A mechanic suffered severe burns in this fire, which happened the morning of April 21, 2009, when he dropped a fuel tank he was changing out on a truck and the fuel ignited.

The last F-16 assigned to Springfield’s 183rd Tactical Fighter Wing thundered into the air Sept. 23, 2008, and then circled back over the base to make a final pass. With the plane’s departure at 9:36 a.m., the unit’s 60-year tradition of flying fighters out of Springfield ended.

Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin and City Water, Light and Power general manager Todd Renfrow talk about the power plant explosion the day after it happened. The explosion was Nov. 10, 2007; this news conference was convened Nov. 11, 2007.

I covered the funeral of Illinois State Police trooper Brian McMillen, who was killed in an early morning crash east of Springfield. The funeral was in Taylorville on Oct. 31, 2007. I shot video, and SJ-R photographers Justin Fowler and T.J. Salsman shot stills. The result was this touching tribute.

City officials show off the hundreds of firearms turned in during a gun-buyback program. Oct. 29, 2007.

Springfield-area police officers take a pie in the face as part of the annual Badges for Life summer blood drive. Sept. 5, 2007.

A truck hauling large pieces of concrete overturns at Veterans and J. David Jones parkways in Springfield.

A group of men and women protest on the five-year anniversary of the war in Iraq.

Sue Pilger from the Animal Protective League talks about a break-in at the shelter in March 2008, during which a sick puppy was stolen.

House fire on Carpenter Street on Jan. 9, 2008.

After the city of Springfield hosted a gun buyback program in 2007, I started pestering the folks at the police department about following along to watch the guns get destroyed. After months of documenting, processing and background-checking all the guns, they finally invited me observe the process of getting rid of the more than 500 guns and other evidence.

This story was a ball to report. The officers on the police department’s evidence destruction team were fun and knowledgeable. Watching them go through all sorts of old evidence was interesting, but getting to go inside a Bartonville foundry to watch the guns as they were dumped into the white-hot flames of a furnace was a sight to behold.

Hundreds of city buyback guns fed to foundry’s furnace / Old paperwork and evidence, illegal drugs also destroyed
May 27, 2008

The idea of a gun buyback, during which Springfield residents could turn over their unwanted weapons to police, no questions asked, seemed like a good one last fall.

The offer turned out to be far more popular — and expensive — than expected. And it culminated last week when nearly 500 buyback guns — plus a variety of drugs, paperwork and other no longer needed crime evidence — went into a 3,000-degree furnace at the Keystone Steel and Wire foundry in Bartonville.

When the buyback was envisioned, the idea was to get guns off the street, cut down on [...] Read the rest of this entry »

On Aug. 22-23, 2008, I again donned a laptop backpack and headed downtown to blog about preparations for and the day of presidential candidate Barack Obama’s visit to Springfield, where he was to announce Joe Biden as his running mate.

It was incredibly hot, and I’d say I worked about 22 hours those two days, documenting what was happening, what people were saying, tips for visitors and residents and news updates.

The result was a one-stop-shop blog where people could understand what was going on and feel like they were there, even if they couldn’t be.

You can read the blog entries here.

I covered the local polar plunge in 2008 and shot video of the frigid fun. You’ll notice there was snow on the ground. This was a fun event to video and write about. I think this is my favorite video of the ones I’ve shot and edited.