Don Howard

New legislation guarantees that community college graduates in approved degree programs would have all their major course credits transfer to a four-year public institution in Illinois. Students would have to confirm in advance that the receiving institution offers an equivalent major. Currently, four-year schools have the option of requiring community college graduates to retake certain […]

On May 9 the Public Utilities Committee approved an amendment to a bill which would lift the moratorium on nuclear power plant construction. That amendment to SB 79 would exempt “relicensure” of nuclear power plants from the requirement that they use “advanced nuclear reactor” technology, which would be required for new construction. The proposal, submitted […]

About 100 participants from as far away as Arkansas and Tennessee gathered at the Lefthanders Gun Club in Loami to show off their marksmanship with Civil War-era long guns. Teams dressed in uniforms worn by the Union and the Confederacy and represented regiments, such as the 2nd Wisconsin and the 56th Virginia, which saw action […]

Twelve new graduates of the Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership Training Academy met with legislators at the Capitol April 19. Graduates of the program who went on to election to the General Assembly gave the group advice on how to be more effective leaders and urged them to consider using their new skills in public […]

The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board has made the state the first in the nation to mandate wrongful conviction awareness and avoidance training at all seven police training academies in the state. The Illinois Innocence Project (IIP) at University of Illinois Springfield will continue to manage the training, which until now had only […]

The Illinois House has passed a bill to make it possible for noncitizen residents to receive a standard driver’s license. Currently, such persons may only obtain a Temporary Visitor Driver’s License, which may not be used as identification. As of May 1 the bill was awaiting a final vote in the Senate. The legislation would […]

The latest biennial audit report released by Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino found that the Illinois State Police did not properly manage equipment inventory, could not reconcile their accounting records, and may have lost confidential information contained on missing computers. The audit concluded that misstatements in ISP’s accounts were “both material and pervasive.” The findings […]

In a measure that has already passed the Senate and which Gov. JB Pritzker says he supports, Illinois is about to lift its current moratorium on the construction of nuclear power plants, a law that has been in place since 1987. Under current law, the moratorium may not be lifted until the federal government has […]

“Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert,” barked Judy Brady’s telephone about 6:30 a.m. March 10. The phone is connected to cameras on both the front and back doors of the northside Springfield home she shares with her husband, David. She could see a police officer examining the area around the back patio in the chill air, and […]

Cyntoia Brown-Long was sentenced to life in prison before she ever got a driver’s license or was old enough to vote. The prisoner-turned-activist spoke at Blackburn College in Carlinville April 3, then signed copies of her memoir in the lobby. The state legislature in Brown-Long’s native Tennessee has just made a significant change to the […]

Moving Pillsbury Forward, the local nonprofit spearheading efforts to clean up the site of the old Pillsbury flour mill in northeast Springfield, has raised about $4 million towards the estimated $10-12 million cost of demolition and hazardous waste removal. The facility opened in 1929, and at its peak, employed about 1,500 people. It shut down […]