Glatz News Today

Jim Moll may not be the smartest man in Springfield, but the Hanson Professional Services engineer sounded like it during a public meeting held last week to discuss progress on a rail line under construction along 10th Street. The new line will replace tracks along Third Street. Molls been in charge of the $353 million project for more than a decade, and he says its on time and on budget. The feds gave the green light in 2012 and have paid millions of dollars since then to make it happen �...

Mark Autism Awareness Day by asking how you can help April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. While awareness is great, there continue to be misconceptions about what autism is and how people with autism function in our society. Springfield has a wide range of support services for children with autism, but this support is quite lacking for adults. There is no pathway to diagnosis for adults, and no support services. There is only one support group – The Adult Autism Group. While man...

The Illinois Senate has added to the call for the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to waive spring assessments, such as the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), for students, as it did in 2020. State Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, D-Chicago, spearheaded a resolution, approved March 17, calling for testing waivers. She said many students have been learning remotely or in a hybrid system for the past year, and expecting them to return to school for in-person testing is unrealistic. "We all know ...

Since 2006, federal law has capped annual interest rates on payday loans to active-duty military members at 36%. The interest rate cap was broadened in 2015 to include several more types of personal, unsecured loans. In Illinois, meanwhile, payday loan borrowers have been subjected to average annual interest rates of close to 300% Illinois lawmakers tried to tackle this issue in 2005, and passed a rate cap that was widely heralded. But the industry took advantage of a gaping loophole and then k...

The streamers on the Governors Mansion lawn, blowing in the night, are a somber memorial to the COVID dead who have flown away. In the spring sunshine those same fluttering streamers signal new life, fresh energy, reimagining, liberation and resurrection. In the season of Passover and Easter, we grieve the past and celebrate possibilities. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO Illinois Times has provided readers with independent journalism for more than 40 years, from news and politics to arts and...

A new memoir traces an immigrants journey of faith and kindness June Wood Agamah moved to Springfield in 1995 with her husband, Dr. Edem Agamah, and their three young daughters. Its a long way from her Guyana homeland – where she was called Caryl. Edem was born in Ghana. Frequently Americans assume they are from the same country. They were born nearly 4,000 miles and an ocean apart. Guyana is on the northern coast of South America and Ghana on the western coast of Africa. June and...

–Frank Zappa Now that Im immune – the second shot kicked in full force last weekend – I wonder what I should do. Are buffets safe? Are any left? Was I better off without all-you-can-eat fried chicken at the VFW and bottomless blue cheese dressing at the Hy-Vee salad bar? Probably, but no matter. Life, or its demise, is built from little things, cholesterol and saturated fat included. Speaking of buffets, toilet paper shortages seem eons ago. Covidiot...

For some, the pandemic has meant months of monotony. For others, those months have come with an onslaught of seemingly impossible decisions to make. Jennifer Gill, superintendent of District 186, falls into the latter category. On March 24, she announced the latest controversial move. Starting Tuesday, April 6, public school students in Springfield under the hybrid learning model – those attending some in-person classes – will start four-day weekly schedules in classrooms. Previously, h...

ALPLM parts way with foundation

On market ten years