Cover Story
Route 66
The 100th birthday of Route 66 is Nov. 11, 2026, and the Mother Road has obviously seen better days. Once chock-full of busy, neon-lit motels, gas stations and greasy spoons, good portions of the original 2,448-mile Chicago to Santa Monica, California, route are now tumbleweed ghost towns. But if it’s true that, at some point,…
An intermission for change: Temporary closure brings much-needed refresh to UIS Performing Arts Center
The University of Illinois Springfield Performing Arts Center is taking an intermission – and we’re preparing for something truly transformative. The Public Affairs Center building at UIS is undergoing a major plumbing replacement project that will temporarily close the UIS Studio Theatre and Sangamon Auditorium. While this may be disappointing news for the patrons who…
Council removes barriers for east side homeowners
Springfield’s council meeting was packed with debate and emotion. The city paused to honor Sacred Heart-Griffin’s state baseball champs, but most of the night centered on a new grant program to help homeowners on the east side. Council members wrestled with how to balance neighborhood revitalization, fairness in funding, and the realities facing residents who…
Criteria for divine blessings
Some may remember Kate Smith singing the lyrics to a song written by Irving berlin in the early 1940s entitled, “God Bless America.” Birthed in the days of World War II, those lyrics and their resulting impact energize millions of Americans for years to come. God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her…
National speculation helps ‘get more for the people of Illinois,’ Pritzker says
Gov. JB Pritzker began his third campaign for governor on Thursday, but much of the buzz around his 2026 campaign announcement focused on 2028. Pritzker made four stops around the state to launch his campaign, fielding questions about any future interest in the presidency and what is driving him to run for what would be…
Pritzker touts need to protect progress
“I ran for governor in 2018 to change our story,” Gov. JB Pritzker told a Chicago crowd June 26 as he announced his bid for a third term. “I ran for governor in 2022 to keep telling our story. And I am running for governor in 2026 to protect our story.” This general theme of…
Attorney General Raoul joins lawsuit challenging Trump’s termination of federal grants
Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced this week he has joined another multistate lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to withhold billions of dollars in federal funds that had previously been approved for states and other grantees. The complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, challenges several actions the administration has taken since Trump…
The Hunchback of Notre Dame rings true
The opening moments of Muni’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, impeccably directed by Kevin Kulavic, are as impressive as the two hours of captivating theater that follow. The bells ring out, an enormous and intricate stained-glass window (beautifully designed by Tracy Tester) is illuminated, and a fully robed choir solemnly appears into the eerily lit…
City Council has a tiff over TIFs
The Springfield City Council engaged in a heated debate Tuesday over grants for Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts. Frustration mounted as supporters of the ordinances questioned why their fellow council members sought further discussion on this initiative but not others, suggesting that it came down to the demographics of those who would benefit from the…
Brad Pitt drives F1, 28 Years Later a poignant zombie story, Deep Cover full of intrigue
Pitt drives F1 into winner’s circle The very definition of a star vehicle, Joseph Kosinski’s FI features Brad Pitt, really fast cars, Brad Pitt, international locations, Brad Pitt, a pedestrian plot, Brad Pitt, dynamic filmmaking, Brad Pitt and a sleek visual approach. Brad Pitt is in it as well. With a budget north of $250 million,…
Jerome plans to create TIF district
An average of 25,000 to 27,000 cars drive on Wabash Avenue through Jerome each day, making that stretch of road one of the busiest in the Springfield area. The commercial and retail corridor appears bustling. But side roads and underground utility lines that are undersized and deteriorating, as well an almost total lack of sidewalks…
From learning skills to getting a job
SkillsUSA, a national nonprofit trade organization, is expanding its presence in Illinois thanks to a recent $2 million state budget reauthorization for trades programs. It allows the organization to further bridge the gap between high school education and skilled trade employment. This increase in state funding for programs like the Illinois Works Program and other…
Engineer in the Classroom
Engineers in fifth grade? Definitely. And not just the cadre of volunteer engineers who bring science fundamentals to life in area classrooms each winter through the Engineer in the Classroom program. Students themselves learn an engineering approach to creating, correcting and collaborating on what they hope will be prize-winning Rube Goldberg machines at the spring…
Congress must act to pull USPS back from the brink
The United States Postal Service is on the brink of a self-induced collapse. The failed policies of the Delivering for America Plan have driven away customers through a combination of sky-high rate increases and degraded service. David Steiner, who will take over as Postmaster General on July 14, has a tough job to do and…
Theatre in the Park: From past to present
When Theatre in the Park began in 1976, it was known as The Great American People Show, a nonprofit theater company focused on American history, particularly the life of Abraham Lincoln. For about 20 years, the popular company performed at Lincoln’s New Salem. In 1995, Illinois designated The Great American People Show as the official…
Critically acclaimed show coming to Hoogland stage
This musical, winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, follows four eccentric Broadway stars looking for a new stage. The four hear about trouble brewing over a prom in a small Indiana town. There, a student has been banned from bringing her girlfriend to the prom. The quartet sees a chance to spotlight…
Council debates grants for east side and hears warning on lead pipes
Springfield’s council meeting included an update from CWLP and heated debated about neighborhood improvement grants. The city’s utility leaders shared news on a $629,000 grant for new EV chargers, a shot at $1.6 million for grid upgrades, and the daunting challenge of replacing 10,000 lead water lines in just 10 years—potentially a $150 million project…
The best memories are served family style
If I had to pick my most memorable dining experiences, three would stand out. My dinner at the chef’s table at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago immediately springs to mind. Nestled within the bustling kitchen, the chef’s table offered a front-row seat to the controlled chaos and focused energy of the legendary, Michelin-starred restaurant. The tension…
Winding up June music
As we settle into the last weekend of June 2025, the weather stays hot and the music keeps cool, while the summertime activities come on full speed ahead, no holds barred and without a doubt. Let’s see what there is for us to experience in our music scene. Our first news is sad, tragic and…
Who loved/loves Lincoln?
When I finished reading the preface to Stacy Lynn’s Loving Lincoln: A Personal History of the Women Who Shaped Lincoln’s Life and Legacy, I was in tears. She had precisely nailed the types of demeaning and painful incidents experienced by most women historians and scholars in male-dominated fields. It was not at all what I…
Editors note 6/26/25
This week Illinois Times welcomes our summer intern, Maggie Dougherty, of Charlottesville, Virginia. A master’s degree student with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Maggie is particularly interested in investigative journalism and local news reporting. Earlier this year she was a reporting fellow with Capitol News Illinois in Springfield. Her undergraduate degree, from The College…
CWLP adds more solar
Last month, the Springfield City Council approved CWLP’s proposal for a new solar contract. CWLP will enter into a 25-year agreement with Sangamon Solar to spend $13 million to purchase 25 megawatts of energy and capacity, with plans to utilize a new 100-megawatt, 750-acre solar installation to be built to the south of Chatham. The…
Post Death Poem
How does one fill up forever? I suppose there all the old folk to talk to – Does Moses have a constant audience or does he get tired or bored with saying it all again? But it is never the same. For there are new people to talk to, new experiences, deaths. But suppose one…
Letters to the editor 6/25/26
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. — NO THIRD STREET GREENWAY What are our leaders thinking? For over a decade, successive administrations have focused on turning the Third Street rail corridor into a multi-use trail, the Third Street greenway. Current estimates…
