Cover Story
The museum built on Native American burial mounds
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. This story is part of an ongoing series investigating the return of Native American ancestral remains. Sign up for ProPublica’s Repatriation Project newsletter to get updates as they publish and learn more about our reporting. Every day when Logan Pappenfort is at work, he tries…
Bond reduction denied for two EMS workers charged with murder
Two Springfield emergency medical service workers remain jailed after their failed attempt Feb. 6 to get a judge to reduce their bonds for first-degree murder charges in the suffocation death of Earl Moore Jr. Sangamon County Circuit Judge Robin Schmidt denied any reduction in the $1 million bonds for paramedic Peggy Finley and emergency medical…
Controversy over carbon capture
Sabrina Jones lives in rural Audubon Township in Montgomery County, only 50 yards from a proposed underground well for liquified and pressurized carbon dioxide that would be shipped by pipeline from ethanol and fertilizer plants in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Illinois. The 35-year-old married mother of four children, who is expecting to deliver…
Fighting hunger
Hunger stalks Sarah Rockwood’s family and soon she and her four teenagers may have to make do with less. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress temporarily boosted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by 15%, but in March benefits will return to their pre-pandemic level. Her only sources of income are Social Security and SNAP benefits,…
Reimagining Lincoln Library
The Lincoln Library in Springfield will soon take delivery of a bookmobile, which will allow the library to greatly increase the number of Springfield residents it serves, according to director Summer Griffith. Griffith announced the purchase during a presentation before the City Council on Monday, Jan. 30. The company building the diesel hybrid vehicle has…
Aznarte poem #1
Aznarte poem #1 So many I cherish in the Springfield area: Tom and Jeanne, Mitch, groups of readers, writers, ALUUC, etc. etc. In particular take Angela, so cheerful in her kitchen frock tho she seldom spills (whilst I eat pistachio nuts) then comes dinner often grilled salmon she commutes all the…
Letters to the editor 02-09-23
NOT A CITY LOAN I am taking this opportunity to clarify a “perplexed” statement an alderman made in the article “City council ponders a ban on electric surfboards” (Feb. 2). The funding for Surf Springfield was provided through Justine Petersen, the largest micro-business lender in the country. The city of Springfield, along with local banks,…
When you don’t drink
“Why aren’t you drinking?” My former boss slurred those words as he looked across a table while he and my coworkers downed a pitcher of beer at a mandatory staff pizza party. Drinkers ask that question. Not only is it off-putting and rude, it’s ubiquitous. I’ve never quite understood why that’s anyone’s business but my…
An after-school program where children teach grownups
I volunteer a couple hours a week at a Springfield after-school program called Compass for Kids, but it’s for adults. It’s for both, I suppose, and I’m sure these elementary-school kids from low-income families get a lot out of it too. If we described it as a program to help adults learn how to be…
Long-term perspectives on Dickson Mounds Museum and NAGPRA
Dickson Mounds Museum, which exhibited an excavated Native American cemetery, was transferred to the Illinois State Museum in 1965. Construction of a new museum was initiated in 1970, and the new museum with the excavated burials exhibited in one wing, opened in 1972. Bruce McMillan became director of the Illinois State Museum in 1977, and…
You can be a home chocolatier
Working with chocolate can be tricky, but creating glossy, beautiful treats is possible in your own kitchen as long as you stick to a few key principles. Professional chocolatiers spend years mastering their craft and use expensive specialty equipment to melt and stir their chocolate to the perfect consistency. However, with a little science and…
Happy valen-tunes to you
Don’t look now, but February (though the weather feels more like April!) is creeping right by us with Valentine’s Day around the bend. Good music keeps making the good times even better and there’s no end in sight, which is a mighty nice thing. Let’s take a peek at what’s happening ’round town and give…
Somebody I Used to Know and 80 For Brady both lacking
Cast stumbles through Somebody I wanted to like Dave Franco’s Somebody I Used to Know, I really did. The cast is appealing, the Pacific Northwest setting is arresting, and the running time is a reasonable 105 minutes. That its attractive star, Alison Brie, has a streaking scene is certainly a plus as well. Yet, these…
Pritzker announces $40 million grant program to promote development-ready ‘megasites’
Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday announced the creation of a $40 million grant program to incentivize the creation of large development-ready areas known as “megasites” across the state. Megasites are large swaths of land, developed to attract businesses such as manufacturing plants, warehouses and distribution centers. Pritzker said developing these sites will help make Illinois…
