Springfield | featured news

It was a half hour from closing on a cold Christmas Eve, and the last few customers were milling around inside the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Springfield, Mo., when a man approached the register

THIS IS A SPOILER ALERT, if you consider flashing a bright shiny fact into a quarter-century of darkness a “spoiler.” The famed setting of Fox’s animation landmark “The Simpsons” has forever been the generically named “Springfield” — a fictional, nuke-loving town that may or may not have been named for a factual Springfield anywhere on the American map.

At least two tornadoes struck Springfield, Massachusetts, and other communities in the western part of the state Wednesday, leaving "many injuries" and extensive damage, the state's governor said.