COVER STORY
“This is chemical trespass.”
More than 700 Illinois schools are within a quarter-mile of crop fields, yet state law doesn’t require pesticide applicators to notify them before spraying. Advocates say a new notification proposal would give educators and park staff time to move children indoors…
LATEST NEWS
LLCC names new president
Lincoln Land Community College has named Curt Oldfield as its next president. Oldfield currently is president of Spoon River College,…
Valente versus Cahnman
Miguel Valente, a 25-year-old budget analyst in the Illinois Governor’s Office of Management and Budget is running in the March…
New craft grow operation in the works
Justin Conder is only 40 years old with a sturdy build and firm handshake, but gray already specks his otherwise…
Continuing her legacy
Members of Sonya Massey’s family, who declared victory with the recent sentencing of her killer to a 20-year prison term,…
State looks to expand manufacturing training at community colleges
As the U.S. sheds manufacturing jobs, Illinois is accepting applications for $24 million in grant funding to establish training facilities…
Illinois joins WHO global outbreak network after U.S. withdraws
Illinois will join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, or GOARN, to counterbalance the federal government’s…
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NEWSLETTER
News
Child care funding freeze could worsen shortage in Illinois, providers say
Pamela Franks, owner of Playful Steps Child Care, has been taking care of low-income children and their families in her…
Both data center plans move forward
Plans for a $500 million data center to be built by Dallas-based CyrusOne in rural southwest Sangamon County could receive…
Student loan borrowers in Illinois could face federal, state ‘tax bomb’ in 2026
For the first time in five years, certain forms of student loan forgiveness will be taxable following a change in…
Former Springfield police sergeant sentenced for DUI
A woman who almost lost her life because of a crash caused by Michael Egan said the 90-day jail sentence…
opinion
Editor’s Note
“A Forum on the City Garbage Ordinance,” the title of a recent Springfield public meeting, sounded like a recipe for complaints about disastrous public…
Letters to the editor
VOTE YES In March, Sangamon County voters will decide whether to create a county mental health board funded by a small, dedicated sales tax…
America’s Parkopolis
The Scots poet Robert Burns famously said (I’m using the version in English) “Oh, would some power gift us / To see ourselves as others…
New wisdom for a dangerous world
“We live in a world – the real world, Jake – that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed…
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Food and drink
Farmer’s cheese pancakes
Preserving food was vital for survival before modern refrigeration, especially for milk, which was plentiful in the summer but scarce…
Braised lamb shanks
Meltingly tender and deeply aromatic, a meal of slow-braised lamb shanks provides a generous serving of stick-to-your ribs comfort food…
Hangover? Nothing beats “Old Sober”
Two decades ago, I attended an outstanding performance by the Derek Trucks Band at Tipitina’s in Uptown New Orleans. The…
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Music
February music fun
Fancy this. my fellow February friends. Suppose you live in a world that offers live music at…
January music finish
As we work our way through the last weekend in January, Old Man Winter and all his…
Here we have music
Mush, my frigid friends, as we go full frozen tundra time to see what goes on in…
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ARTS AND CULTURE
Dracula shows some life, Send Help doesn’t end well
Cast finds life in flawed Dracula Estimates as to how many times Dracula has appeared on film range from approximately 200 to 500. The low…
Probably True (Uncle George Trever)
Great uncle George Trever was pastor of the Beloit Methodist Church maybe 1890. He was an explosive speaker, and the family story goes that he…
Legacy Jam
Event celebrates Lincoln’s love of reading Celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s love of reading and lifelong learning with the Lincolns4Lincoln Literacy Jam, benefiting Compass for Kids’ afterschool…
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Best of Springfield®
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Best Of Springfield 2025
See the results Every year, we ask our opinionated readers to tell us about their favorite people, places and things in the Springfield area. Over the decades we’ve been doing this, we’ve continued to tweak both the process and the results issue to try to keep things fresh and interesting. While anything food-related typically dominates…
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