An officer fired for drug use says that Chief Kenny Winslow, center, and others in the Springfield Police Department used a substance banned by the FDA. The chief says he’s clean. PHOTO BY BRUCE RUSHTON The City of Springfield is asking a judge to overturn the decision of an arbitrator who has ruled that a […]
Bruce Rushton
Bruce Rushton is a freelance journalist.
Posted inNews
Parks police head quits – UPDATED
Capt. Jonathan Davis, head of the Springfield Park District Police Department, has quit. In a letter of resignation dated today, Davis said that the district has retaliated against him for speaking out about corruption and racism. He writes that has been forced to resign and has filed complaints with the Illinois Department of Human Rights […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A nationwide project
The only known photograph of the hearse that bore Abraham Lincoln’s body. It was built in the 1850s for $6,000. A replica of the horse-drawn hearse that carried Abraham Lincoln’s body to Oak Ridge Cemetery in 1865 is built from more than wood and metal and ostrich plume feathers reaching more than a dozen feet […]
Posted inNews
Project hits stumbling block
Developers of a proposed apartment complex in downtown Springfield came to Tuesday’s city council meeting armed with a drawing of the project and ready to answer questions, but no one asked. The council without discussion tabled an ordinance that would have provided $700,000 in tax increment finance money to build the 70-unit project at the […]
Posted inNews
Mauled girl faces long recovery
Illyania Rocha was nearly killed by a dog on April 11. Her father credits the girl’s half-sister for saving her life. A girl mauled by a Great Dane on April 11 is a lot like other 10-year-old girls. She likes to draw. Keeps a journal. Plays Xbox and basketball. She has a boxer at her […]
Posted inNews
Shooting case settled
ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE MINER The city of Springfield will pay $50,000 to a man shot by police more than seven years ago under a settlement approved Tuesday by the city council. The case started when James Wells stepped onto his back porch to ring in the new year in 2008 with gunfire. He didn’t know […]
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Treatment instead of jail
There is a court reporter in the courtroom of Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Madonia on this Friday afternoon. That’s a bad sign. If everyone here in Sangamon County’s fledgling mental health recovery court was going to therapy sessions, testing clean for drugs, not getting arrested and otherwise behaving themselves, there would be no […]
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Girl mauled by dog
A 10-year-old girl mauled by a dog more than a week ago at a home on the western outskirts of Springfield remains hospitalized as the Sangamon County state’s attorney’s office and the state Department of Children and Family Services conduct investigations. The girl’s injuries were potentially life threatening when she was rushed to St. John’s […]
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Paying for downtown
Subsidies are key as the city strives to redevelop downtown Springfield. The city would provide $700,000 in tax increment financing under a proposal by the developer of a proposed complex for student housing that would be built on a parking lot at the intersection of Fourth and Madison streets, according to Michael Farmer, city economic […]
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Jeffrey Parsons walks
Despite fibbing in court documents, violating a court order and stiffing debtors, embattled entrepreneur Jeffrey Parsons got a break last week from a judge who could have jailed him for making inconsistent statements in court and failing to pay former employees who have successfully sued him. At one point during the proceedings, U.S. District Court […]
Posted inNews
Apartments considered for downtown
A Quad Cities developer is considering an area on the northern edge of downtown, near the medical district, for a new apartment building that would be aimed at providing housing for students. The five-story building at the intersection of Fourth and Madison streets would have 70 units with room for 90 tenants. There would be […]
Posted inNews
Going to pot?
Amid the clamor to set up medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers in Illinois lies an inconvenient truth. Seven months after the state began accepting applications, just 2,000 people have been approved to legally purchase pot once it becomes available in 60 dispensaries statewide that are supposed to be supplied by 21 cultivation centers, 18 […]
