News across Greater Springfield, IL
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…
“Okies,” Angela Davis, hope and humanity
I recently re-read John Steinbeck’s deeply researched classic historical novel The Grapes of Wrath. I was reminded of a phrase often misattributed to another author, Mark Twain: “History may not repeat itself but it often rhymes.” It’s the story of families from across the U.S.…
Grayson’s death likely to erase his conviction
In a legal twist that the family of Sonya Massey didn’t expect, the murder conviction of her killer, former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy, Sean Grayson, likely will be erased because of his death during an ongoing court appeal. Grayson’s lawyers cited the well-established…
A teacher remembers 9/11
I was teaching at Southeast High School on Sept. 11, 2001. My American literature class of juniors had just read The Crucible. I was showing the class a clip from the movie when a colleague came to my door, motioned me into the hall and told me what had happened in New York. Two…
An uplifting season
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not much of a sports fan. The idea of the Women’s Professional Baseball League playing its inaugural season in Springfield was interesting as a historical happening. But it was not until Lucky Horseshoes Chief Storyteller Jamie Toole spoke at our…