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. Moll s been in charge of the $353 million project for more than a decade, and he says it s 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 – there remains a $60 million gap, Moll says, but he s confident that the money will come. He seems to know every detail, from construction costs to whether charging stations for electric vehicles will be included in a planned transportation center adjacent to the Sangamon County courthouse on Ninth Street.
Capitol News Illinois photo by Peter Hancock Gov. JB Pritzker is joined by members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and other dignitaries in signing a package of bills aimed at addressing racial economic inequities. For far too long families of color have endured the hardships of an economic system designed to hold them back, said state Sen. Doris Turner on March 23. Turner, a Democrat from Springfield, was with Gov. JB Pritzker and other lawmakers at the Union Baptist Church in the capital city for the signing of four bills that make up the so-called economic access, equity and opportunity portion of the Illinois Black Caucus agenda.
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Nabih Elhajj s family is still in Lebanon, and that is worrisome for the 33-year-old Springfield educator.
In the months following the Aug. 4 blast that killed Elhajj s mother, Zeina Chamoun, in Beirut, he has been trying to get his brother, Elie, and his wife, and his sister, Nadine, out of the country.
A first application, under an emergency relief status, Elhajj said, was denied by U.S. immigration. A second application is currently in the works, he said. I know they re suffering. They know I m suffering, Elhajj said about being apart.
With Lebanon in economic meltdown and political freefall its prime minister resigned in the wake of the explosion that killed 204 people but is still in charge of a caretaker government Elhajj worries for his siblings well-being and safety.