News across Sangamon County
Data Center Revolt bus tour stops in Lincoln
Data centers have become a hot-button issue for virtually every politician in the country as proposals for the hyperscale server warehouses continue to spark arguments amongst community members. President Donald Trump has repeatedly backed the idea of developing data centers,…
Letters to the editor 9/24/26
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. POOR CONDITIONS The open letter in the Sept. 3 Illinois Times concerning conditions at the Lincoln Tomb followed just two weeks after…
Healthy trees enrich communities
Fall is an excellent time to assess and care for existing trees in your yard and plant new trees. Too often homeowners don’t pay enough attention to the structure and health of their trees and only discover problems after a storm when trees or limbs fall to the ground (or on the…
Fall maintenance for your yard and garden
Whether planting a vegetable garden, flower garden or pollinator garden, “site preparation is paramount,” says master gardener Susan Helm. “I can’t stress enough how important this is.” There are thriving pollinator gardens all over Springfield, thanks to Helm and a cadre of…
An autumn glow-up for your home
With the autumn season here and winter not far behind, many of us are busily preparing our homes for time indoors due to dark evenings and cooler weather. While we may feel the urge to go all-in on a renovation, budgets and time constraints are realistic impediments to going…
Glorious gratins
A gratin, according to the late chef Julia Child, is simply a preparation in which the top of a sauced dish is browned, usually under a hot broiler. In the first volume of her iconic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she describes a gratin as having “a sprinkling of…
Fall Home and Garden 2026
Fall is a great time to tackle yard projects, such as planting bulbs for a spring payoff or potting herbs and other plants you can move indoors for the winter. It’s also helpful to being making plans now for your spring home improvements, so whether you’re dreaming of an outdoor…
Peaches, pears or apricots?
What is it about either or all, that sparks your interest or desire? What impact does each or either have upon your gustatorial delights? What impact does each or either have upon your digestive processes? In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed the matter of distinguishing…
Solution
We were loaned a lovely temporarily vacanthome for our stay out west, but we addlepatedadults had forgotten to retain the key, so we werelocked out. Rather than break a door or a double-glazed picture window we tried this solution: wesent our three-year-old, well instructed,…
Letters to the editor 9/17/26
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. WRONG PRIORITIES We need more people to turn their useless turf grass into native habitats that support life (“Prairie problems,” Aug. 19).…
Doing the job
We live in dread of the robot brains, haunted as we are by our exchanges with chatbots that are smarter than any actual person we’ve ever known. More perfect AI is likely to make obsolete jobs by the millions. (On the upside, that will include lots of dreary jobs that talented…
Springfield’s ISO Class 1 win and community legacy
The Springfield City Council packed a lot into a few minutes that matter for everyone living here. First up: a big win for public safety. The Springfield Fire Department just confirmed it kept its ISO Class 1 rating after a year-long review — a distinction only about 1% of…