On Thursday, May 10, at the Rendezvous Room in the Wyndham Springfield City Centre, NPR Illinois and Illinois Issues presented the first in their most recent series of traveling forums happening across the state, sponsored by AARP Illinois. The forums are collectively entitled “Election 2018: Seeking Solutions” and the Springfield event was moderated by NPR […]
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Brother, can you spare an Abe?
How desperate is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, which owes nearly $10 million for Lincoln artifacts? Check out the foundation’s GoFundMe.com campaign, set up after quiet efforts to secure a state bailout failed. “Save Lincoln Artifacts! Donate NOW!” In just one day, the foundation has raised $1,125 toward its $9.7 million goal, according to […]
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Selling Lincoln
The collection includes gloves that Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theater and a hat that has had its provenance questioned. Shortly after the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation closed a 2007 deal to buy a trove of Lincoln artifacts for $23 million, the nonprofit foundation signed an agreement with the state-owned presidential museum aimed at ensuring […]
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Celebrating three decades, Skank Skates needs help
George Sinclair started building skateboard ramps as a bored Petersburg teenager in the 1970s. At 16, the city of Petersburg paid him $300 to build a 10-foot half-pipe for a contest at a citywide event. “I built it, they had the contest, and then they gave the ramp to me,” he said. The young Sinclair’s […]
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State puts pressure on Schaller
State allegations against a Springfield mortgage broker mirror accusations contained in a lawsuit filed by a Petersburg man who says that he was cheated out of his home. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation on April 19 suspended Chris Schaller’s mortgage loan orginator’s license on an emergency basis, saying that the department has […]
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Finally
The first installment of documents put online by the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project is but a sliver of things to come. But what a sliver it is. It is easy to spend more time than planned browsing through what Lincoln wrote and what he read between his birth in 1809 and 1842, his final […]
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#Swee Too
Lincoln Land Community College kept a professor on the payroll for nearly two decades after students first complained about graphic sexual remarks and unwelcome advances. Former anthropology and psychology teacher Gary Swee retired in March after being accused for the seventh time of sexually harassing and otherwise mistreating students. Female students feared being alone with […]
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Imagination reaches for the divine
Launched in 1996 and running alternate years since, this year’s Liturgical Arts Festival of Springfield is set to present several days of events at multiple venues around town, all centered around themes of the sacred as experienced in the traditions of various faiths. “Our purpose is to bring together art and music and various media […]
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Sheriff hires supporter’s relative
Sangamon County sheriff Wes Barr has hired the son of former state Sen. Larry Bomke, a Republican who contributed to the sheriff’s 2014 election campaign and called him a “once in a lifetime” candidate in a television commercial. Lawrence Bomke will be sworn in as a sheriff’s deputy on Monday after more than five years […]
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Chickening out
Cavan Sullivan and his family have a grain farm in Petersburg and recently decided to expand their business by opening Petersburg Processing, a poultry processor. As a processor, Sullivan also markets the chickens he processes, having developed relationships with various distributors who then deliver and sell to consumers in Chicago and St. Louis. “One challenge […]
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You’re in Abe’s Army now
Walkers, race walkers and runners of all fitness levels are cordially invited to participate in Abe’s Army, a 12-week program that trains participants to walk, run or race walk the Abe’s Amble 10K, Springfield’s premiere 6.2-mile road race held annually on the last day of the Illinois State Fair. Abe’s Army will begin with an […]
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Alleged dealer also a former madam
A Salisbury woman accused of dealing synthetic marijuana has been in trouble before. Letha Dean, 71, pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges in 2009, long before she was arrested last week and charged with peddling thousands of packets of synthetic marijuana, which is plant material that’s been sprayed with chemicals. The drug, said to have horrible […]
