Landscaping crews prepare the grounds for an open house at The Boulevard Townhomes. PHOTOS BY BRUCE RUSHTON New roofs. New doors. New windows. A new name. And, its owners say, a new attitude. Once considered an armpit of apartment complexes in Springfield, a 187-unit complex on the 2700 block of MacArthur Boulevard, formerly called MacArthur […]
Bruce Rushton
Bruce Rushton is a freelance journalist.
Posted inNews
A meeting of monarchs
Snail darters are ugly, spotted owls are hard to spot, but no one has anything bad to say about butterflies, which helps explain why nearly 100 environmentalists, farmers, academics and others gathered last Friday in Springfield to talk about saving the monarch butterfly. The so-called butterfly summit at the state Department of Natural Resources came […]
Posted inNews
On a mission
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS BRITT Not long after an epic drought, good news arrived. “After what Springfield went through in 1954, it is heartening to know that the city’s water supply will be wholly adequate for the next 20 years,” the Illinois State Journal proclaimed in a 1958 editorial that trumpeted the results of a just-published […]
Posted inNews
Criminal probe in fatal state police accident
The Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor’s office expects to investigate a fatal collision between a Decatur woman and an Illinois State Police master sergeant who was traveling 108 mph in the seconds leading up to the wreck. Kelly Wilson, 26, died hours after the May 7 accident. On Wednesday, her parents filed a $10 million […]
Posted inNews
Former inmate collects from state
Inmate Quentin Robinson, shown here, is accused of raping James Fontano. James Fontano, a former inmate who served less than a year for a drug offense, will collect $450,000 from taxpayers to settle his lawsuit filed after he was disciplined for reporting that he had been repeatedly raped by a cellmate at Logan Correctional Center. […]
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Can Springfield elect a Democrat to the House?
Left: Tony DelGiorno, Democrat. Right: Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, Republican Tony DelGiorno, the sole Democrat to defeat a Republican for a seat on the Sangamon County board in 2012, is hoping history will repeat itself this fall as he faces Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez in the 99th House district. No Democrat has held the seat […]
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Lawyers eye bench opening
PHOTO BU ISTOCKPHOTO.COM Candidates for a seat on the Seventh Circuit Court in Springfield have at least one thing in common. Both Rick Verticchio of Carlinville, a Democrat, and Ryan Cadagin of Springfield, a Republican, are sons of judges who also served as state’s attorneys. Verticchio’s father, the late Paul Verticchio, was a Sangamon County […]
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City hires finance director for CWLP
Ken Crutcher, who worked as city finance director under former Mayor Tim Davlin, has been hired as finance director for City Water, Light and Power. “Ken specializes in finance, legal and administration,” Mayor Jim Langfelder wrote in Friday email to aldermen announcing that Crutcher had been hired. “We are bringing Mr. Crutcher on to integrate […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Cocktails for fall
When it comes to cocktails, fall is a tweener season. Not too hot, not too cold, autumn demands beverages that can, at once, warm and refresh the palate. It’s a time to get reacquainted with liquors of color after a summer spent guzzling gin and sundry frozen concoctions. The deeper you go in the season, […]
Posted inMusic
ZZ Top returns to Springfield
For ZZ Top, Oct. 23, 2013, was, in part, the measuring stick for last Sunday’s grandstand show to close the state fair. It was barely three years ago that the three-same-guys-three-same-chords (just two beards) played at University of Illinois Springfield in the fall of 2013. Would they bring the same show? And how would they […]
Posted inMusic
Kiss gives it up for Springfield
Gene Simmons, bassist and founding member of Kiss, acts scary during Wednesday’s show. Photos by Bruce Rushton. Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder hoisted the two-fingered rock-and-roll salute, the crowd booed at the mention of Gov. Bruce Rauner. And there were also plenty of pyrotechnics and never-gets-old theatrical tricks as Kiss paid a visit to the Illinois […]
Posted inNews
Hindus at home on the prairie
A planned new Hindu temple on the western outskirts of Chathm will be twice as large as the existing structure that was once home to a Baptist church. DRAWING COURTESY THE HINDU TEMPLE OF GREATER SPRINGFIELD At sunset one recent Thursday, Dr. Dharmendra Nimavat pauses outside the Hindu Temple of Greater Springfield, where he is […]
