Three weeks after the director of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice announced his resignation, two different studies are calling for major changes in the troubled agency’s operations. Kurt Friedenauer announced his resignation as IDJJ director on July 14, having served in that position since the department’s creation in 2006. Friedenauer oversaw IDJJ’s slow separation […]
Illinois
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This is the village it takes
On a quiet street in Rantoul sits a small neighborhood of 15 nondescript duplex houses, part of a larger subdivision built decades ago to house the families of pilots and workers at the now-closed Chanute Air Force Base. Although it’s impossible to tell just by looking, something remarkable is happening here: adopted kids from troubled […]
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Cohen: ‘Illinois needs honesty, not perfection’
Illinois hasn’t heard the last of Scott Lee Cohen. After winning the Democratic Party’s nomination for lieutenant governor in the February primary election, Cohen bowed out of the race, and he is now running for governor as an independent instead. Last week, he met with the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce as part of his […]
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Census shows more minority businesses
When Michael Pittman first began publishing the Capital City Courier newspaper in Springfield in 2006, he wanted to address issues facing an African-American audience – issues he says often aren’t important to mainstream media. “It was something I always wanted to do,” Pittman says. “The emphasis for me was being an alternative source of news […]
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Green for governor
If you knew where to look you might have seen him – bearded, bespectacled and biking through Springfield. Looking more like a college professor than a politician, the Green Party candidate for governor, Rich Whitney, spent May 20 through 28 riding his bike and various trains on a 650-mile tour across the state to promote […]
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Third-party profile: Lex Green, Libertarian for governor
“I want to make it clear,” Lex Green says with wry inflection, “that Libertarians are not just another type of Republican. Democrats tell you they’re going to raise taxes and spend more; Republicans don’t even tell you.” Green is running for governor of Illinois on the Libertarian ticket, a fiscally conservative but socially liberal platform […]
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Cashing in on wind energy
As a cool summer breeze blows over the vast farmland outside Hopedale, about 50 miles north of Springfield, the whisper of rustling corn leaves almost drowns out the soft, intermittent whooshing sound of three gargantuan fan blades slowly slicing through the air. Four hundred feet above the cornstalks, the fiberglass blades turn a generator capable […]
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Auditor uncovers millions in misspent state funds
A series of audits released last week reveal a rash of problems among state agencies and programs. Performed by the office of Illinois Auditor General William Holland, the audits expose millions of dollars of undocumented spending, lax enforcement of inventory and spending controls and poor staff training that resulted in inaccurate financial records. An audit […]
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State shuffling agency offices
State offices in Springfield are about to do the do-si-do as Illinois shuffles office spaces in an attempt to eliminate costly expired leases. The leases are negotiated by the state’s Central Management Services agency, which spent almost $41.3 million for real property rental in Fiscal Year 2010. Many of the new leases replace expired “holdover” […]
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Election board owed $585,000 in unpaid fines
Click for a searchable PDF of all fines as of 5-5-2010: http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/file-45-.pdf More than a half million dollars in unpaid fines have yet to be collected by the State Board of Elections for violations of state election law. Many of the 477 delinquent fines are several years old, totaling $585,623.75. The fines were issued to […]
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Kids in prison
What do you do when you catch a criminal? Conventional wisdom says you lock them up and hope prison scares them straight. But what if that doesn’t work, and what if that criminal is only 13 years old? That’s what Illinois lawmakers thought they were providing four years ago when they established the Illinois Department […]
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Springfield foreclosure rate up slightly
The foreclosure rate in Springfield continues to hover around one percent, but one Springfield woman has a plan to help reduce it and prevent future foreclosures. First American Core Logic, a mortgage data analysis company based in California, says Springfield’s rate of foreclosures was .99 percent in February 2010, just above the .98 percent rate […]
