Cap City

As the most sordid political campaigns in memory wind down, the most depressing part of what’s left of democracy in America isn’t the mud or the promises to build walls or never-ending investigations of emails or zillions of dollars given and spent to spin and obfuscate and insult and buy influence. No. The worst part […]

What do you get when combine interactive maps with representative democracy? The answer is something like the City of Springfield’s new “You Plan It” map, which gives residents a chance to tell the city what they want to see done around town. Made possible by the clever folks at the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission, […]

Every summer, Camp Compass gives homeless kids renewed hope and a chance for a better future. Operated by Compass for Kids in Springfield, Camp Compass helps kids catch up academically over the summer, while keeping them nourished physically and mentally. The program has shown improved math and reading skills among the kids who participated, helping […]

Got pills? If you’re not using them, you might want to consider bundling them up this Saturday and taking them to a proper disposal site to help celebrate National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. During the last such gather-up day in April, the DEA says that nearly 900,000 […]

While officials with the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the biggest union of state employees, hurl accusations and insults at each other while contract negotiations go nowhere, the faculty at the University of Illinois Springfield have taken a less verbose approach as they attempt to get a labor contract […]

You have to hand it to Zara’s Collision Center when it comes to the best use of Bambi in ad campaigns. Each fall, as local deer prepare to get stupid and start wandering on roadways, especially after dark, Zara’s comes up with the cleverest billboards this side of the ever-changing chalkboard outside the Grab-A-Java on […]

The sun seems to be rising on solar power. As environmental regulations put the squeeze on coal power, the energy market seems poised to move toward more “distributed generation” like residential wind and solar installations. Meanwhile, prices for solar panels have dropped considerably since the technology’s inception. While lower panel prices are somewhat bad news […]