The Sangamon County courthouse is scheduled for a $16.7 million makeover that would transform the first and second floors and move the coroner’s office into its own building on Dirksen Parkway. The county board on Monday approved $278,000 for design work on the project, with construction expected to begin in November and conclude in the […]
Bruce Rushton
Bruce Rushton is a freelance journalist.
Posted inOpinion
Wild kingdom
Spring has arrived. I know this not because of weather or roar of lawnmowers. I know because Monty has moved. For 15 years now, my pet snake has been reliable as Halley’s Comet, Old Faithful and that 1994 Ford Taurus I never should have sold. Each fall, around Halloween, Monty Python slithers under one of […]
Posted inNews
Bargains galore
Need a microwave? How about a coat rack or a Pottery Barn rug? Don’t delay, act today. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation has launched an Eviction Special sale since the public institution last week said au revoir, adios, don’t-let-the-door-hit-you to its erstwhile partner aka the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Chris Wills, ALPLM […]
Posted inNews
Full speed ahead
Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell says that he remains committed to bringing an armored vehicle to the sheriff’s department despite opposition from the Faith Coalition for the Common Good. “This is an important issue to me because I’m afraid the vehicle will be used against peaceful demonstrators and deaths may result,” Susan Allen, a coalition […]
Posted inOpinion
Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?
Even before the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opened in 2005, its foundation created in 2000 has acted as if it owned a place paid for by taxpayers. When executive director positions for the public institution have come open, the private foundation has paid for searches, then helped pay the chosen person’s salary. Six […]
Posted inNews
Fired CWLP worker alleges discrimination
Mayor Jim Langfelder overruled his staff and didn’t fire a water meter reader, prompting a federal civil rights lawsuit from a former meter reader who was terminated and now accuses the city of disparate treatment based on race. In his lawsuit, Andrew Dunlevy, fired in 2018 after supervisors found that he’d falsified meter readings, says […]
Posted inNews
Reimagining downtown
Jim Moll may not be the smartest man in Springfield, but the Hanson Professional Services engineer sounded like it during a public meeting held last week to discuss progress on a rail line under construction along 10th Street. The new line will replace tracks along Third Street. Moll’s been in charge of the $353 million […]
Posted inNews
D-I-V-O-R-C-E
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has parted ways with its private foundation that owns more than $20 million worth of artifacts, including a questionable hat, that have been a mainstay of museum exhibits. In addition to controlling artifacts, the foundation has run the institution’s gift shop and concessions under a memorandum of understanding […]
Posted inOpinion
Happy April Fool’s Day
My hair’s getting really good in the back. –Frank Zappa Now that I’m immune – the second shot kicked in full force last weekend – I wonder what I should do. Are buffets safe? Are any left? Was I better off without all-you-can-eat fried chicken at the VFW and bottomless blue cheese dressing at the […]
Posted inNews
The final days
The demise of Val Yazell, fired by Mayor Jim Langfelder last week, came after arguments between the city’s erstwhile economic development director and the mayor’s office about money to fix a building used by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on 11th Street. On Dec. 31, the mayor signed an agreement with […]
Posted inNews
Mayor fires economic development director
Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder has terminated Val Yazell, the city’s economic development director. Yazell confirmed that she was terminated Thursday afternoon. She said that she had no immediate comment. Langfelder could not be immediately reached. Yazell had been paid $105,919 per year. She had recently clashed with Langfelder over funding for repairs to a building […]
Posted inOpinion
SJ-R memories
I’ve toiled in many buildings, most recently, and for more than a year now, in my house. A cat’s purr or pug’s snore cannot compare to what once was. Editors, holding off panic as deadline looms, telling reporters in quiet staccato: We need it now. Loud whoops, sometimes expletives, as phones are hung up, sources […]
