Feature

PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Having finished third in the Feb. 24 primary, Mayor Mike Houston is finished as mayor. But he isn’t categorical about running for elective office in the future, nor is he shy about defending his record as mayor, both this time around and for two terms from 1979 to 1987, when he […]

About the articleThis article is the product of a collaboration between Illinois Times and the Better Government Association. The BGA is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit government watchdog that specializes in investigativereporting with media partners throughout the state. The BGA’s Rescuing Illinois Project is an ongoing series of in-depth reports examining state government and its […]

Illinois was deeply in debt and its financial outlook was bleak. After a close gubernatorial race, the people of Illinois elected a wealthy Chicago-area businessman as their governor, hoping that his talent for making money would steer the state away from a looming fiscal crisis. Instead, Gov. Joel Matteson, who held office from 1853 to […]

Christopher Abernathy walked free on Feb. 11 after spending more than 60 percent of his life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE The morning of Feb. 11 started like any other for Christopher Abernathy: wake up at 6 a.m., make coffee in his prison cell, then get ready to […]

Edward Burch has a fondness for Prohibition-era cocktails. Edward Burch of Springfield can fix an extraordinary Martini with dry rye gin, blanc vermouth, and old-style Boker’s Bitters while recounting the drink’s unique history and the nuances of each ingredient in great detail. Recently while serving cocktails to friends, he began the evening by offering a […]

Springfield has never elected a black mayor. It’s been 16 years since an African-American candidate even ran for mayor. Allan Woodson was one of Springfield’s first black aldermen and the last black person to run for mayor. Following a historic voting rights lawsuit and resulting transition from the commission form of city government in 1987, […]

The bobcat population has rebounded throughout the United States, including in Illinois. Bobcat hunting, Ron Edgerly swears, is about as much fun as a man can have in the woods. Just listen to him tell what happened when the quarry doubled back on its tracks in the frozen Gogomain Swamp in the upper reaches of […]

David Brodsky with a pair of his photographs at the Prairie Art Alliance gallery. PHOTO BY ALLA BRODSKY Before David Brodsky and his family immigrated to the United States almost exactly 25 years ago, with the help of the Springfield Jewish Federation, he was literally a man without a country. “In Soviet Union, to be […]

CARTOON BY CHRIS BRITT Governor-elect Bruce Rauner said all the right things while not saying much during a December speech in Springfield filled with generalities and rah-rah talk. We need a tax code overhaul and long-term structural change to eliminate budget deficits. Forget about politics, I’m going to do what’s right and get the state’s […]

As far as the movie world is concerned, 2014 will be remembered as the year in which things ended with an international bang and a corporate whimper. After having massive numbers of files hacked, presumably by representatives of North Korea, Sony Pictures was forced to capitulate to terrorist demands and shelf the Seth Rogan-James Franco […]