Untitled Document The Midwest is where it’s at — for corn and politics. Five Midwestern states — Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana — account for half of the nation’s corn production and more than 40 percent of all ethanol-processing facilities. Midwestern states are also key in national politics: In almost every presidential election since […]
R. L. Nave
Posted inNews
Alone in a crowd
Untitled Document It’s Saturday night. Tandra Anderson is in St. Louis to do a little holiday shopping. Kim Moore also is in the Lou, on business. Jimmy Rice is at the Panera Bread on Springfield’s east side, typing quietly on his laptop and sipping hot tea. He is toying with the idea of going to […]
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Showing all nations the way
A federal judge will hear arguments next week in a dispute between the National Foreign Trade Council and the state of Illinois over the constitutionality of the state’s Act to End Atrocities and Terrorism in the Sudan. The key hearing, set for Wednesday, Jan. 3, could decide whether public pension funds will have to get […]
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Not our fault
According to a study released by the Center for American Progress and the Center for Progressive Reform, at the end of November, 8.7 million Illinoisans — 70 percent of the state’s residents — are breathing dangerous levels of smog. That makes sense, given that Illinois leads the nation in the number of new coal-fired power […]
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Goodbye, Ms. Yeager
When it comes to requests for 3 a.m. liquor licenses, Ward 7 Ald. Judy Yeager casts a no vote almost before Mayor Tim Davlin even finishes reading the ordinance. As a member of the City Council’s public-affairs committee, Yeager also insists that any ordinance related to a liquor license be placed on the debate agenda, […]
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Beyond despair
After six years, Brad Hammond calls the task of winning Springfieldians’ acceptance of St. Louis’ favorite pizza, Imo’s, akin to forcing a square peg into a triangular hole. Hammond, managing partner of the city’s only Imo’s Pizza store, at 751 S. Durkin Drive, says he moved up to Springfield “with the arrogance of believing that […]
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The issues
The next two or three years should serve as a cleansing period for city government, as Springfield, or the courts, settles seemingly never ending legal battle battles, puts the wraps on major capital improvements, fires up its new power plant, and hosts Abe Lincoln’s 200th birthday celebration. In the meantime, the mayor and at least […]
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Hot and bothered
As with the March tornadoes, nothing but praise has gone to work crews from the Springfield Department of Public Works and City Water, Light & Power in response to the ice storm that paralyzed Springfield for most of last weekend. However, at Tuesday’s meeting of the City Council, several members of the council had questions […]
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In the path of progress
Users of Springfield’s Interurban Trail have known for some time now that once construction begins on a project to lengthen MacArthur Boulevard to Interstate 72, they would have to find somewhere else to jog, ride, walk, and skate. But as plans inch forward for the proposed MacArthur Extension, what will become of the 1.4 mile-long […]
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Only the beginning
On the first and third Tuesday of each month, 11 men and women decide how many sex offenders can live next door to you in Springfield, whether you can burn your leaves, where you can smoke, and which businesses will go up in your back yard. Believe it or not, your representative on the City […]
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Continuing crisis
Since civil-rights attorneys Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck founded the Innocence Project in 1992, the organization, which now consists of a nationwide network of 30-plus organizations, has helped exonerate 14 death-row inmates and 183 others. Why? As Neufeld and Scheck point out in Actual Innocence, which they co-wrote with journalist Jim Dwyer, eyewitnesses make mistakes, […]
Posted inOpinion
Cut-and-run Democrats
Untitled Document For the past week, Democrats have been beating their chests, declaring that their reclamation of Congress, as well as the majority of governorships around the nation, is proof that Americans are fed up with the Iraq war and scandal after Republican scandal. But apparently the Democrats aren’t interpreting the results of the midterm […]
