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 […]
springfield
Posted inCommunity & Lifestyle
Good trouble
Being a resident of this town often reminds you of the Vachel Lindsay poem Springfield Magical. Lindsay describes Springfield as “the City of my Discontent” and any longtime resident would second his sentiment. As a native of Springfield, I am all too familiar with the feeling of discontent this city breeds. Growing up here, I […]
Posted inNews
Combating human trafficking
When Gregory L. Fraase described the conditions that women working in his Asian massage parlors endured when they were growing up overseas, his words highlighted the way he and others may have taken advantage of their desperation. “Most of these girls coming over, they don’t even have a shower in their house,” Fraase, 61, told […]
Posted inNews
Amy Rasing slated as new director of OPED
Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher wants to promote the city’s operations coordinator for state and federal grants to head the Office of Planning and Economic Development. Buscher told Illinois Times on Dec. 10 that she will ask the City Council to approve Amy Rasing to succeed the retiring Val Yazell as director of the office. The […]
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 inNews
Argument about pot of water leads to murder charges
A Sangamon County deputy sheriff fired his gun three times at Sonya Massey in her home after the unarmed 36-year-old woman held her hands in the air, told him “I’m sorry” and ducked for cover behind a counter. That information was part of the successful argument a Sangamon County assistant state’s attorney used July 18 […]
Posted inNews
Lakeisha Purchase violated IDOT policy, report says
Lakeisha Purchase took part in phone calls unrelated to her job at the Illinois Department of Transportation for almost half of the time she was supposed to be working during an 18-month period in 2021 and 2022, a state report says. Purchase, 35, a former Capital Township trustee and the Springfield Ward 5 alderperson since […]
Posted inZLegacy Info Pages
217 virtual music performances
Check out the area’s local musicians still doing what they love to do.
Posted inMusic
Hot dang music
Ashley Riley plays at 3 p.m. on Saturday in downtown Springfield for WUIS Bedrock 66 Live! during the Bacon Throwdown. Is it hot enough for you? If I hear that phrase one more time … Anyway, onward to the music, please. In the parade of weekend festivals that comes each July in our community, the […]
Posted inOpinion
Planning a mess
Residents were angry and surprised by a proposal that would put a homeless shelter in their neighborhood. PHOTO BY BRUCE RUSHTON It sounded like a Seinfeld episode. The Salvation Army buys a building on Ninth Street for a new homeless shelter and spends half a mill fixing it up, only for Mayor Jim Langfelder to […]
Posted inOpinion
Many more “heroics” may be required
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS Nobody, and I mean nobody, ever thought that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration could ever keep state operations running for a year without an actual state budget. State and federal courts have ordered about 90 percent of state spending since the General Assembly’s Democrats and the Republican governor deadlocked on a budget […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Someday, her prince will run
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon I’m a single woman in my 40s. It’s been ages since I’ve seriously dated anyone. People tell me that I seem “closed off.” I don’t want to be, but I worry that I’ll get into another relationship that ends badly. I don’t want to die alone but I just […]
