No room at the inn

Alonso Travis died waiting for help

You may recall Alonso D. Travis, even if you never knew his name.He was the guy who hit you up for money on downtown sidewalks and store parking lots along Jefferson Street and on North Grand Avenue.

She may be innocent

Battered wife seeks freedom after conviction for abusive husband’s murder

In the early morning hours of Dec. 3, 1986, Richard Harshbarger grabbed his .38 caliber revolver and a homemade bat, climbed into his Dodge Rampage truck, and departed from his home in Pana. His young

Natural gas fracking is coming to Illinois

Drilling method could raise state revenues. It’s already raising environmental concerns.

Illinois is poised to tap into a rich vein of money by allowing an oil and gas drilling method known as “fracking,” but environmental concerns and disagreement over state taxes are keeping

Mine, all mine

EPA might sue coal company

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is considering legal action against a Carlinville coal mine for violating pollution laws.Testing in the spring of 2011 revealed excessive levels of mangane

First charges, now a lawsuit

But ex-cop still on public payroll

A Springfield woman who says she was groped by a Southern View police officer in a patrol car last spring has sued the village, saying that Joseph Zeid Langan, who has since left the force, had no bus

Attorney General asks for rehearing on crucial gun case

Madigan hopes to reverse concealed carry

Springfield fire captain arrested a third time

Promoted despite DUI history

A captain in the Springfield Fire Department could be disciplined after his third drunken driving arrest since 2005.Capt. Thomas A. Dodd, 51, was arrested on Dec. 30 shortly after 6:30 p.m. when an em

Power lines may bring more than electricity

As Ameren moves forward with plans for a high-voltage power line across central Illinois, opposition is growing from some landowners and farmers to Ameren’s chosen route. On Nov. 7, 2012, Ameren

The Lanphier lion learns to roar

A high school reinvents itself with a big pot of money

The halls of Lanphier High School are strangely quiet. About 1,100 students file through the school’s maze of corridors several times each day, bringing the usual sounds of slamming lockers, cha

Priestly predilections continue

But diocese screening process does not

Sexual no-nos among clergy are nothing new in the Diocese of Springfield.The diocese in 2005 hired a Methodist to figure things out when a priest was severely beaten after soliciting sex in Douglas Pa