At least four relatives of Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder have gotten city jobs since the mayor took office in 2015. A nephew who worked a $10-per-hour temporary job at the public works department in the summer of 2017 is no longer on the city payroll, nor is Travis Hamlin, a former budget analyst with the […]
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Anti-Muslim post appears on clerk’s Facebook page
A Facebook post quoting conservative former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann saying that Muslims are out to destroy Christianity briefly appeared on the Facebook page of Sangamon County circuit clerk Paul Palazzolo on Tuesday night. “The movement of Muslims into Europe and the U.S. is a planned invasion for the specific purpose of destroying Western Christendom,” […]
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H.O.T. cops reaching out
The Springfield Police Department is now one of just a handful of law enforcement agencies around the country that has a Homeless Outreach Team. Homelessness isn’t isolated to one part of Springfield, and responding police officers have been left with limited options when dealing with a transient population. “There’s not a section of town or […]
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Health care starts at home
The Pillsbury Mills neighborhood is next on the list for health care professionals who are attempting to affect positive change in Springfield, block by block. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 6.8 percent of Illinois residents were uninsured in 2017, less than the national average of 8.7 percent. Despite this, there are still areas where […]
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Park District board to fill three seats
Five candidates are seeking three seats on the Springfield Park District Board, a position that entrusts those who are elected to care for the more than 40 parks and golf courses, a zoo and a budget exceeding $25 million. The seven-member board has three trustee positions – Don Evans, Tina Jannazzo and C.J. Metcalf seats […]
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Spreading the wealth
Springfield visitors who take the South Grand Avenue exit off Interstate 72 may think they’ve ended up in Detroit instead of Illinois’ capital. If those same visitors make a right on to 16th Street, they’ll find themselves in the heart of the east side, where a residential street resembles a mouth with few teeth. With […]
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Piece of the pot
With growing support among politicians and the public, Illinois could likely legalize recreational marijuana as soon as next year. But, passing legislation may hinge on where the revenue will go. There may be several reasons to make pot legal in Illinois, but the one that catches the most attention involves dollar signs, and rightfully so. […]
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Couple claims discrimination
The sides can’t agree on what happened, and so at least one thing must be true: Someone is either lying or mistaken. Alex and Taylor Walker say they were the subject of discrimination at the hands of a Habitat for Humanity store manager in Sullivan, where they said they were ordered out of the store […]
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Right into the new year
It’s nice to have New Year’s Day on a Tuesday this year, giving us our weekend free to enjoy live music at the regular times plus a day of rest before New Year’s Eve. That worked out quite well, thank you very much. You can start your post-Christmas entertainment weekend with a bang on Thursday […]
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Remembering the lives they lived
About the issue It is our tradition to reserve our last issue of the year for remembering some of the Springfield-area people who have died in the past year. Those we include here are people who have come to the attention of our writers, and others brought to IT by readers answering our call to […]
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Deaf Wings, a voice for victims
Victims of domestic or sexual violence often don’t reach out for help or report incidents to law enforcement. For deaf women, the barriers are even greater. Deaf Wings is an initiative of the Jacksonville Area Center for Independent Living (JACIL) designed to help women deal with the violence they have experienced. Deaf Wings is like […]
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From vaccines to child abuse
A recent story in New Yorker magazine paints a Springfield radiologist as a physician who’s moved from the fringe of vaccine controversies to the outer limit of child abuse experts. Before becoming an expert witness in child abuse cases, Dr. David Ayoub argued that immunization amounts to genocide in the Third World. When it comes […]
