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 […]
Patrick Yeagle
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Ready to work
ILLUSTRATION BY KIRK LYTTLE/MCT With about $4 billion in transportation and other projects planned for Springfield in the coming years, groups in Springfield are already working to ensure a fair share of the jobs generated go to minorities. The Faith Coalition for the Common Good and Bridging the Gap, both based in Springfield, are helping […]
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Getting it right
Brian Banks spent five years in prison for a rape that never occurred, but he was freed with help from the California Innocence Project. Banks is shown here carrying petitions calling for the release of another prisoner in California whom some believe to be innocent. PHOTO BY BRIAN VAN DER BRUG/MCT Brian Banks had the […]
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Illinois may decriminalize small amounts of marijuana
Rep. Michael Zalewski sponsors one of three bills that would lower penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Photo BY PATRICK YEAGLE Illinois could follow the example of several other states in decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, thanks to legislation under consideration in the Illinois General Assembly. The three bills prescribe tickets – effectively […]
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Illinois may end ‘planned abandonment’
Toni Hoy speaks to lawmakers during a legislative hearing on a bill to end “planned abandonment” of adopted children who need intensive care for emotional disturbances. Photo BY PATRICK YEAGLE When Dan Hoy was just six months old, he was taken from his biological parents by the state. He was lethargic and starving to death, […]
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Supreme Court strikes down recording law
Watch what you say; it can now be recorded without your knowledge or consent. The Illinois Supreme Court decided this very thing last week in a pair of unanimous decisions that invalidated a state law requiring “two-party consent” to record conversations. The decisions bring Illinois in line with the majority of other states and further […]
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Health insurance deadline approaches
James Hayes, Harvard Park Elementary principal, and Peggy Cormeny, family and community engagement coordinator for Springfield Public Schools, appear outside the school, which recently hosted an event helping families enroll in health insurance. Photo BY PATRICK YEAGLE A national deadline to enroll in health insurance looms at the end of March, and Springfield Public Schools […]
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What is Madigan planning for the income tax?
House Speaker Michael Madigan hoto BY PATRICK YEAGLE UPDATE: On Thursday afternoon, Madigan announced a plan to tax personal income over $1 million at an extra 3 percent, bringing the effective rate for people earning more than $1 million to 8 percent. Individuals with income under $1 million would continue to pay the current […]
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A beacon for ex-cons
Before he was even 12, Lorenzo Louden had shot a man and slept with two prostitutes. Growing up so early, it’s no wonder he preferred gang life to school and eventually wound up in prison. Now 57, Louden runs the Springfield-based nonprofit Tower of Refuge with his wife, Bevey. Using his life experience and her […]
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What’s making us sick?
In 1984, an engineer named Stanley Watras set off a radiation detector at the nuclear power plant he was helping to build in Pottstown, Pa. The power plant hadn’t started producing power yet, so plant officials were perplexed at how Watras could have become so radioactive. What they found revealed a potential danger in homes […]
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Group pushing for school funding vote
A group of parents, teachers and volunteers is pushing the Springfield Public Schools board to place a school funding referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot. The group, Invest in 186, has proposed a plan that would raise between $8 million and $10 million. The money would begin to replace millions of dollars which were cut […]
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Sniffing out trouble
Springfield patrol officer Dave Pletsch prepares for a training search with his dog, Utah, in a building on the Illinois State Fair Grounds. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Inside a livestock building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds, a man is hiding stashes of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine in state-owned work vehicles parked inside for the […]
