Dusty Rhodes

Don’t worry: he’s just going to make a speech and leave. Morris Dees, the famous civil rights attorney who co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center, will deliver an address titled “A Passion for Justice” Monday night at Sangamon Auditorium. But he’s not going to hang around long enough to poke into any racial problems Springfield […]

A few weeks ago, a small band of workers fanned out across Springfield with flashlights and clipboards and spent two hours looking for the very folks most of us would cross the street to avoid–the homeless. It was the first time such an extensive search had been conducted in Springfield, says Rita Tarr, supervisor of […]

This story isn’t about Renatta Frazier or Rickey Davis. The long-awaited and much-anticipated report on the Springfield Police Department’s treatment of those two African-American officers (one resigned, one still hanging in there) is due to be delivered to the City Council at the exact same hour Illinois Times goes to press. It’s a coincidence that […]

One way to gauge how very close this mayoral race is would be to look at the daily paper’s latest poll. Another would be to look at all the last-minute political maneuvering among City Council members. Last Tuesday night’s vote on an ordinance offering an early-retirement incentive program for city employees was surrounded by all […]

Sergeant Kevin Keen is the public information officer for the Springfield Police Department. Fielding calls from the media is his job. I ring his number and tell him I’m working on a story about Renatta Frazier, the former police officer who left the department under a cloud of controversy. As all of Springfield undoubtedly knows, […]