By Neil Doyle NORMAL – The Back 2 School Alliance is getting ready to distribute backpacks and school supplies to students in the Twin-Cities. Since 1999, the organization has provided supplies for kids in Bloomington-Normal schools who qualify for free or reduced lunches. 33% of kids in Bloomington-Normal schools qualify for free or reduced lunches…… MORE
By Neil Doyle NORMAL – Classes at Illinois State University start in less than two weeks and some students have started making their way back to campus. ISU students and staff are required to input their vaccine information online. Those who are unvaccinated will be required to participate in weekly on-campus saliva-based COVID-19 testing. The…… MORE
A man died Tuesday afternoon when his motorcycle crashed in Hudson.… MORE
Elected leaders in Bloomington School District 87 will meet in special session Wednesday to consider administrators’ plan to start the school year with a mask requirement.… MORE
A McLean County jury has found a man guilty of first-degree murder, but determined he wasn’t the shooter who killed another man in Bloomington in April 2019.… MORE
By Dave Dahl SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ economic growth continues. University of Illinois economics professor Fred Giertz says there may not be an asterisk, but there at least will be an advisory. “In most months, the Flash index compares this month’s collection of various taxes to the year before,” Giertz said, “but that was interfered with…… MORE
By Neil Doyle PEKIN – The CEO of Reditus Laboratories says the Delta variant has clearly become the “dominant strain” out of its positive COVID-19 samples. Dr. Aaron Rossi says the Pekin based lab found 347 additional cases of the Delta variant during its sequencing run on July 29, which encompassed 95% of the entire…… MORE
(USDA) SPRINGFIELD – There were 5.6 days suitable for field work during the week ending August 01, 2021. Statewide, the average temperature was 74.8 degrees, 0.4 degrees above normal. Precipitation averaged 0.89 inches, 0.13 inches above normal. Topsoil moisture supply was rated 3 percent very short, 14 percent short, 76 percent adequate, and 7 percent…… MORE
Illinois State University’s Solar Car “Racying” Team is competing in a cross-country 1,000-mile adventure in the 2021 American Solar Car Challenge.… MORE
About 14,000 State Farm employees in Bloomington must wear face masks at work as McLean County is labeled by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as a community with “substantial” COVID-19 transmission.… 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…