UIS Completes Purchase Of Downtown Site For Innovation Center

More Springfield city budget hearings are planned for the coming week. Three hearings are set to discuss individual city department budgets. Monday’s meeting covers Lincoln Library and Public Works, Wednesday’s will tackle City Water Light and Power and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Thursday’s will focus on the police and fire departments.

It’s been almost three years since Springfield stopped requiring people to plug downtown parking meters – but some folks still haven’t gotten the memo. The city began allowing free parking at the meters in March 2020, at the start of the COVID pandemic. But even though no one is required to put money in the meters, the city still collected nearly $71,000 in the calendar year 2022 from people who didn’t hear about the policy or simply forgot.

Jobs increased in Springfield this past December, while unemployment fell across the Springfield area. The local jobless rate fell to 3.6% – down from 3.9% in November, and the 4% unemployment rate in December of 2021. The Springfield area added over 3,000 jobs across the past 12 months –...

On the heels of programs to give high school students in Springfield a chance to study building trades or the medical field, and as yoga and wellness classes in elementary schools continue to be discussed by the Springfield School Board, further innovation will be seen in Springfield schools this next academic year.

Generation X takes center stage in a new exhibit opening Saturday at the Illinois State Museum. The “Growing Up X” exhibit will feature some of the most memorable gadgets, fashions, and décor of the time – all wholly familiar to those who grew up in the 1970s and ‘80s.

The Old State Capitol will be closed to the public for up to a year while work continues on a $17 million renovation effort. After the first phase, focusing on the “drum” that supports the Old Capitol dome, work is now underway on a $15 million second “preservation” phase that includes repairing the structure’s roof, replacing wood flooring, and updating restrooms, elevators, plumbing, and the fire alarm system. Asbestos abatement work will also be done.

Springfield police are celebrating the news that the department has been formally accredited. The Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, or ILEAP, awarded Springfield Police the highest ranking available – Tier 2 status. The department had to demonstrate compliance with 180 professional standards, including community engagement and victim/witness services in...

You can now search online to learn about how Springfield city code violations have been handled. The Springfield City Clerk’s office has put administrative court files online. For now, only cases filed since the first of this year are available, but the clerk’s office plans to work its way back and will eventually post cases dating back to 2015.

District 186 is evaluating a request to change the name of Memorial Stadium to honor a Lanphier High graduate and longtime coach in the district. A committee is reviewing the request from the daughter of Ray Ramsey, a Northender who played in the NFL for the Chicago Cardinals in the early 1950s before returning to Lanphier as a teacher and coach.

It’s been three years since the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Illinois – and the virus is still spreading through the state, despite that the rate has slowed. As of Friday, no Illinois county is at a high rate of transmission for COVID, with 20 counties listed as “medium.”

The Springfield Lucky Horseshoes present the Hot Stove Social at Motorheads on Monday, January 30th from 6p-8p. Featuring Assistant General Manager and Director of Scouting for the St. Louis Cardinals, Randy Flores. AEW superstar, Jeff Jarrett, will be on hand, too! Get more information here.

Two gun rights supporters are clashing over litigation aimed at overturning Illinois’s assault weapons ban. Attorney Thomas DeVore, who has filed two suits seeking to have the ban declared unconstitutional, is now seeking to intervene in a separate suit brought by Republican state Representative Dan Caulkins of Decatur. DeVore...

The young man who was struck by a train earlier this week in Springfield has succumbed to his injuries. Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon says 18-year-old Logan Pierceall died Thursday evening at HSHS St. John’s Hospital from the multiple, blunt force injuries he suffered when he was hit by the train Tuesday morning near Camp Butler and Laverna Roads.