COVER STORY
Rewriting history?
An exciting tale is told in a new $73,000 state-funded video presentation at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The animated production brings to life the story of Robert Smalls, an enslaved man who purloined a Confederate boat, picked up other enslaved…
LATEST NEWS
Wyndham plywood gets a paint job
More than six months after the Wyndham Springfield City Centre Hotel had its first-floor windows boarded, city workers began painting…
Early intervention
One by one, boys walked to the front of the courtroom May 5 to receive certificates marking the completion of…
Sangamon County appoints Mental Health Board
The Sangamon County Board appointed seven members to the county’s newly formed Mental Health Board during a May 12 board…
A losing proposition
When customers came to Capitol Teletrack on May 2 for the Kentucky Derby, a yearly event that still packed them…
“A lot of things are getting confused”
The only revenue Springfield city government might forfeit to help pay for the proposed BOS Center expansion and new hotel…
How do data centers benefit the places where they’re built? Local mayors give mixed reviews
The Illinois General Assembly continues to debate what to do about data centers as the artificial intelligence business keeps booming,…
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NEWSLETTER
News
Family, friends, supporters honor fallen Illinois police officers
In a ceremony at the state Capitol, family, friends and supporters honored the lives of two law enforcement officers who…
Prison or treatment?
This story is a collaboration between Illinois Answers and the Chicago bureau of MindSite News. Bloomington native Shayla Woodworth had struggled with mental…
“It didn’t have to end like that”
A federal jury in the Central District of Illinois has awarded $3 million to the family of a man who…
Landowner leans on school districts
Dowson Family Farms, which has four parcels of land under contract to CyrusOne for construction of a $500 million data…
opinion
Letters to the editor 5/14/26
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. GREAT MAIL CARRIER I…
Reopening soon
Springfield was a grand hotel town in the ’20s. It was the state capital, a tourist mecca and a “good convention town” too, meaning…
Bill offers little state tax relief for homeowners
Before the House passed the megaprojects bill last month, we were told that the drafters didn’t want to just do some symbolic or “token”…
Springfield’s story isn’t decline
The recent article “Tourism is up, but downtown is hurting” (April 23) captures a reality many Springfield residents and business owners feel every day:…
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Food and drink
Celebrating women with “kids”
This week’s column is dedicated to a deeply caring connection: women and their “kids” (a pun very much intended). The…
Pavlova is a beautiful, tasty dessert
Pavlova is a lofty, show-stopping dessert that’s at once beautiful, easy and economical. Essentially a giant baked meringue with a…
The verdant resurrection
The onset of spring brings with it a shift in what we do in restaurant kitchens. The season marks our…
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Music
May music blooms
Hello and welcome to another edition of Now Playing, your weekly Illinois Times excursion into the music…
May music plays
As our month of May heats up (barely) we’re digging into those outdoor gigs (as weather permits)…
ISO gets its kicks in a roadworthy finale
With renovations of Sangamon Auditorium on the University of Illinois Springfield campus nearing completion, the May 1…
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ARTS AND CULTURE
Obsession serves as a metaphor for addiction, Kremlin is dull
Obsession a brilliant metaphor for addiction I’m going to assume Bear, the protagonist in Curry Barker’s brilliant horror film Obsession was absent the day The…
Omission
I have visited the Bronte homesteadin Haworth England many times, withclasses and with my daughters andhave seen the portrait on the landingof the famous Bronte…
Hospital Sister Mission Outreach ships $1 million of supplies to Bolivia
Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach has shipped a container of medical supplies and equipment valued at $1 million to Bolivia. The 40-foot shipping container of requested…
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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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