Feature

Sunshine Clemons was in high school when she had one of those formative experiences nearly every black person has involving police. Clemons, who lives in Springfield, says she and a couple of her fellow black friends were pulled over while driving in southern Illinois, ordered out of the car, restrained with zip ties and forced […]

Less than 90 minutes after quitting time, the last member of this work crew from Mexico emerges, freshly showered, from the bathroom in a house that’s walking distance from a farm where they are employed as construction workers, performing such tasks as welding, installing doors and framing buildings. “Construction of livestock buildings” is the “primary […]

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY BGA A small and obscure law firm backed by powerful forces sympathetic to what critics say is Gov. Bruce Rauner’s anti-union agenda is on the front lines of a groundbreaking government vs. labor mêlée underway in Illinois. The Liberty Justice Center in Chicago is representing the Village of Lincolnshire in two lawsuits brought […]

Arvin attaches a rubber band to hold pieces of honey comb to a hive frame during a recent feral bee removal. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE As Arvin Pierce and I pull up to a house in Virden and step out of his small red pickup truck, a young boy cowers near the back steps. He […]

Even four years after successfully kicking his addiction to prescription pills like Percocet and Hydrocodone, Darren still red-flags himself at doctor visits. “I am a recovering addict,” said Darren, a Springfield resident who asked to use a pseudonym for this article. Darren is one of 2.1 million people nationwide who have become addicted to prescribed […]

Though picturesque, the moss on this barn at Lincoln’s New Salem hides a roof in dire need of repair. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Illinois’ history is crumbling away. Mansions, museums and monuments that showcase Illinois’ past, and honor famous luminaries, ranging from President Abraham Lincoln to famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, have been battered by […]

COVER Photo by Exelon via Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Illinois has a long history with the atom. The world’s first nuclear reactor began operating in 1942 beneath a football field at the University of Chicago, where scientists with the secret Manhattan Project were developing the atomic bomb. Illinois now has 11 commercial nuclear reactors generating electricity […]

CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT   This story is the product of a collaboration with Illinois Issues. Illinois Issues is produced in Springfield by NPR Illinois. The world had always known about Grace Bedell, an 11-year-old girl who had urged Abraham Lincoln, months before he became president, to grow a beard, on the grounds that he […]

If Hollywood knows one thing it’s, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Actually, the phrase is “If we got a hit, let’s run it into the ground.” This practice is never more apparent than during the summer movie season, the three months out of the year where the studios make most of their money. […]

George Dinges trusted Susan Satterlee with every aspect of his Springfield-based business when he hired her 10 years ago as his operations manager. He would later find out she stole $2.5 million from his business over the course of more than five years. “I placed a lot of trust in Susan,” Dinges said. “That violation […]

PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE It took nearly a year for the honeymoon to end, but Mayor Jim Langfelder this spring finally faced a room full of constituents angry at him. City council chambers in April bulged with people clutching signs: “Enough is enough: Protect our kids.” The signs were held high as speaker after speaker […]

In 1834, Joshua Speed, an ambitious young man from a well-to-do Kentucky family, set up a dry goods store in a two-story brick house on the corner of Fifth and Washington Streets in Springfield. Located on the town square in the commercial and governmental heart of what would become the state capital five years later, […]