Untitled Document On Oct. 28, 2005, Danny J. Sidener Jr. went to Family Video on MacArthur Boulevard to accept a delivery from a Chicago business associate. This associate arrived 20 minutes earlier than expected, and Sidener didn’t handle the merchandise as carefully as usual when he tucked it into the carpet-covered wheel-well of his rented […]
Dusty Rhodes
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Squeal appeal
Untitled Document Bob and Sandy Young are happy as pigs in . . . muck. The Buckhart couple this week learned that the Appellate Court of Illinois had ruled in favor of their plan to expand their family dairy farm into factory-scale hog-fattening facility despite strenuous objections from their neighbors. The Youngs were in the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Be patient
Untitled Document Initial reports didn’t reveal the name of the mentally ill man killed by Springfield police last Saturday night at the Bel-Aire Motel — so when I heard the news I spent a few seconds pondering the possibility that the departed was the same guy who had, less than two weeks earlier, called to […]
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RSVP or else
Untitled Document The U.S. Supreme Court wants the city of Springfield to explain why a police sergeant who blew the whistle on two brothers in blue isn’t protected by the First Amendment. The sergeant, Ron Vose, resigned from SPD and filed suit in 2006 against then-Chief Don Kliment and then-Deputy Chief Bill Rouse, claiming that […]
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Saving the world, one note at a time
Untitled Document The first thing Joshua Foster did after his encounter with an armed robber was to call his sons’ daycare provider. “I’m gonna be a little late picking up the kids today,” he told her. “I’m not sure exactly how late — maybe very late — but I know I’ll be at least a […]
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Guns and Roses
Untitled Document Three years ago this week, a pair of bodies was discovered in a wooded area near central Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. One was a young woman with wavy blond hair and a beautiful face marred only by a small-caliber bullet wound. The other was a man in his midforties, identifiable only because […]
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Licensed to chill
Untitled Document Dan Mills, the former Sangamon County prosecutor caught up in the notorious “cocaine ring” scandal that obsessed the Springfield justice community for much of 2006, may lose his law license for two years. The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission last week recommended that the Illinois Supreme Court suspend Mills’ license for two […]
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Remembrance
Untitled Document There’s nothing particularly inviting about the term “solemn assembly.” There’s nothing appealing about the notion of re-examining the most painful part of Springfield’s past — the 1908 race riot in which two black men were lynched, at least five other citizens accidentally killed, and scores of black-owned homes and businesses destroyed. Furthermore, the […]
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Pure Joy
Untitled Document When the jury announced its verdict in the Black Guardians’ race-discrimination trial earlier this month, Lea Joy left the courthouse pursued by a gaggle of reporters whose questions she tersely declined to answer. “I don’t think it’s the right time for me to speak,” she said. “You can follow me all the way […]
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Still waiting for the first step
Untitled Document I recently attended a celebration in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It ended, as many such celebrations do, with the audience members linking arms and singing that hopeful anthem, “We Shall Overcome.” I’ve belted this tune a million times. But on this occasion, my mouth simply wouldn’t make the […]
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Getting the points
Untitled Document It took several strokes of luck, but last week Springfield Fire Department Capt. Mark Dyment finally won his fight for veterans points. These points, calculated to reflect military service, can be used by police- and fire-department personnel to enhance their placement on promotion lists. Previously ranked seventh on the promotion list for […]
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Bookworms
Untitled Document If you’ve ever gone to the library in search of a certain book, only to stumble upon an even better one on the next shelf, then you will understand the battle brewing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where history buffs are in a huff over a proposal to disperse the school’s […]
