Feature

T his year Springfield’s Harvard Park neighborhood celebrates the centennial of its annexation to the city. The neighborhood’s roots reach back to one of Springfield’s oldest families and tell the story of forward-thinking community planners who believed well-designed neighborhoods could provide beautiful scenery and easy access to jobs and recreation at affordable prices. Harvard Park […]

One day three years ago, Bob Gray picked up the phone and called Rudy Davenport. The white Republican committeeman told the former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that he wanted to start a club. It would be something different for Springfield, Gray told Davenport, modeled after a 105-year-old Chicago […]

It’s funny what a smidge of positive press, a little marketing gizmo, and a good reputation can do for a film festival. This year’s Route 66 Film Festival — the 7th annual — received six times the usual number of submissions, says festival director Linda McElroy, including entries from every continent on the globe except […]

When Buff Carmichael started his own monthly newspaper in 1996, he took it to the closest printer he could afford, in a town just about 25 miles away. The printer agreed to produce Carmichael’s paper on one condition: that Carmichael deliver his flats by 6 a.m. on production day, and depart with his bundles of […]

­­ t’s the first day of the fall semester and Cynthia Maskey, associate dean of nursing at Lincoln Land Community College, has already lost one of her teachers. An adjunct nursing instructor gave up the part-time teaching position in Springfield for a full-time job with benefits in another city. Despite the instructor’s departure coming in […]

When Shelley Pethy started college in the early ’80s, the process seemed simple. The Springfield native went to a local bank, filled out a few applications, and acquired loans to fund her associate’s degree in fine arts at Springfield College. She went through the process again in 1995 when she enrolled at University of Illinois […]

Thanks to StudentLoanJustice.org, a national grassroots advocacy organization and political action committee, students from all over have banded together to speak out about the sticky student loan situation. Two central Illinois members share their stories: A local biology professor, who wishes to remain anonymous, began her career with a full-ride scholarship to Saint Louis University. […]

On the morning of April 11, 2007, David Lewis appeared before a Vermilion County grand jury in response to a subpoena. As a part-time police officer for the village of Belgium, Ill. (about five miles south of Danville), Lewis was used to testifying in such proceedings. But this time was disturbingly different: Instead of appearing […]

2008 marks the fourth year Illinois Times and Springfield Green have teamed up to challenge beautification- minded people to make Springfield cleaner and greener. This year ninety-nine projects entered across four general categories: residential, business, non-profits and neighborhood groups. Some projects involved existing gardens that are expanded and changed each growing season. Many were total […]

1992 was a crucial election year in Illinois. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was hoping to carry a swing state that President George H.W. Bush had won by a scant 2 percentage points four years earlier, and Illinois’ Cook County Recorder of Deeds Carol Moseley Braun was attempting to become the nation’s first African-American female senator. […]

Marissa DeWeese didn’t really mind the congestion at Springfield High School. A member of the marching band, DeWeese thought it was pretty cool once when the band and freshman football team practiced on the same field while a group of law-enforcement agency trainees ran laps around the track. Nevertheless, a committee made up of community […]

One consistent truth in the music business: In spite of the heartfelt aspiration and keen ambition felt by the people who trudge it, the path to making music for a living is littered with lost dreams, dashed hopes, and unfulfilled desires. Micah Walk, a singer/songwriter and leader of the Micah Walk Band, is quite aware […]