With his distinctive beard, long black coat and hat, Mendy Turen has been mistaken for a Lincoln impersonator and even an Amish farmer. But he is a Hasidic rabbi serving Springfield as part of the Chabad movement, a subsect of Judaism that stresses traditional worship, adhering to strict dietary and cultural rules and experiencing the […]
Cover Story
Posted inNews
Doing battle with ‘long COVID’
The sniffles, cough and fever that accompanied Tia Wessel’s COVID-19 diagnosis were gone after a few weeks, but the rapid heartbeat, fatigue and dizziness that frightened and frustrated the 33-year-old Jacksonville resident continued for more than a year. “It was a horrible feeling,” she said. “You want to know if you’re ever going to be […]
Posted inNews
Hit and run
For April Poole and Paula Harris, Aug. 13 felt like any other Friday night. They attended Brothers & Sisters, a group of friends who gather for dinner each week at a different restaurant, and on this particular Friday, they dined somewhere on the west side. It was close to 9 when they headed home. As […]
Posted inNews
School comes to Kidzeum
Groups of excited second graders dashed from area to area, clutching notebooks and tablet computers as they explored, documented, measured, calculated and learned. The scene was the Kidzeum of Health and Science in downtown Springfield, and the students were part of the School District 186 STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) Residency Program. This recent […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Spring Home & Garden 2022
As the weather warms up, it’s a good time to think about ways to refresh our home and yard. This year’s Spring Home & Garden issue has tips on decluttering (yes, even if you live with kids), suggestions on planning your garden so you’ll have enough to can and enjoy this winter, ideas for pollinator […]
Posted inNews
A rocky recovery
People are showing up at Gateway Foundation sicker than ever from drug and alcohol addiction because of various factors at play in the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people with substance-use disorder who walk through the doors of Gateway’s Springfield Treatment Center begin to shut down physically and lose consciousness. That’s according to […]
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Fifty years of Doc Helm’s photos
Doc Helm was a legendary Springfield photographer, known as “One Shot Doc” due to his astute ability to compose a shot in his mind and capture it with just one exposure. Nevertheless, he took thousands of images over his 50-plus years behind a camera. More than 21,000 photographs taken during his long career as Illinois’ […]
Posted inNews
DCFS headed in the WRONG DIRECTION
Building more emergency shelters and funding more foster homes seems on the surface to be a logical way to start improving a troubled child welfare system in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has been beset by images of children sleeping in department offices because they have nowhere else to go, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Spring Guide 2022
A new acquaintance was wondering why we hadn’t met before, after having worked within blocks of each other for the past 20 years or so. “I don’t get out much,” is what I told him, although I do, but it’s to the same routine things, not much new. And for the past two years, nobody […]
Posted inNews
Overcoming the odds
Born into a world of legal segregation, Greg Harris has pushed to overcome; today at age 73, he is the new U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois. Harris, who was recently appointed to the job by President Joe Biden, is the first African American to hold the post that oversees federal law enforcement […]
Posted inNews
Meet me at Southtown
The block between 11th and 12th streets along South Grand Avenue, known as Southtown (often spelled as two words), appears run-down, with empty buildings and lack of upkeep. There are a few businesses still going strong. According to John Stremsterfer of the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln and Dominic Watson of the Springfield […]
Posted inNews
Abortion haven
The woman was nervous when she arrived in Springfield. Earlier in the day, she had flown with a companion from her home state of Texas to a Chicago airport, where she rented a car and the two drove to central Illinois. The woman’s goal was to obtain a medical procedure – abortion – that is […]
