With U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois looking on, Ken Humphreys, CEO of the FutureGen Alliance, signs a labor agreement on Monday to provide union labor for the FutureGen project planned in a rural area outside Jacksonville. The agreement may signal that the long-delayed project is moving forward. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Illinois is one […]
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Panhandlers appeal lawsuit setback
Don Norton panhandles in Springfield. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Two well-known panhandlers in Springfield are appealing an initial defeat in their lawsuit against the city. Even if they lose the appeal, however, they’ll likely have another chance to make their case. The panhandlers seek to have the City of Springfield’s ban on panhandling downtown struck […]
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Looking for jobs
A local activist group is putting pressure on the City of Springfield to hire more minorities and to only work with contractors who also hire minorities. Larry Beckom of Springfield leads Bridging the Gap, a group dedicated to ensuring minority job opportunities. He calls the city’s record of minority hiring “dismal,” and is pushing for […]
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Springfield small business owner lobbies in Washington, D.C.
If there’s a stereotype of a men’s clothing salesperson, Brandi Tolley of Springfield isn’t it. A work-from-home single mother and a military veteran, Tolley started her online eBay-based business about 10 years ago, and she quickly found her niche: buying and selling “big and tall” men’s clothes, sometimes even acting as a personal shopper for […]
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Power company generates questions
A power generating company with plans for a major new plant in Illinois has been implicated in the corruption trial of a former Oklahoma senator convicted of bribery. During federal court testimony last week in the trial of Oklahoma’s former senate president pro tem Michael Morgan, Nebraska-based power company Tenaska was identified as the firm […]
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Does minimum wage boost help or hurt?
Increasing the minimum wage doesn’t cause job loss as commonly thought, according to researchers pushing for a higher minimum wage in Illinois. State lawmakers will likely consider a bill this month that could mean higher pay for 1.1 million low-wage Illinois workers. The report, released Jan. 30 by the Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, touts […]
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Lawsuit claims Illinois illegally withholds treatment for kids
A class action lawsuit against the state of Illinois alleges state welfare agencies illegally withhold treatment for children with emotional and behavioral disorders. The lawsuit could affect more than 18,000 youth with severe mental illnesses and emotional disturbances in Illinois. Filed against the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the lawsuit seeks to force […]
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Planning a one-stop shop for health insurance
Flash forward to the future: The year is 2014, and Illinois residents are buying their health insurance in a new way. Instead of fumbling with numerous complex health insurance plans, they have the option of buying pre-approved, comprehensive plans through a state-administered website. That’s how a state council on health reform envisions it. The Illinois […]
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Illinois health reform continues
Illinois is moving ahead with health care reform, despite a Republican-led movement in Congress to repeal the federal law. The state continues to implement provisions of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including a new high-risk insurance pool and consumer protection against unreasonable rate increases. Every Republican and three Democrats in the U.S. […]
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People with disabilities seek independence
Health care reform could be a big plus for the disabled, says one Springfield disability advocate, but only if the state fundamentally changes how it handles those with special needs. Tyler McHaley, president of Springfield Area Disability Activists (www.disabilityactivists.org), shared that message Nov. 16 with the Health Care Reform Implementation Council, a collection of state […]
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Feds censure state on farm waste
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Illinois fails to regulate manure from certain livestock farms, calling on the state to completely revamp its system of oversight or risk losing its enforcement authority. In a report released in late September, the U.S. EPA says the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has not fully implemented a federally mandated […]
