A few hundred people gathered Saturday on the spot where, 150 years ago, a reported 20,000 people stood to watch what has become one of the defining moments in American history.
In honor of the sesquicentennial of the fifth Lincoln-Douglas debate in Galesburg, two actors donned period clothing and gave the audience a feel for what the historic senatorial debate looked like all those years ago.

• VIDEO INSIDE

General manager Jerry Angelo says the Bears are taking “the high road” with suspended defensive tackle Tommie Harris.

The Peoria Regional Museum Society plans to donate the 1898 Duryea automobile displayed at the Downtown library to the Peoria Riverfront Museum if or when it gets built on the former Sears block Downtown. The $136 million project, which includes a separate Caterpillar Inc. Visitor's Center, is currently $47 million short of a ground-breaking ceremony.

Coughs and sneezes, even broken bones and bruises, are increasingly being treated by medical personnel at immediate-care clinics, and one local organization has expanded its practice into Chicago and beyond.

On Saturday night, “Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway” is bringing some of musical theater’s greatest hits to Sangamon Auditorium on the campus of the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Talk with Springfield’s Charles “Stonie” Stoneking about the high, bright marches and heartwarming hymns played during the Civil War, and it’s clear that music played a far greater role than to delight and inspire troops.

Dr. Karen Thompson is a medical minority of one in Rockford. As a female cardiothoracic surgeon — the first in the Rockford area — she is also a rarity among women doctors in terms of chosen specialty. According to Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S., only 187 of 256,257 women doctors practicing in 2006 were in thoracic surgery.

Stan Metzler, a 22-year-old Winnebago County sheriff’s deputy, wasn’t in a rush to buy a house.
He was making a good living as a deputy and saving tons of money living with his father.

While Caterpillar Inc. remains in a position of strength, the meltdown of U.S. financial markets could put the company's customers and the entire economy at risk, Chairman Jim Owens told members of Congress on Wednesday.

Nathan Hamman figures he has seen the gamut of kids’ poor eating habits in just six months as a clinical and outpatient dietitian at OSF Saint Anthony Center for Health. “The amount of pediatric obesity is rising,” Hamman said.

Orange, yellow and purple mums decorate the inside of The Cherry Valley Garden Center and Tomato World, which closed for two months in June so that the owners could renovate the greenhouse to look as it did in 1912.

Local banks are reassuring customers that their accounts are safe, even after the financial crisis plaguing Wall Street reverberated through a local mortgage company that had to hold off jittery investors last week.

The stainless steel soda fountain, the antique glass bottles containing such flavors as cherry and vanilla, and the maroon barstools lined up in front of the countertop at the North Park Pharmacy bring back fond memories for Barry Thomas. The North Park Pharmacy has been in business for 58 years, despite the chain pharmacies that have developed near the locally-owned store, said Sheila Kitzman, co-owner and pharmacist at North Park Pharmacy.

Mental illness is a medical illness, and it’s treatable. That was Jane Pauley’s message Tuesday to several hundred people who attended Janet Wattles Center’s Annual Celebration of Mental Health Fundraiser.

After tinkering for years on a recipe for the perfect chili, the perfect blend of spices came to Springfield's Richard Zillion in a dream.