News | Thursday, December 20,2012

Firearms, medical pot and gay marriage, oh my!

Illinois could soon change drastically

When Illinois lawmakers return to Springfield early next year, they’ll face three issues more divisive than even the ongoing pension battle. But like the pension issue, these battles have

News | Thursday, December 13,2012

Kids at the margins

Springfield steps up to help homeless children

By Patrick Yeagle

They live in hotels, cars or even at campgrounds. When the winter wind blows, they’re the children who don’t have coats. When it’s time to take a quiz, they’re the children who

News | Thursday, December 13,2012

Can I get a witness?

After witness doesn’t get to testify, city loses case

By Bruce Rushton

There are more questions than answers in the wake of an arbitrator’s decision rescinding the termination of a City Water, Light and Power employee who cut down a relative’s tree on city ti

News | Thursday, December 13,2012

Rats!

Henson-Robinson Zoo gets a fascinating new species. It’s not a panda.

By Bruce Rushton

Imagine being impervious to pain, immune to cancer and darn near immortal.Then imagine, as one scribe once put it, looking like a penis with buck teeth.That is the conundrum of the naked mole-rat, the

News | Thursday, December 6,2012

Tax transparency or competition killer?

Senate passes corporate tax disclosure bill

By Patrick Yeagle

Illinois would make public the tax data of publicly traded companies under a bill passed by the state Senate last week, but business interests say the move would put some companies at a competitive di

News | Thursday, December 6,2012

Not so fast

Chemical dumping at Clinton challenged

By Bruce Rushton

A consortium of local governments stretching from Urbana to Bloomington is suing a Peoria-based waste company in hopes of killing a hazardous waste landfill near Clinton in DeWitt County.The plaintiff

News | Thursday, December 6,2012

Illinois laying off 18 medical regulators

Agency asking for cash infusion and fee increase

By Patrick Yeagle

Seven state workers in Springfield could lose their jobs at the end of the year as regulators scramble to cover the increasing cost of overseeing doctors in Illinois. That’s because the fund tha

News | Thursday, December 6,2012

Going to pot

Illinois a battleground for medical marijuana

By Bruce Rushton

While voters in two states have legalized marijuana for anyone over 21, Illinois legislators may take a key vote on a much stricter measure that would allow for medical use of marijuana in the land of

News | Thursday, November 29,2012

Phone a friend

United Way’s 2-1-1 telephone service offers help in crisis

By Patrick Yeagle

Karen Zangerle dials the number and waits expectantly as a young man answers with a gentle tone. Zangerle explains that her husband has lost his job and the family won’t be able to pay an upcomi

News | Thursday, November 29,2012

Education in Illinois not getting any better

Illinois students not prepared for college

By Patrick Yeagle

More than two thirds of Illinois students won’t earn a college degree. In the modern economy, that’s not good enough to compete, says education advocacy group Advance Illinois in a recent