections. “We are currently below capacity,” says Sharyn Elman, IDOC spokeswoman. Others disagree. “Overcrowding has been a longstanding problem in the state’s prisons,” says Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which represents guards. John […]
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Springfield’s police review board has stalled
A once-controversial civilian review board aimed at policing Springfield police has faded into oblivion. “It seems like nobody cares anymore about what’s going on in the police department,” says Frank McNeil, a former alderman who spent more than 15 years convincing his colleagues to approve civilian review of alleged police misconduct. The Springfield Community Police […]
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Efficiency group gets organized. Slowly.
Nine months after Sangamon County voters approved the formation of a government efficiency commission, organizers hope to get the final three members of the 23-member body named so that meetings can begin. Boards of school districts, which have two seats on the Citizens’ Efficiency Commission, have yet to designate representatives. Water district boards, which are […]
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Jury finds jailers didn’t use excessive force
It took a federal jury less than 90 minutes last week to decide that Sangamon County jailers did no wrong during a struggle with an inmate who claimed that guards used excessive force to subdue him. Despite pleading guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from a Sept. 23, 2006, struggle with guards in a […]
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WSEC back from the precipice
On paper, Springfield-based public television is running a deficit. But tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service can be deceiving, according Jerold Gruebel, president and chief executive officer of Network Knowledge, which runs three public television stations in central Illinois. A more telling indicator may be what is on television, and viewers of WSEC […]
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Fired police detective reinstated
An arbitrator has ordered Paul Carpenter reinstated to his position as a Springfield police officer. Under the decision released today by arbitrator Jeanne Vonhof, Carpenter, who was fired in 2006, is due back pay and benefits, less a 30-day suspension, according to Ron Stone, attorney for the Police Benevolent and Protective Association Unit 5, the […]
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Doctors charged with bilking Medicaid and Blue Cross
It didn’t take an FBI investigation for dieters to suspect that something might be amiss with Dr. Gautam Gupta. “He is an actual MD, but in all honesty seems to be a pill dispenser,” wrote a patient who goes by the name Joolz on phentermine.com, a website devoted to users of an appetite suppressant. “The […]
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Keeping tabs on sex offenders
Casey Carpenter is a sex offender’s Santa Claus. More than 260 registered sex offenders tracked by Carpenter have been naughty in the past. It’s her job to make sure that they remain nice, or, at least, where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there. And so Carpenter, an administrative clerk at the […]
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Plummer leaving Springfield Chamber
Gary Plummer is leaving his post as president and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce to become head of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce in Kansas. Plummer’s last day will be Sept. 12. Erich Bloxdorf, now executive vice president, will become interim president of the Springfield chamber. Plummer, 53, came to Springfield […]
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Grape expectations
Illinois winemakers say their livelihoods are threatened by a lawsuit filed last week in Sangamon County. Villa Monteleone Winery, an upscale winemaker in Italy that produces 45,000 bottles a year, sued the Illinois Liquor Control Commission on June 22, claiming that the state is illegally protecting state wineries by allowing them to sell directly to […]
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Net monster
Craigslist, the free online-classified service that strikes terror in the hearts of newspaper advertising executives, debuted last week in Springfield. Previously local Craigslist aficionados had to go to St. Louis or Chicago home pages to find goods, services, or new friends, but Craigslist last week started up a page for Springfield and 99 other cities […]
