Cover Story
High school essay winners write from the heart
This I Believe is an annual essay contest for high school seniors sponsored by NPR Illinois. Modeled after the program started by radio journalist Edward R. Murrow in 1951, students are invited to write an essay sharing their own personal beliefs. This is the 21st year for the contest; 226 students within the NPR Illinois…
New hospital planned on west side
A freestanding, 60-bed hospital costing $66.3 million and focused on rehabilitation for people after strokes, brain injuries, fractures and a range of other medical problems would be built on Springfield’s far west side if state regulators approve the plan in the next month or two. The for-profit Rehabilitation Institute of Springfield would be built at…
School’s Out
As our Scott Reeder reported in April, the Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s Office and the state Regional Office of Education are working together on what Reeder described as “a tougher, more coordinated approach to chronic truancy” (“Tackling chronic absenteeism,” April 23). In Illinois, school attendance is compulsory and parents as guardians are responsible for…
Aligot is a favorite in France
Last autumn, my wife, four family members and I had the good fortune of staying in a restored 16th-century farmhouse tucked away in southwestern France. We were based in Homps, a tiny village of just 80 residents, where the only local facilities were a chapel, post office and a cemetery – a place where we…
The attempt to steal Lincoln’s body
The city was electric. Downtown Springfield was crammed on the night of the century’s closest presidential election. Two miles to the north, in the crisp autumn silence of Nov. 7, 1876, an audacious, if preposterous, scheme was unfolding. Thugs had broken into Abraham Lincoln’s tomb to steal his body. Counterfeiters crippled by the imprisonment of…
November music-making
Here we are, as promised, back with a Now Playing for the first full weekend of November in 2026. With the Best of Springfield behind us (until next year) and the elections over (are they ever, really), let’s see what’s about to commence in the world of local, live music. Speaking of BoS stuff, IT’s…
Drama charts path from grief to love and hope
UIS Theatre presents David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a happy suburban couple, Becca and David Corbett, whose lives are changed forever when their young son, Danny, is killed in an accident. Months later, according to Concord Theatricals online, “Becca wants to start afresh in a new home and give away their son’s possessions, but…
Letters to the Editor
GOOD MEMORIES We lived a block over on David Street in the early 1970s and we would walk over to this location for groceries (“City awards next round of cannabis grants,” Oct. 7). I believe it was Bud’s IGA then. While Mom shopped, my brother and I would read as many comic books as we…
My Dad writes a college friend
Dear Oots, It’s about midnight Sunday. My wife has gone East on a music deal. Our capable Norwegian help has left for Norway and my son Craig is in Rockford sparking his girl. My daughters are all married and away and here I am. I have pulled the dog up next to me, we are…
