Every child in Sangamon County could be a college graduate with the potential to bring more businesses, and more economic wealth, to the Springfield area. That’s the idea behind the Continuum of Learning, an education and workforce development initiative formed in March 2008 by three coordinating partners. The Sangamon County Community Foundation, the United Way […]
Rachel Wells
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‘Clean’ coal developers resist cap on electric rates
Minor tweaks to an Illinois law making a proposed “clean” coal power plant in Taylorville possible are negotiable, says project developer Tenaska. However, a major change – an additional cap on consumer rate increases – is not an option. Both Tenaska, the Nebraska-based company that’s pushing for the coal-to-gas Taylorville Energy Center, and its most […]
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Enos Park master plan already progressing
Momentum is already building for just the change prescribed earlier this week when Enos Park, a historical but declining Springfield neighborhood, unveiled its redevelopment strategy. The master plan recommends bringing in new businesses, demolishing and rebuilding deteriorating structures and expanding or improving anchor institutions like the Springfield Art Association. By March 1, the neighborhood, which […]
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Area educators weigh in on state budget
General state aid, mandated programs and pre-kindergarten funding have been and should remain top education priorities for the state as it muddles through yet another budget process with record-breaking deficit projections, area educators told the Illinois State Board of Education last week at a public hearing held in Springfield. Though primary and secondary education has […]
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Ponzi on the prairie
Pointing at two of three computers, James U. Dodge one day early this year explained to three guests in his west side Springfield home how the financial world he claimed to master could work in his favor every time. His guests were friends, curious about his guaranteed return investment strategy. With his small audience watching […]
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Documentary targets toxic chemicals
Biologist Dr. Sandra Steingraber describes her 1997 book, Living Downstream, as a sort of love story between her and Pekin, the place she grew up and where she lived when she learned in her early 20s that she had bladder cancer. The book, throughout which Steingraber threads her personal story, examines evidence linking cancer to […]
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Voters to decide on sales tax for schools
If voters next week approve a referendum raising Sangamon County’s sales tax rate from 8 percent to a maximum of 9 percent, it would reaffirm a philosophical shift in school funding already begun by the Illinois state legislature, says David Root, superintendent of Williamsville schools. Without sales tax revenue, school funding in Illinois is based […]
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Debating the debates
Before the Oct. 17 gubernatorial debate between Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn and Republican Bill Brady at Elmhurst College near Chicago, Green Party candidate Rich Whitney and a group of supporters stood outside in protest, megaphone and signs in hand. It’s a scene that will be the new norm until debate hosts start inviting all established […]
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Former death row inmate speaks out
While sitting on death row for 12 years, Randy Steidl wasn’t against capital punishment. Not in the general, philosophical sense. “I came from a conservative farm family,” he says, explaining his position on the death penalty when he was arrested for murder in 1986 at the age of 35. “I believed in the system,” he […]
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Ponzi scheme benefited Senate Dems’ lawyer
Victims of Springfield Ponzi scheme operator James U. Dodge are calling for his son, a lawyer for the Illinois Senate Democrats, to pay back the money gained from the scheme that his father spent on him and his family. Dodge’s son, James W. Dodge, serves as deputy legal counsel for the Illinois Senate Democrats, specializing […]
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A computer for every kid
When a lesson on loom use in Iran unexpectedly transcends into a dialogue about the global equality of humankind, a teacher has to wonder what went right. Layne Zimmers, who helped guide her sixth-grade students through that very lesson, says she knows exactly what it was – technology and the ability to access the world […]
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Auburn rallies for Ryken
Probably never realizing how her friends and neighbors would later prove her right, Christy Codron Bailey explained several months ago on the school district webpage why she so enjoyed teaching at Auburn Middle School. “The community support here is second to none,” she wrote last November. Less than a year later, on July 31, she […]
