Hundreds of thousands of dollars in public resources are being deployed to bring Wi-Fi to downtown Springfield, without competitive bids to ensure that the planned system is the best — and cheapest — available. The bulk of the public subsidy is coming in the form of $380,000 worth of signal transmitters that being donated by […]
Bruce Rushton
Bruce Rushton is a freelance journalist.
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The secret police
You’ve just been slapped around by a cop. You’re looking for some justice. Internal affairs? Nope — it’s your word against the officer’s, and the police side with their own. How about Springfield’s newly formed civilian oversight board? Good luck — and shhh. Civilian oversight in Springfield is a case of “better than nothing,” say […]
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Crosswired
Imagine a Midwestern industrial town where a rookie mayor proposes a property-tax increase, the first in almost 10 years. About $6 million of the money would build a citywide wireless-Internet system. Imagine the protests from angry property owners who would pay nearly $100 a year more for a $250,000 home. Imagine the outcry from business […]
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Hot talk
It’s a common accusation. Business interests with an important case pending before government give big money to an influential politician who’s running for reelection. Critics cry foul — this, they say, is nothing more than an attempt to buy favorable treatment. Business interests and politician deny any wrongdoing and throw mud at the critics. Before […]
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Hupperware
It must have taken years to accumulate. Collectible plates commemorating the Russo-Japanese War. A grandfather clock. Old comic books. Baseball cards. A gumball machine from the 1920s. Wooden chests. Tonka trucks. A Mickey Mouse Club beanie. Rare books. Antique furniture. World War II artifacts. Depression-era baby strollers. Vintage photographs. Old dolls with price tags still […]
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Recycled America
There comes a time in a man’s life where he feels at ease in a hotel lobby across the street from the state Capitol, dressed in a lime-green fluorescent jacket, black tights, and nylon-mesh shoes that are something between ballet slippers and football cleats. Joe Bowen is anything but in-between. He’s all-out — always has […]
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The profit prescription
Four years ago, Springfield Clinic had fewer than 140 physicians. Today the number sits at 175, and it’s about to grow. Thanks to a $30 million expansion project approved last week by the city, Springfield Clinic will soon have room for 40 more doctors. Shortly after the ribbon is cut in two years, the clinic […]
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This search party is a private affair
At the Vatican, a puff of white smoke signals the selection of a new pontiff, with no one but the coziest of insiders ever being privy to the winnowing process. What, exactly, is going on at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is at least as difficult to figure out, one month after Richard […]
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Ill will
Ten inches of snow blanketed the ground. The temperature was 6 degrees below zero. Schools were closed that Monday in January 1999 as the entire state recovered from an epic blizzard that had claimed at least a dozen lives over the weekend, most as a result of heart attacks suffered while people shoveled snow.It was […]
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Same as it ever was
Dave Druker remembers this one: The car was taken away, says the spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White. The car in question was a state-owned vehicle used by a secretary to commute to work in Springfield back in 2003. She lived in Centralia, making her daily round trip a 200-mile journey. There was nothing […]
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Low-risk gamble
Two billion dollars should buy a lot of jobs. That’s how much the state of Illinois has laid on the table with the passage of a law last week establishing the Central Illinois Economic Development Authority. The authority’s board will have the power to issue $250 million in tax-exempt bonds to pay for projects designed […]
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Brother, can you spare a dime?
Pity our lawmakers. Public officials are underpaid and overworked. The House and Senate are practically sweatshops. Given the paltry paychecks politicians receive, citizens should be worried that qualified folks won’t run for public office. And the problem goes way beyond the Legislature: The governor, prosecutors and more than 100 other officeholders and bureaucrats also are […]
