Dean Olsen

Most of the 250 people who turned out at a public meeting Jan. 5 in Lincoln to hear a Florida-based company’s plans to build a $5 billion data center in rural Logan County clapped, chanted, stood and yelled in opposition. “Who asked for this future for Logan County?” Mount Pulaski resident Sebastian Scassiferro said in […]

A public outcry and inaccurate information on social media about a proposed data center in rural Logan County have prompted officials to delay votes on zoning necessary for the project until at least February. In the meantime, representatives of Miami-based Hut 8 Corp. plan to make a presentation and answer questions about the company’s proposal […]

A publicly traded company wants to build a large-scale data center in rural Logan County near Latham, about 30 miles northeast of Springfield, while local residents scramble to find out more details and delay what could be a mid-January vote on a zoning change that’s needed for the plan to proceed. “There’s a huge lack […]

Gov. JB Pritzker’s decision to more than double state funding for programs designed to reduce homelessness in Sangamon County will help the community make meaningful progress and blunt a potential reduction in federal funding from the Trump administration, Springfield officials say. “We’re just not used to this type of investment,” Josh Sabo, executive director of […]

The two ambulance workers charged with first-degree murder in the 2022 death of Earl Moore Jr. will be tried separately, a Sangamon County judge has ruled. Circuit Court Judge Robin Schmidt on Dec. 2 granted the request from both defendants, Peter Cadigan, 53, and Peggy Finley, 47, both of Springfield. The former employees of LifeStar […]

Organized labor showed out in force at a public meeting Dec. 3 to support a proposed $500 million data center in southwest Sangamon County, while a smaller yet vocal coalition of critics questioned the project’s long-term impact on the local economy and electric rates. “This project is about more than steel and concrete,” Aaron Gurnsey, […]

The proposed $500 million data center that CyrusOne wants to build in southwestern Sangamon County would generate up to $6 million more each year in property taxes by the early 2030s, an official from the Dallas-based company told Illinois Times. “It would be a real asset to the county,” Bradd Hout, location and power strategy […]

Former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson’s lawyers say he deserves a new trial for the 2024 murder of Sonya Massey because the presiding judge erred when allowing the jury to hear Grayson’s disparaging remarks about Massey after the fatal shooting. “As a result, the events following the shooting had no relevance to the issues […]

A court hearing is scheduled Dec. 4 to finalize a $7.6 million settlement that would pay people whose personal information was seized by hackers in a targeted cyber attack that temporarily crippled Hospital Sisters Health System in 2023. The nonprofit health system, based in rural Sangamon County near Riverton, discovered the suspicious cyber activity “by […]

Crews dispatched by the city Nov. 24 cleaned up what remained of an encampment of homeless people in the 800 block of North Ninth Street in Springfield that had persisted since the spring. Cleanup of the site – spread across three vacant lots owned by the city, Sangamon County and a private landowner – took […]