‘Clean’ coal developers resist cap on electric rates

General Assembly veto session could vote on project

Kindergarten screening, the first step of college prep

Every child in Sangamon County could be a college graduate with the potential to bring more businesses, and more economic wealth, to the Springfield area. That’s the idea behind the Continuum of

Ponzi on the prairie

Victims explain the con job that rippled through their network of friends

Pointing at two of three computers, James U. Dodge one day early this year explained to three guests in his west side Springfield home how the financial world he claimed to master could work in his fa

Area educators weigh in on state budget

State board of education holds public hearing in Springfield

General state aid, mandated programs and pre-kindergarten funding have been and should remain top education priorities for the state as it muddles through yet another budget process with record-breaki

Documentary targets toxic chemicals

Illinois author seeks to create environmental activists

Biologist Dr. Sandra Steingraber describes her 1997 book, Living Downstream, as a sort of love story between her and Pekin, the place she grew up and where she lived when she learned in her early 20s

Voters to decide on sales tax for schools

Supporters claim it will ease burden on property tax

If voters next week approve a referendum raising Sangamon County’s sales tax rate from 8 percent to a maximum of 9 percent, it would reaffirm a philosophical shift in school funding already begu

Debating the debates

Governor candidate protests Green Party exclusion

Former death row inmate speaks out

Coalition plans major push to abolish death penalty

While sitting on death row for 12 years, Randy Steidl wasn’t against capital punishment. Not in the general, philosophical sense.“I came from a conservative farm family,” he says, ex

Ponzi scheme benefited Senate Dems’ lawyer

Victims demand $160,000 from scheme operator’s son

Victims of Springfield Ponzi scheme operator James U. Dodge are calling for his son, a lawyer for the Illinois Senate Democrats, to pay back the money gained from the scheme that his father spent on h

A computer for every kid

At Springfield’s Lincoln Magnet School, technology brings results

When a lesson on loom use in Iran unexpectedly transcends into a dialogue about the global equality of humankind, a teacher has to wonder what went right. Layne Zimmers, who helped guide her sixth-gra