News

Dani Clark began this year with a newborn daughter and a need to find a day care spot to enable her to return to work. What she learned left the new Springfield mom stunned. “Most of the day cares have been pretty good about getting back to me,” she said. “But they all tell me […]

Eleven massage parlors in Springfield have been closed down, while another 25 believed to be operating legitimately will be issued local licenses in coming weeks. City officials mandated the closures as part of the much-anticipated rollout of an ordinance passed by the City Council in June 2024 to crack down on massage establishments believed to […]

President Donald Trump’s plan to implement tariffs on key United States trading partners could affect more than $100 billion worth of goods imported to Illinois from Canada, Mexico and China. The countries were Illinois’ top trading partners in 2023, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. A wide range of goods coming […]

Organizations that provide tutoring, recreation and other after-school programs are calling on Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois State Board of Education to release $50 million that was included in this year’s budget to fund those programs. The organizations say tens of thousands of students are being denied access to services because the money is […]

Nestled along the curves of the Illinois River just outside the town of Hennepin is the country’s largest dry-mill ethanol plant, where a network of pipes, grain elevators and exhaust towers rise like a mini-city. Surrounding the plant are hundreds of acres of corn, the state’s top crop often used to make ethanol fuel. The […]

A man accused of putting out a $10,000 contract to have a Collinsville woman killed may find it difficult to fulfil his own contract with the city of Springfield – to raze 38 dilapidated houses. Sammy J. Shafer Jr. owns S. Shafer Excavating, a company based in Pontoon Beach that does work throughout the Metro […]

Those who knew Cory Beebe worried about him. They worried about his long history of abusing drugs and about the unhoused man staying warm on frigid winter nights. But on Jan. 17, it wasn’t the cold or the dope that took his life. Fire claimed the 37-year-old man, who was found in the attic of […]

Springfield’s $557 million rail improvement project nears completion after over 10 years of construction starting in 2014, promising to streamline the city’s transit system with a two-lane railroad corridor, boost urban renewal with a state-of-the-art transportation center, and make space for a six-mile greenway upon completion in 2027. During a presentation Friday, Jan. 24, at […]

State agencies, nonprofit organizations and a host of other entities that rely on federal funding were thrown into chaos Tuesday following the release of a White House memo that froze – at least temporarily – the distribution of all federal grants, loans and other financial assistance programs. Late Tuesday, however, the Associated Press reported that […]