Feature | Wednesday, March 12,2008

Tiny wonders

Illinois is safe from microscopic people-eating robot ninjas — for now

Untitled Document Anyone who’s shattered a pricey cell phone on the sidewalk, gagged on the smell of a roommate’s stinky sweat socks, or endured a serious

Feature | Wednesday, March 5,2008

Rocky road

Everybody agrees, MacArthur Boulevard has seen better days. What will it take to turn things around?

By R. L. Nave

Untitled Document The middle-school kids who trudge past the immense beige structure on South MacArthur Boulevard twice a day aren’t old enough to remem

Feature | Wednesday, February 27,2008

Gimme shelter

Ruth Capler isnt stuck in a cramped and crummy rental anymore. Too bad hundreds of other poor folks in Springfield cant say the same thing.

By Amanda Robert

Untitled Document Ruth Capler never imagined that she would own a home. The soft-spoken, stalwart mother raised all six of her kids in rental apartments across

Feature | Wednesday, February 20,2008

Lowney's legacy

More than a love of writing drove the strange colony in Marshall, Ill.

By C. D. Stelzer

Untitled Document The contents of 77 boxes shelved in the special-collections department of the Brookens Library at the University of Illinois at Springfield tell a l

Feature | Wednesday, February 20,2008

Banned Valentine

English teacher keeps James Jones’ legacy alive in Robinson

By C. D. Stelzer

Untitled Document Helen Howe’s audience on this bone-chillingly cold day is an English class of about two-dozen seniors sequestered in the library of Robinson High School i

Feature | Wednesday, February 20,2008

The Marshall Papers

UIS home to unique collection of writers’ colony documents

By C. D. Stelzer

Untitled Document When Thomas J. Wood began working at then-Sangamon State University, in late 1986, the files of Lowney Handy, James Jones’ mentor, were still

Feature | Wednesday, February 13,2008

Guns and Roses

Sara Gallant got tangled up in a twisted love triangle, but nobody believes she wanted to die

By Dusty Rhodes

Untitled Document Three years ago this week, a pair of bodies was discovered in a wooded area near central Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. One was a young woman

Feature | Thursday, February 7,2008

On Lincoln's trail

Next year Abe turns 200 and in his three home states the party starts now

By Amanda Robert

Untitled Document He was born in Kentucky, grew to manhood in Indiana, and became the nation’s leader as an Illinoisan. Now, all three states that lay

Feature | Wednesday, January 30,2008

The thrill is gone

The fever to build ethanol refineries has passed. Blame good ol’ supply and demand.

By R. L. Nave

Untitled Document It wasn’t so long ago that ethanol was riding an amber wave of success. Just three years ago, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed t

Feature | Wednesday, January 23,2008

Pure Joy

SPD’s first black female officer sets the record straight — again

By Dusty Rhodes

Untitled Document When the jury announced its verdict in the Black Guardians’ race-discrimination trial earlier this month, Lea Joy left the courthouse pursued