Illinois
LGBTQA+ nonprofit newspaper opens brick-and-mortar location in Springfield
The Illinois Eagle, a LGBTQA+ nonprofit online newspaper, has opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Springfield.
Editor and publisher of the Illinois Eagle Tom Wray said it was time to expand the news organization to its own solid location and stop cluttering his living space with the news.
“Literally it was the past few years in the backroom of my house,” Wray said. “Either the house I rented, or the house I own now. It’s getting to the point I simply don’t have the room in my house anymore. I also needed the separation of working from my home; I already have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and have to work at concentrating.”The new location for the online newspaper is the historic 1133 W. Governor St. which was previously the House + Garden reSource gallery home decor until owner Greg Pierceall relocated to 1220 W. Governor St. last year.
The building was originally built to be Springfield’s west-side Community Bakery over 100 years ago and now houses Stella Coffee and Tea to the left of the newspaper and Junk in the Trunk vintage to its right.
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Wray is sub-leasing the building from Stella Coffee and Tea next door and still has lots of work to do but overall, the step forward for the paper is a major one.
“We haven’t had a grand opening or anything like that yet – a few friends have come in and said ‘ooh I love this look’ (in regards to the walls),” Wray said. “It’s literally patchy spackle and bare walls. They say it’s got a nice kind of vibe but I don’t want that vibe.”
Wray, 49, has over 31 years of journalism experience in Indiana and Illinois; he went to Franklin college Indiana, graduating with a bachelors of journalism and theater in 1995.
After graduating from college, Wray worked at a newspaper in Kokomo where the Ryan White case took place. White was a 13-year-old boy who was diagnosed with AIDS after a blood transfusion in 1984 and faced AIDS-related discrimination from his community. Congress passed the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act in August 1990 after his death.
“When you’re a gay man in Indiana in the ‘90s and working in Kokomo … I had to actually interview the radio host who was one of the people who was (vocal against White) the most,” Wray said. “Some of the staff knew I was gay, I never told the editor – he found out. Then started to be a pattern of being … pushed out. I went from having a section to having a page and a half.”
According to Wray, it got to a point where he took the first job he could and moved to Chicago and fell in love with Illinois. After 23 years in the windy city where he started the Illinois Eagle, Wray needed a change of pace and decided to move to Springfield during the pandemic, as an accepting city he could fall in love with all over again.
To fund the newsrooms, Wray is applying for national grants like Press Forward, which strengthens communities by reinvigorating locally owned news outlets through donors.
A grand opening is scheduled to take place during Springfield’s PrideFest later this month.
Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for the State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@gannett.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted
Illinois
Illinois Lottery player wins $650K after buying ticket from Chicago Mariano's: 'Still so shocked'
CHICAGO – An Illinois Lottery player is $650,000 richer!
The Chicago winner, who goes by the name Big Money D, revealed that his winning numbers were inspired by his late wife.
“I typically play Pick 4, but that day, I noticed that the Lucky Day Lotto jackpot was pretty high so I decided to switch it up and try something new,” said Big Money D. “I picked numbers related to my late wife—when I won, it felt like it was a message from her.”
Big Money D purchased the ticket for the Nov. 16 evening drawing at Mariano’s, located at 5201 N. Sheridan Road in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood.
Matching all five numbers—9, 11, 12, 13, and 17—he landed the $650,000 jackpot prize.
The emotional win left him overwhelmed with joy.
“I’m still so shocked and excited about the win, I have barely been able to sleep!” said Big Money D.
The jackpot will allow Big Money D to fulfill a long-standing dream.
“I’m already looking at houses, and can’t wait to purchase my dream home for myself and my kids—it truly is a dream come true,” he said.
Mariano’s, the store where the winning ticket was purchased, will receive a $6,500 bonus, equal to one percent of the prize amount.
There were more than 27,600 winning Lucky Day Lotto tickets purchased for the Nov. 16 evening drawing, netting Illinois Lottery players over $724,000 in prizes.
Northern Illinois fell to host Miami (Ohio) 20-9 for its fifth loss in the last nine games. The Redhawks won their sixth in a row. Telly Johnson Jr. had a two-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 17-9 before a failed two-point conversion, but that’s as close as the Huskies (6-5, 3-4 MAC) would get.
Javon Tracy had 79 yards receiving on six catches and threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Virgil, who finished with four receptions for 107 yards.
Dylan Downing scored on a two-yard run that gave the Redhawks a 7-0 lead with 2:31 left in the first quarter and Dom Dzioban kicked a 22-yard field goal early in the second quarter. Tracy took a jet sweep to the right and then lofted a pass down the same sideline to Virgil in the end zone to make it 17-0 with 3:50 left in the second quarter.
Kanon Woodill kicked a 47-yard field goal with 4 seconds left in the first half got the Huskies on the scoreboard.
Dzioban made a 22-yard field goal to cap the scoring with 2:25 to play.
CHICAGO — Six of the top 10 best middle schools in Illinois are part of Chicago Public Schools, according to a new analysis by U.S. News & World Report.
The 2025 best middle schools rankings includes more than 2,500 in Illinois and scores them based on state assessment scores and publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Education.
Scores were analyzed in the context of socioeconomic demographics, and student-teacher ratios were used as a tiebreaker when schools scored equally.
Find out what’s happening in Wilmette-Kenilworthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
LaMont Jones, U.S. News’ managing editor for education, said research shows that students’ academic performance in early grades can be major indication of their success at the secondary and postsecondary levels.
“The 2025 Best Elementary and Middle Schools rankings offer parents a way to evaluate how schools are providing a high-quality education and preparing students for future success,” Jones said in a release. “The data empowers families and communities to advocate for their children’s education.”
Find out what’s happening in Wilmette-Kenilworthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Top 10 Middle Schools In Illinois
1. Edison Elementary Regional Gifted Center – Chicago
Grades: K–8
Enrollment: 267
2. Young Magnet High School – Chicago
Grades: 7–12
Enrollment: 2,148
3. Lane Technical High School – Chicago
Grades: 7–12
Enrollment: 4,496
4. Decatur Classical Elementary School – Chicago
Grades: K–6
Enrollment: 323
5. Reservoir Gifted School – Peoria
Grades: 5–8
Enrollment: 277
6. Skinner North Elementary School – Chicago
Grades: K–8
Enrollment: 490
7. Thurgood Marshall School – Rockford
Grades: 5–8
Enrollment: 482
8. Taft High School – Chicago
Grades: 7–12
Enrollment: 4,464
9. Hickory Creek Middle School – Frankfort
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 910
10. Lena-Winslow Junior High School – Lena
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 165
Below is the list of the top 25 middle schools in Illinois located outside of Chicago (the top four are also listed above) with their grade levels and enrollment.
It includes 12 schools in Cook County, two each in DuPage, Lake, Peoria and Winnebago counties, and one each from Clinton, Effingham, Grundy, Stephenson and Tazewell counties.
Top 25 Illinois Middle Schools Outside Chicago
1. Reservoir Gifted School – Peoria
Grades: 5–8
Enrollment: 277
2. Thurgood Marshall School – Rockford
Grades: 5–8
Enrollment: 482
3. Hickory Creek Middle School – Frankfort
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 910
4. Lena-Winslow Junior High School – Lena
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 165
5. Northbrook Junior High School – Northbrook
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 631
6. Kennedy Junior High School – Lisle
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 931
7. Teutopolis Junior High School – Teutopolis
Grades: 7–8
Enrollment: 178
8. Highcrest Middle School – Wilmette
Grades: 5–6
Enrollment: 760
9. Daniel Wright Junior High School – Lincolnshire
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 764
10. Margaret Mead Junior High School – Elk Grove Village
Grades: 7–8
Enrollment: 671
11. Aviston Elementary School – Aviston
Grades: PK–8
Enrollment: 429
12. Park Junior High School – La Grange Park
Grades: 7–8
Enrollment: 694
13. Marie Murphy School – Wilmette
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 276
14. Willowbrook Middle School – South Beloit
Grades: 5–8
Enrollment: 296
15. Dunlap Middle School – Dunlap
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 544
16. Sunset Ridge Elementary School – Northfield
Grades: 4–8
Enrollment: 249
17. Westfield Middle School – Bloomingdale
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 484
18. Saratoga Elementary School – Morris
Grades: PK–8
Enrollment: 772
19. Field School – Northbrook
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 309
20. Central School – Glencoe
Grades: 5–8
Enrollment: 568
21. Wood Oaks Junior High School – Northbrook
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 475
22. McClure Junior High School – Western Springs
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 455
23. Highland Middle School – Libertyville
Grades: 6–8
Enrollment: 755
24. Morton Junior High School – Morton
Grades: 7–8
Enrollment: 485
25. The Joseph Sears School – Kenilworth
Grades: PK–8
Enrollment: 471
More information is available from U.S. News & World Report’s full list of the best Illinois middle schools
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