Feature

Prairie Dreams: The History of Clayville and Its People. Dates and times: July 4, 6 p.m., July 5, 7 p.m. July 6, 3 p.m. Admission: Adults (13 and over) $13.50. Seniors and veterans $11.50. Youth (12 and under) $8.50. Tickets: Clayville Trading Post, Tues-Sat, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., 217-572-4984. Sangamon Auditorium, 217-206-6160. Visit www.clayville.org for […]

Steven Beckett pleads naive. When he drew up a bill to divorce the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, the University of Illinois law professor who chairs an ALPLM advisory board says he had no idea that he was an architect of uproar. The bill would give Beckett’s advisory […]

Climate change is happening already, and climate scientists say the more the globe heats up, the more humans will suffer. Summer heat will last longer and bring hotter average temperatures. Wildfire season will start earlier and end later, while prolonged drought in some areas will further raise the risk of fires. Other areas will see […]

Volunteers at the Lewis Memorial trail. PHOTO BY KEVIN GREENE Ever since humans could stand upright and walk, they would create paths to destinations that attracted them out of necessity or curiosity. Except for paved roads, things have changed little in some places where walkers or some cyclists trample through fields and woods. Such trails, […]

“SOHO is a vehicle to expose Springfield to its own unique talent” Twenty years ago, Eric Welch had a vision. “I was 21 years old,” he recalls, “and I’d started going out to the bars and seeing local bands that I was thrilled by. Then I would go downtown to all these music festivals – […]

Ed Boblitt just before his deployment to Vietnam in 1968. To his left, his fiancee Janice. The couple broke their engagement in 1969 and were married in 2009, 40 years later. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs scandal is starting to hit closer to home. It was late 2013 when Dr. Sam Foote filed a […]

Anita Bedell is the longest-tenured director of Illinois Church Action On Alcohol and Addiction since the organization’s start as a temperance group in 1898. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE She’s almost always outgunned, outfinanced and outvoted, but it’s hard to imagine Anita Bedell getting outworked. As executive director of Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction […]

Coal has powered the world for hundreds of years because it is a relatively cheap and reliable source of power. But it’s also filthy, creating messes at every step from the mine to the smokestack. Pollution controls have reduced some of the nasty side effects of burning coal for power, but the cost of compliance […]

Adjunct instructor Megan Rigoni-McCormic works with art students at UIS. Photo BY DAVID HINE The use of adjunct instructors – part-time, non-staff teachers in higher education, sometimes referred to as “contingent faculty” – has become increasingly common in colleges and universities dealing with financial hardships imposed by slashed budgets. It is not hard to understand […]