On April 5, voters in four of seven sub-districts will be asked to choose who they want representing them on District 186’s school board for the next two years. The 10 candidates, all of whom participated in a recent Springfield Parents for Public Schools forum, have varied backgrounds and professions but all say their past […]
election
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Mayor candidates break from the past
Reform is the theme in the race for mayor, as the candidates begin outlining their plans to change how the city operates. At a public forum on March 3, three of the four candidates for Springfield mayor addressed issues of transparency, political patronage, minority representation and more, each saying their administration would represent a break […]
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Will the next mayor please step forward?
Every candidate has ideas for what they will do when they are elected mayor. Spend more wisely, they say. Encourage business growth, develop the medical district and bring in more tourists. Get rid of unneeded political hires and look for inefficiencies in city government. These are positive ideas, but they are hardly visionary, and every […]
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Conflicting stories in fight with county board member
A recent fight involving a county board member at Grand Valley Village in Springfield left one young man hospitalized and in police custody, but the youth’s parents say the police got the story wrong. On Oct. 10, Sangamon County Board member William “Bill” Moss, a Republican, got into a fight with a 16-year-old Grand Valley […]
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Voters to decide on sales tax for schools
If voters next week approve a referendum raising Sangamon County’s sales tax rate from 8 percent to a maximum of 9 percent, it would reaffirm a philosophical shift in school funding already begun by the Illinois state legislature, says David Root, superintendent of Williamsville schools. Without sales tax revenue, school funding in Illinois is based […]
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Mother of beaten girl questions sheriff’s investigation
The recent beating of a Springfield woman has the victim’s mother questioning how the Sangamon County Sheriff’s office handles criminal investigations. Violet Procarione of Springfield says her daughter, Connie Procarione, 18, had been drinking, though she was underage, at a friend’s house on July 11 when she fell asleep on the couch and awoke to […]
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Opponent claims sheriff mishandling deputy contracts
Doug Knight remembers several years ago when gangs tried to take claim to his business as their turf. He offered them a full refund to never return to Knight’s Action Park in Springfield, where he is general manager and part owner, but Knight says it was the presence of an off-duty Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy […]
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Cohen: ‘Illinois needs honesty, not perfection’
Illinois hasn’t heard the last of Scott Lee Cohen. After winning the Democratic Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor in the February primary election, Cohen bowed out of the race, and he is now running for governor as an independent instead. Last week, he met with the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce as part of his […]
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Green for governor
If you knew where to look you might have seen him – bearded, bespectacled and biking through Springfield. Looking more like a college professor than a politician, the Green Party candidate for governor, Rich Whitney, spent May 20 through 28 riding his bike and various trains on a 650-mile tour across the state to promote […]
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Third-party profile: Lex Green, Libertarian for governor
“I want to make it clear,” Lex Green says with wry inflection, “that Libertarians are not just another type of Republican. Democrats tell you they’re going to raise taxes and spend more; Republicans don’t even tell you.” Green is running for governor of Illinois on the Libertarian ticket, a fiscally conservative but socially liberal platform […]
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Election board owed $585,000 in unpaid fines
Click for a searchable PDF of all fines as of 5-5-2010: http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/file-45-.pdf More than a half million dollars in unpaid fines have yet to be collected by the State Board of Elections for violations of state election law. Many of the 477 delinquent fines are several years old, totaling $585,623.75. The fines were issued to […]
