Feature

Many of the women who have participated in the Women’s Distance Festival over the years continue to run and live a life of exercise and fitness. Each has a different story as to how she got involved in running and stuck with it, but they all cite the lasting friendships they have forged and the […]

The Mississippi River system is both an artery and a vein. It pumps ag products out of the heartland and into the world while bringing back fertilizer and steel to keep that economic engine purring. But there’s too much water. Flooding is forcing boats and barges to wait for the river to drop. In the […]

“As soon as I enter the door of a tavern, I experience oblivion of care, and a freedom from solicitude,” said 18th-century English author Samuel Johnson. “There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.” In spite of changing tastes […]

The stories embodied in Springfield’s locally owned and family-operated taverns through the years are the basis for Tavern Talk: Old Taverns and Tales in Springfield, Illinois, a new book by local husband and wife authors Bobby and Sandy Orr. The book opens with a disclaimer that the volume “was compiled from several sources, many of […]

Twenty-five minutes into a city council discussion on the future of City Water, Light and Power last month, someone finally used the c-word. “We always say that CWLP is the crown jewel of Springfield,” proclaimed Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner. “We have to treat it like it’s the crown jewel of Springfield.” “Crown jewel” is […]

Minutes after the Senate put the final touches on first-term Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s sweeping legislative agenda Sunday, June 2, the governor addressed media and delivered a message: “Illinois is back.” “Today, the people of Illinois can be proud that we are putting state government back on the side of working families,” Pritzker said at […]

The job description for a nurse is full of things that people with autism have difficulty doing. But to Elijah “Eli” Hernandez, difficult does not mean impossible. “There were plenty of times where I thought, ‘I don’t think I can do this’” including the period where he was homeless, Hernandez said. “But what’s important is […]

A. Morris Williams came to Springfield as a 23-year-old cobbler in 1902. Within five years he had obtained a law degree, which he put to use helping fellow African-Americans file retribution claims against the City of Springfield after the 1908 Race Riots. A pioneer in the black real estate business, he was responsible for the […]

Gov. J. B. Pritzker and other backers of recreational marijuana have said that ending cannabis prohibition is about social justice, public health and reality, not just money. Nonetheless, Pritzker’s financial goals when it comes to pot are ambitious – his draft budget included $170 million from licenses and fees during the next fiscal year. Potential […]

In Sangamon County, just three people have been charged with drug-induced homicide since Illinois passed a law in 1988 allowing criminal charges for distributing a substance that proves fatal to the person receiving it. However, the law makes no distinction between someone who is selling narcotics or provides a fellow user with what proves to […]

A quarter-century ago, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago was in crisis. A priest had been indicted for sexually abusing a child. Lawsuits were pending. Priests were removed from parishes after the church appointed a commission – two laypeople, plus the auxiliary bishop – to investigate sexual misconduct cases and recommend improvements. After the commission issued […]

With 15 directors in 16 years, court-ordered compliance, government reviews, stormy legislative hearings and several recent highly publicized deaths of children, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has become everyone’s punching bag. The newly nominated DCFS director, former department employee Marc D. Smith, faces the unenviable task of trying to run the […]