Cover Story
Virtual patients, real problems
Randy Rhodes, a 54-year-old truck driver with a southern Illinois twang, appears impatient and cantankerous after his wife forced him to visit a doctor to get a rash on his arm checked out. He tells the doctor that he wants to “get this over with quickly.” But after some prodding, he admits feeling tired more…
City of Springfield shuts down 11 massage parlors
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…
Trump tariffs could impact billions of dollars of trade in Illinois
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…
Groups demand release of after-school program funding
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…
Feds attempt to block trillions in government spending
To many Statehouse types, some of last week’s news out of Washington, D.C., felt eerily familiar. On Jan. 27, the White House announced a sweeping new policy that would’ve at least temporarily defunded trillions of dollars of government spending on everything from the National School Lunch Program, to Head Start, to cancer and sleep disorders…
Illinois lawmakers weigh carbon capture regulations
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…
Brutalist is challenging cinema, tedium trumps terror in Wolf Man, Brave the Dark inspirational
Corbet’s complex Brutalist rewards the patient Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist is an anomaly in the current cinematic landscape. An emotional epic, it traces the course of one man’s efforts to rediscover his identity and place in society, taking its time to consider myriad aspects of his resurrection. Deliberately paced, the film runs well over three hours…
More vacant buildings burn in winter
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…
Rail project gets closer to completion
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…
SIU’s economic impact
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine’s economic value to the Springfield area and the rest of the state has been quantified at more than $1 billion annually. That’s according to a recently published economic impact report on the SIU system that was put together by two SIU economists, Jebaraj Asirvatham and Scott Gilbert. Illinois taxpayers…
Selfish
My avid sisters got their driver’s license at age 16, I did not. I saw that, once you could drive, you got sent to town with a list of errands. But at 18 I started Beloit College. My dad said, “I’m not driving a kid of your age to town every day.” So, I got…
How the 1908 Race Riot led to the NAACP
We commonly hear that the terrible Springfield race riot of 1908 led to the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but not much is generally known about how that happened. Information from the national NAACP, the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library and the Sangamon County Historical Society help put…
Dinner on a dime
Ask any nutritionist and they’ll tell you that cooking at home is one of the best ways to improve your diet, but the benefits can extend to your pocketbook as well. According to researchers from the University of Washington School of Public Health, folks who regularly ate meals cooked from scratch at home not only…
Friday Night Live
Well, we’re not having any cold weather discussions this week in our music column, so all excuses, pretensions and collateral damage are off the table as we finish up our January and move into February. The where and when is mostly what we’re concerned about, because we already know the why is because that’s what…
Editor’s Note
While chaos reigned in Washington this week, there was rare joy in Israel and Gaza. So far, the cease-fire is holding, and hostages are gradually being released in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Reunions anywhere are emotional, but no sight was happier than the picture of thousands of…
The rags-to-riches story of A.E. Staley
Fields of Gold tells the story of A.E. Staley, who went from growing up barefoot on a farm in North Carolina to building a billon-dollar agribusiness giant in Decatur. Narrated by Peter Coyote, the film follows the agribusiness pioneer’s life as he “put Decatur on the map as the soybean capital of the world.” Presented…
