News across Sangamon County

Singing is for everyone
The Springfield Children’s Choir made its debut with an Oct. 1 ribbon cutting ceremony that featured city officials and the key members who developed the choir. The choir includes youth from second through fifth grade and provides an opportunity for children on the east side of…
Digger one of year’s best movies, Heart a moving experience
Ambition of Digger dwarfs competition It would be easy to dismiss Tom Cruise’s latest as Oscar bait – and let’s be honest, it is – but there’s much more at play in Alejandro G. Inarritu’s Digger. Brilliant and daring, this instant classic takes no prisoners in going after myriad…

Send in the clowns
Eleven months of the year, Robert Quance lives a 9-to-5 life working behind the camera as a news assignment editor for WICS NewsChannel 20 in Springfield. Every October, though, Quance takes all his unused sick and personal time, dons grease paint, puts on a bulbous red nose and…

Down the gardened path
Imagine pedaling happily along a paved path where murals and stand-alone art works distract you from the shabbiness or outright ugliness of Springfield’s backsides, passing frolicking children and couples strolling hand in hand thinking how lucky they are to be living in a city…

October music arrives
Definitely in the class of defining weather months, October can lean any way the wind blows, but by the time it’s over we’re on our way to winter no matter what you want to think, wish, believe or deny. Let’s get going to see what’s in the forecast for our music meanderings.…

Williamsville Pulls Away From Pleasant Plains In Third Set For Huge Sangamo Win
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Letters to the editor
BIG WIN Last spring, Jamie Toole (at the time chief storyteller of the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes) came and spoke at an Enos Park neighborhood meeting. He spoke passionately about how baseball should be affordable and accessible to everyone. In addition to the Shoes, he spoke…

New bookstore will support community organizations
Cathy Strukely and Tricia McGann are turning the former Fifth Street Flower Shop location into a Christian bookstore, with the goal of spreading kindness and providing financial support to other community organizations. The friends, who met in a church community group, are…

Report: New data centers could create more than 120K Illinois jobs, though mostly temporary
A new study predicts data centers expected to be built in Illinois over the next decade would create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in new property tax revenue. But many are skeptical the touted benefits will live up to their promises or outweigh the environmental and…

183rd Wing seeks new mission
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth says she is prepared to hold up legislation and slow the Senate appropriations process to pressure the U.S. Air Force into delaying the elimination of 192 positions at Springfield’s 183rd Wing. Duckworth also contends partisan politics may be behind the…

Super Cows
In the 1980s a Super Cow was bought for a million dollars. Her superness was the amount of milk she produced each year. Now there is word of a second Super Cow, which was bought for four million dollars. It looks like my family was in the right business at the wrong time or just…

“Housing is a human right”
Teshia Spencer’s 14-year-old daughter was experiencing shortness of breath. Spencer assumed allergies were the cause until a doctor diagnosed her daughter with asthma. The trigger, according to Spencer, was months of mold exposure in a house they rented in Springfield from…