A Question About Palmer Renewable Energy

by | Dec 22, 2009 | On Springfield

Not long ago, I wrote on this blog about the controversial proposal by Palmer Renewable Energy to build a $150 million wood-burning plant on Page Boulevard—a plan that has prompted activists concerned about the potential public health and environmental effects...

Too Late to Save Hughes Academy?

by | Dec 23, 2009 | On Springfield

With the state education commissioner looking to pull their charter, officials at the Robert M. Hughes Academy are apparently trying a last-ditch effort to save the school. As Jack Flynn reported in today’s Republican, the board at the charter school discussed...

Goodbye, Larry

by | Dec 29, 2009 | On Springfield

Is it my imagination, or has the Springfield Republican had remarkably little to say about the fast-impending retirement of its publisher, Larry McDermott? The paper announced the 61-year-old McDermott’s retirement in the Dec. 15 issue, just a couple of weeks...

Taxes and Religion

by | Dec 31, 2009 | On Springfield

It’s an annual tradition: with the end of the calendar year approaching, city councilors in Springfield find themselves scrambling to approve the city’s new tax rate for the coming year, before a Dec. 31 deadline. Turns out, though, that deadline...

Tax Battle, Part 2

by | Jan 4, 2010 | On Springfield

The City Council will have another go at the city’s new tax rate at a special meeting scheduled for tonight, at 5:15 p.m. in the City Council chambers. The meeting will include a public speak-out period (for those residents and business owners who will actually...