A Springfield man who cheated dozens of people out of millions of dollars could face six and a half years in prison, if a federal judge grants prosecutors’ latest request. James U. Dodge pleaded guilty in September of running a Ponzi scheme which targeted several Springfield residents, including Dodge’s friends, fellow retirees and a parapalegic […]
Rachel Wells
Posted inNews
State education funding woefully inadequate
Properly educating a schoolchild in Illinois takes upwards of $2,200 more per pupil than the state currently ensures, according to the latest report from Illinois’ Education Funding Advisory Board. EFAB, which earlier this month issued its first findings since 2005, is charged with recommending to state lawmakers an appropriate “foundation level” – the minimum amount […]
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Schools ‘wrap’ troubled kids
In the fall of 2009, one Springfield elementary student was sent to the office for discipline 30 different times. The next semester, that number was down to 12 visits, with only three before he became temporarily homeless. The decrease was achieved through the district’s most intense behavior intervention program, a PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and […]
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Coal ash disposal draws ire
Strolling along Macoupin Creek in October, environmentalists observed in the middle of the day flowing water the color of a moonless night sky. While the samples they grabbed weren’t analyzed at a lab, Mary Ellen DeClue, of Citizens Against Longwall Mining, is convinced she knows why the water was black – it had been contaminated […]
