By 25 News NORMAL – Faced with community opposition during an election year, the Normal Town Council overwhelmingly voted down plans to convert a restaurant into the town’s second cannabis dispensary for recreational use. Also Monday night, the council approved an annexation agreement west of town that leaders hope will meet increasing needs for new…… MORE
By 25 News NORMAL – A man from Normal convicted late last year on 10 counts of child pornography was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison, having waited in jail for five years to face trial. However, Jeffrey Martin’s legal troubles are not over as he awaits trial for sexually assaulting a woman older…… MORE
By 25 News BLOOMINGTON – A Bloomington murder suspect fatally shot a man a year ago during an armed robbery, according to grand jury indictments filed this week in McLean County Court. In addition to the murder case against Jaylin Bones, prosecutors filed additional charges alleging Bones was in possession of a pistol and ammunition…… MORE
By 25 News EAST PEORIA – A year after a deadly shooting in Bloomington, police have arrested a suspect. A McLean County grand jury on Wednesday Jaylin S. Bones, 22, for the shooting death on Jan. 24, 2022 of Timothy Q. Manns. The 29-year-old man was found shot to death in an apartment in the 600 block…… MORE
By 25 News BLOOMINGTON – State Farm Insurance is notifying the state it will lay off 451 Information Technology employees working at the company’s Corporate South offices in Bloomington starting at the end of March. However, a State Farm spokesperson said many of those laid off are being offered similar jobs with the outside firm…… MORE
By 25 News BLOOMINGTON – District 87 School Board member Fitzgerald Samedy, sentenced Tuesday for a repeat drunken driving conviction, plans to resign his elected post, the board’s president tells 25 News. Samedy stated his intentions last weekend to Board President Mark Wylie said Superintendent David Mouser. Samedy pleaded guilty in December to aggravated DUI and driving…… MORE
By 25 News NORMAL – Rivian has announced a reduction of six percent of its workforce across the company. A Rivian spokesperson says that while this reduction does not impact manufacturing jobs in Normal, the company says “continuing to improve our core objective and requires us to concentrate our investments and resources on the highest…… MORE
By Jake Fogal BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington Police is investigating an overnight shooting that took place on Sunday in which multiple shots were fired on the near east side. Police were called just before 1 a.m. to the 2700 block of Arrowhead. Upon arrival, officers observed several people fleeing the area and found evidence indacating a…… MORE
By 25 News BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington Firefighters responded early Wednesday morning to a house fire in the 500 block of E. Walnut Street. According to the Bloomington Fire Department, neighbors in the area called around 2:36 Wednesday morning for a report of a two-car garage home on fire. The residents of the home were also…… MORE
By 25 News BLOOMINGTON – A Bloomington School District 87 school board member is being given a chance to avoid jail through a veterans program after a repeat drunken driving conviction. A judge on Tuesday sentenced Fitzgerald Samedy, 36, to 2 1/2-years on probation with McLean County’s Veterans Treatment Court. Samedy pleaded guilty in December to aggravated DUI…… MORE
By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year. It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …
By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city. Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…
By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…
Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University. We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk. Going to work every day for some people means…