We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 1047
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (Savanna) and members of the Illinois House Republican Caucus hosted 55 women leaders from across the state on Tuesday to recognize their leadership in making a difference in their communities throughout Illinois. House Republican legislators from throughout Illinois invited guests from their districts to participate in the Emerging Women Leaders Recognition Event, linking together the broad expanse of industries and diverse individual experiences found within the State of Illinois. The House Republican’s t...
Freeport City Council members are paid $3800 a year to represent their respective ward, and with that in mind – some of them are lucky they don't get arrested for grand theft. Exhibit 1A – Larry Sanders in Ward 5. Now, for the past two months the Council has been dealing with how they are going to set up a plan to pay for road repairs and infrastructure – we know, we've been covering it. And after months of maps, and homework where the council members selected the worst roads in their distr...
Criminal Sexual Assault The Jo Daviess County State's Attorney, Chris Allendorf, would like to inform the public of the following information: Alycia J. Deckert, 42, Scales Mound, was charged by State's Attorney's information on March 4, 2024 in Jo Daviess Circuit Court for the 15th Judicial Circuit with two counts of Criminal Sexual Assault and two counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse. All of the charges are Class 1 felonies and are based on the age of the victim, as well as Deckert...
When word of the vote by the NUIC to deny the Girls Basketball co-op between Orangeville and Aquin first came out – like so many other people I heard from, my initial reaction was one of anger. Why would it be voted down? How could ANY school that participates in any form of co-op vote against another school trying to do the same thing? How could they vote to approve Boys Basketball and deny the girls? Was this private school hatred, or maybe even a Title IX violation? But like many things in t...
The Warhawk Tracker Backers was founded by a group of parents, over 18 years ago, to raise money for a new track in the Stockton community. When the group was originally formed, the track used by the community and school district was the town's original cinder track. Around 2017, the State of Illinois mandated cinders be removed, so the track is now a combination of grass and gravel/sand. This track is used by the Stockton community, Stockton school district for Physical Education classes, and the 5th-12th grade students who participate in jr....
The sad truth about being one of the only true medias left in our region is that people often try to manipulate me into writing a story to promote their personal cause – which quite often, is factually inaccurate. Normally, when the needed research is done, we find the flaw and don’t fall for the attempt, but on occasion we have been played (Can you say “Ron Fluegel?”). The latest attempt was emailed in by Jody Coss in regard to the Walnut Acres Nursing Home, and … well … here’s part of what...
Submissions are now being accepted for the 14th annual "Prairie Wind" art and literary magazine. "Prairie Wind" is a diverse collection of original poetry, prose, visual art, and recorded music contributed by Highland Community College students, staff, alumni and members of the public. The submission deadline is on Friday, March 8. Drop submissions off in the Ferguson Fine Arts Center, Building F, 2998 West Pearl City Road, Freeport. The magazine has been published annually since 1992 under the...
Join University of Illinois Extension as they kick off their Spring Break Gardening Series with "Brambles: From Raspberries to Blackberries" on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 1:30 p.m. This program is being held at the Jo Daviess County Extension Office, 204 N. Vine St. Elizabeth, IL 61028. This program is being offered free of charge, but pre-registration is requested. To register or for more information call the Jo Daviess County Extension Office at 815-858-2273 or visit us online at...
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie is spearheading a new podcast series called Capitol Crimes, to chronicle the stories behind legislation introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives. Listeners will hear from the sponsors of legislation that was crafted to keep Illinoisans safe and state government accountable as well as the perspective from the witnesses and experts. Capitol Crimes’ host Dean Abbott will unpack the ‘why’ of the legislation while telling the story of the legislative measures and, what happened to those measures after...
The 42nd Annual Carroll, Jo Daviess, and Stephenson County Regional Spelling Bee was held Tuesday, February 13th, at Highland Community College. Twenty-two students in grades four through eight competed in the Spelling Bee coordinated by the Regional Office of Education #8. The participants of the Regional Spelling Bee are the first and second-place winners from their local school district spelling bee contests. The 2024 Regional Spelling Bee Champion was Hendrix Feld, a 7th-grade student from...
We are thrilled to inform you that we have opened vendor registration for the 2024 Stephenson County Fair. For 2024, we will be using eventhub.net for our registration and communication platform. This will make signing up for Stephenson County Fair easier and keep all your information stored in one place! Don't worry - creating an account on EventHub is completely free. To register for our event this year, follow these steps: Click this link to go to our Showcase Page on EventHub:...
To conclude her annual Valentine's program, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie delivered hundreds of Valentine's Day cards to area veterans. McCombie launched her 'Valentines for Vets' program last month and received countless cards created by students, local groups, and area residents to then distribute to veterans on February 14th. Last Wednesday, McCombie visited Big Meadows in Savanna, Allure of Stockton, Midwest Nursing Home, and four different VFW Posts (Savanna, Lanark, Galena, and...
At the special Freeport City Council meeting held Monday, February 5, the sole purpose of the early meeting at 5:00 was to deal with the road repair issues. At the previous COW (Committee of the Whole) meeting, Fehr Graham's Darin Stykel had given the Council members a "homework" assignment. They were each handed a street map of their respective ward, and asked to choose which streets in their ward they felt were the most desperate in need of repair. At Monday's meeting, a month later, the point...
While many people might consider the Lena-Winslow football team as the area's biggest "dynasty", and Scales Mound Boys Basketball might be in the conversation – all of the region's sports programs pale in comparison to the dominance displayed by the Freeport Speech Team that won the Regional title for the 23rd time in 24 years. Unlike a regular meet, where points are awarded for how kids do in the preliminary rounds, at the Regional, the IHSA only awards team points for how well a student places...
While most High School sports are allowed to compete against schools their size – the lone exception (And yes, I beat this dead horse a lot) is competitive speech. Schools as small as Stockton, River Ridge and Galena will be going straight up against Freeport, Sterling and Byron at this Saturday's Speech Regional. Each school can only pick one student (or team of two) to represent them in each of the 14 speech events, and only the top four will advance on to the Sectional competition to be h...
The Daily Drawing is a drawing for 366 daily cash prizes from October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024 to those donating for a ticket. Over $21,000 is paid out to ticket holders during the drawing year. Cash prizes vary between $50 and $250. A ticket may win multiple times as each ticket remains in the drawing each day for the entire year, no matter how often it may be drawn. Sponsoring organizations from Jo Daviess, Carroll & Stephenson County include: Caring Community of Elizabeth, East Dubuque Music Boosters, Eastland Music Boosters, Galena Key...
Do you know a woman who deserves recognition in the community? House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (Savanna) wants to hear about it. Leader McCombie is asking for nominations from around the 89th legislative district on women who have gone above and beyond in the community to solve a problem, help those in need, or volunteer their services to a community organization. From the nominations, two women will be chosen and invited to Springfield for a special women’s recognition event on March 6th where they will be among other remarkable women l...
It wasn't expected to be that controversial – after agreeing to allow Aquin and Orangeville to co-op Football, Boys Basketball, Baseball and several years ago approving Softball – the NUIC was scheduled to vote on whether or not to allow the two schools to co-op Girls Basketball next year. A 75% approval rate was needed, and while four schools – Eastland, Forreston, Galena and Lena-Winslow were going to vote "No" – the vote was still expected to pass ... until it didn't. "Yeah, that was more th...
The original plea was first entered back in December of 2022. And after a series of status hearings and continuances, the hearing on Friday was originally expected to be a plea agreement. (At least that was the last reason for a continuance.) But apparently, no agreement could be reached, so at last Friday’s hearing the date was set for Stephanie Broshous to go to a trial by jury. There will be one more status hearing on April 5th at 9:00 am, then the Jury Pretrial is set for 1:30 pm on Thursday, April 18th, with the actual Jury trial s...
Bob Peters Jr., the owner of the Railside Bar in Lena, and his sister Becky Peters, might come across as loving people, but few people know the nightmare that continues to haunt them both. On November 12, 1992, their father, Bob Peters, was brutally murdered during a robbery at his store in downtown Freeport, Bob's Gun Shop. The three men who committed the crime were caught, William Keene, Michael Hoover and Anthony Ehlers, were convicted in court and sentenced to the death penalty. But when...
You can save a life at the American Red Cross Blood Drive on February 8 from 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm at the Scales Mound School Ag Building, located in the parking lot behind the school. For the best service, please make an appointment at 800-733-2767 or at https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/find-drive. As a bonus for your time, donors will receive a $20 Amazon gift card and the Food Science class will be serving soup and snacks following the donation. There is currently a significant shortage of blood product available in the U.S. Current...
Sitting in on the Freeport City Council Meeting Tuesday night was a chore. In fact, roughly an hour into the meeting, the famous quote from the movie Billy Madison refused to leave my brain. "At no point in your rambling, incoherent response, were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul." I've been to thousands of council or board meetings,...
With the start of the new year in Illinois, State Senator Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) is launching his first annual "Valentines for Seniors" card drive. To brighten the days of seniors and make sure they know they are a valued part of the community, Senator Chesney is asking students from public and private schools, church groups, scouting organizations, and other groups to create homemade cards that will be delivered to assisted living centers, nursing homes, and long-term care facilities acros...
The Daily Drawing is a drawing for 366 daily cash prizes from October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024 to those donating for a ticket. Over $21,000 is paid out to ticket holders during the drawing year. Cash prizes vary between $50 and $250. A ticket may win multiple times as each ticket remains in the drawing each day for the entire year, no matter how often it may be drawn. Sponsoring organizations from Jo Daviess, Carroll & Stephenson County include: Caring Community of Elizabeth, East Dubuque Music Boosters, Eastland Music Boosters, Galena K...
Several different topics were discussed at Monday's Freeport City Council meeting of the whole, but the argument could be made that the most pertinent one revolved around the City's goal to fix all of the roads in desperate need of repair. It is important to point out that the entire road repair issue is not the fault of the current council or administration – years of neglect, and putting it off until later – by previous boards and administrations are finally getting to the point where tim...
