Firefighting is a dangerous profession that requires well-serviced equipment, safety protocols and regular, ongoing training. To assure these safety standards are being met, the Illinois Department of Labor’s Illinois OSHA regularly inspects public fire departments across the state.

The second year of the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s (IDOA) Fall Covers for Spring Savings Program ended with 768 applications requesting over 185,000 acres submitted to IDOA. The discount program opened the application period at 12:01am December 15 and saw the acreage limit met withi…

Young hunters between the ages of 10 and 17 can apply now for the Youth Wingshooting Clinics and Pheasant Hunts scheduled for Saturday, March 6, 2021 at Pere Marquette State Park in Jersey County and Saturday, March 20, 2021 at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex (WSRC) in Randolph County.

The Farmer City Heritage Days planning committee is excited to announce the lineup for the 2021 Heritage Days festival.

Each year, millions of Americans come together to remember the fallen, honor those that serve and their families, and teach the next generation about the value of freedom. This gathering of volunteers and patriots takes place in local and national cemeteries in all 50 states - most recently …

Pritzker praises Biden’s COVID-19 executive actions

Has been decreasing for nearly two weeks

IDPH Adjusts Metrics to Allow More Regions to Lift Strictest Mitigations Following Conversations with Hospital Leaders

Public asked to be patient with broader rollout of vaccine

Tazewell County has been issued a final property assessment equalization factor of 1.0000, according to David Harris, Director of the Illinois Department of Revenue.

The House Executive Committee advanced an election bill that would make permanent some of the expansions to mail-in voting that were passed for the 2020 general election.

The Illinois Central College Educational Foundation is seeking nominations from the community for its two alumni awards – the Distinguished Alumnus and Alumnus of the Last Decade awards. The awards are presented in October as part of the college’s Community Celebration event, held annually t…

The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) last Friday announced the first case in Illinois of the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 first identified in the United Kingdom. The case was identified by the Northwestern University Feinberg School of …

Sixty percent of those with Alzheimer’s disease will wander at some point during their diagnosis. This is a significant safety concern for the more than 230,000 people living with Alzheimer’s in Illinois. A person living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia may not remember his or her name o…

The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal (OSFM) is joining forces with the Fire Fighter Cancer Support Network and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) to raise awareness about the increased risk of cancer amongst fire fighters. The goal of this campaign is to provide f…

Challenges opponents to find 60 votes to lead Dems in 102nd General Assembly

Olivia Munson, of Eureka, and Joshua Heller and Bennjamin Jane, both of Washington, were named to the 2020 fall semester Dean’s List at Greenville University.

Republicans in the Illinois House said last week that they hope to use legislation, instead of a constitutional amendment, to change the way state legislative and congressional district lines are redrawn every 10 years.

The Deer Creek Unit of Home and Community Extension will hold its January 14, 2021 meeting at 1 p.m. at the Deer Creek Community Center.  Presenter for the day’s program will be Mary Eschelbach.  Her topic will be “How much does that interest rate matter”.  Members should turn in their volun…

Monmouth College has announced that Mamie Ambrosch, of Metamora, and Emily Rein, of Morton, are among the college’s December 2020 graduates.

Reditus Laboratories’ testing equipment will catch the new COVID-19 variants, the CEO of the Pekin-based dermatopathology lab said last week.

The State of Illinois is sponsoring a temporary, mobile COVID-19 testing site at Woodford County Health Department, located at 1831 S Main St in Eureka, on January 12, 2021, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The testing will involve a simple nasal swab and is offered to everyone, regardless of residency…

Continuous challenges with winter weather conditions has caused several Corn Belt Energy members to experience outages with some locations experiencing multiple outages as ice, snow and freezing fog has impacted the co-op’s service area over the past few days.

Old movies bring out the best in characters from the past and lets us laugh at the black and white films and ourselves.  Reponses to budgeting sessions from “Blondie and Dagwood” are not too different from those of us who have lived through 2020.  We can ignore or we can beg (Blondie wants a…

The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced last week that it remains committed to implementing newly announced federal unemployment benefits and relief measures as quickly and effectively as possible. After nearly a week of delays, President Trump signed the omnibus spen…

Illinois’ minimum wage is set to increase to $11 an hour on Friday, January 1, 2021. The Illinois Department of Labor is encouraging employees to watch their paychecks to ensure that time worked in 2021 is paid at the new rate.

A new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been identified in the United Kingdom.  Cases have been reported in two states and are not known to be linked to travel, which could indicate community spread.  No cases caused by this new variant have been confirmed in Illinois yet.  As mo…

When a new year begins in Illinois, there typically are dozens if not hundreds of new laws going into effect.

The Prairie Wind Ensemble is pleased to announce its 43rd annual Student Soloist Competition.  Due to the many restrictions of the current school year, this will be a virtual competition. This competition is open to any high school student in central Illinois who plays a wind or percussion i…

Leah Youngman of Washington, who is majoring in International Relations and Matthew Bailey of Groveland, who is majoring in Ed Studies - Secondary and English Literature were named to the Knox College Dean’s List for the fall 2020 semester.

Governor JB Pritzker last week announced the administration is directing additional funding to support child care providers that are part of the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) which helps low-income working families access high-quality childcare, impacting 100,000 children annually.  T…

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is alerting the automobile industry, along with private party vehicle sellers, of a new federal odometer disclosure rule that increases the amount of time odometer readings must be declared at the time of a vehicle sale. The new federal rule takes effe…