Effectively addressing homelessness requires our community to do more than solve individual crises. We have to build deeply connected systems of care with the whole person in mind. In many communities, physical health, mental health, behavioral health and homeless services function as mostly isolated systems of support, leaving people to figure out how to navigate […]
sangamon county
Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
Are we making progress on efforts to address homelessness?
In 2020, our community began to take tangible steps to evaluate gaps in services to address homelessness and chart a new way forward. Community leaders, service providers, people with lived experience of homelessness and community members gave input about challenges related to homelessness and shared their hopes for what could be. The result was the […]
Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
We can build a mental health system we can all count on
For most of us in Sangamon County, gaps in mental health services are felt in deeply personal ways. A recent survey of every census tract in our community found that four in 10 of our neighbors have had an unmet mental health need in the last three years. While a decade of assessments has warned […]
Posted inNews
Massey family to receive $10 million settlement
Sangamon County government will be spared from a lawsuit and a potentially embarrassing trial under a $10 million settlement with the family of Sonya Massey. The settlement, the largest of its kind in Sangamon County history, was reached last week, County Board member Craig Hall told Illinois Times on Feb. 6. As part of the […]
Posted inNews
A pledge to improve
The Jan. 16 agreement between Sangamon County officials and the U.S. Department of Justice ended a federal race and disability discrimination probe of county government but failed to satisfy critics in the wake of the police-involved killing of Sonya Massey. Sheriff Paula Crouch said in a news release from the county that the DOJ review, […]
Posted inNews
Former foster father charged after boy’s drowning
A 48-year-old Springfield man and former City Council candidate was charged July 24 with endangering the life or health of a child in connection with the March 16 swimming pool drowning of 7-year-old Barrett Koches. David Yankee, of the 2300 block of Winnebago Drive, was charged in a Sangamon County grand jury indictment with two […]
Posted inOpinion
The light that turns people on
Everybody’s very happy’Cause the sun is shining all the timeLooks like another perfect dayI love L.A. – “I Love L.A.” by Randy Newman For years, people measured the deficiencies of life in Springfield in terms of lifestyle emporia or ethnic eateries. The city’s gloominess was thought to be cultural, not meteorological. But according to NASA […]
Posted inMusic
Frank’s Discount Lounge Act
Remember those entertainment relics called “lounge singers” who could somewhat sleazily, but mostly cheesily, easily charm the pants off a mannequin? Bill Murray famously portrayed one in the 70s on Saturday Night Live and Lord only knows how many made an honest living doing it for real in days gone by. Now Frank Trompeter, renowned […]
Posted inNews
Pension tension
The Illinois Supreme Court will hear arguments on a lawsuit over public pension benefits next week, bringing to a head fundamental disagreements over the rights conferred by Illinois’ constitution and whether an emergency justifies overriding the constitution. If state employees and retirees are successful, they’ll see a law which undisputedly reduces the value of their […]
Posted inNews
Downsizing government by ‘smart streamlining’
Illinois has more local units of government than any other state in the U.S., but consolidating some of those units could make the government more efficient. That was the message at a May 20 forum in Springfield, bringing together the Chicago-based Better Government Association and the Citizens Efficiency Commission for Sangamon County. The two reform […]
Posted inNews
Help for demolishing abandoned homes?
A pile of trash sits covered by a tarp in front of the abandoned house at the corner of 12th and Cass streets. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE A state law aimed at helping municipalities deal with abandoned houses has generated nearly $4 million by taxing banks that foreclose on homes, but the slice of that […]
Posted inNews
Judge rejects retrial in ‘shaken baby’ case
Pamela Jacobazzi A former day care worker accused in 1995 of killing an infant by shaking him was denied a retrial last week, dealing a rare setback to the Springfield-based Illinois Innocence Project. DuPage County Circuit Judge Robert Kleeman on Sept. 20 declined to grant a retrial to Pamela Jacobazzi, 58, who has spent the […]
