Feature

A sense of relief returned to Illinois government last week. For the first time in years, lawmakers agreed to a budget by their May 31 deadline, and they did it with little partisan acrimony. But larger problems still loom. Among the biggest are the state’s backlog of unpaid bills, its unfunded pension liabilities and the […]

The Springfield Muni Opera is starting its 2018 season on skid row. Specifically, the cartoonish version of skid row which serves as the setting for Little Shop of Horrors. The cheerfully dark musical comedy, which opens Friday, June 1, follows a good-natured, nebbishy flower store employee named Seymour (Kevin Hart) as he inadvertently unleashes bedlam […]

Talk about being unfriended. If State Senator Sam McCann from the Macoupin County community of Plainview was unpopular with the powers that be in Springfield before, he became a virtual pariah following his April 19 announcement that he would form the Conservative Party and become the third candidate for Illinois governor. The reaction from those […]

As a basketball player, Heather Moore didn’t fit the mold. Chiefly, she was too short and too slight – vintage media guides from High Point University in North Carolina, her alma mater, list her at five foot six. In middle school, she played at south of five feet, and her coach told her that she’d […]

“NPR is one of the top news sources in the country today,” said Randy Eccles, general manager and publisher for NPR Illinois, the radio station housed at the University of Illinois Springfield and previously branded as WUIS. “It is rated highly and seen as very credible. All the member stations are a part of that, […]

“It was sooooo much fun. I met so many amazing, grit-filled and passionate people.” Most of us can’t imagine that reaction to running more than 24 hours to cover 100 miles, with the temperature as low as 17 degrees. But, that was Joe Miller’s reaction a day after he completed the 100-mile Potawatomi Trail Run […]

The case sounds simple. Acting on a tip, Springfield cops last July 26 served a search warrant at a Black Avenue home near Fairview Elementary School, finding a dozen marijuana plants in full bud and 33 others less far along. Possession of between 20 and 50 plants is a Class 3 felony, punishable by probation […]

You need to be really good at what you do. You’ve got to be an innovator while respecting tradition. An inspirational leader and a public servant. A mechanic, conservationist, lobbyist, financial planner, gambler, philanthropist and working-class hero. Four people have what it takes this year to be selected as Master Farmers by Prairie Farmer magazine: […]

The annual Women’s Power Lunch Against Cancer inspires and educates, while raising funds for cancer research at Simmons Cancer Institute (SCI) at SIU Medicine. The 9th annual Women’s Power Lunch is Friday, April 27, at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel in downtown Springfield. It is an excellent opportunity for women to join together in the […]

From the outside, BLH Computers, Inc. looks like a small nondescript storefront business, located in a strip mall on Stevenson Drive in Springfield. If you’ve ever needed to dispose of an outdated computer or old TV, you may have walked in the door and dropped off your unwanted item, happy to get it out of […]