John Wood Community College is making things a bit easier for ag students to pursue a 4-year degree at a neighboring institution.

On Friday of last week, members of John Wood’s administration gathered with administration of Western Illinois University in Baylis at the Agricultural Sciences Complex and the Fred L. Bradshaw Learning Center to sign a 2+2 agreement.

John Wood Community College President Bryan Renfro says the agreement sets up a direct path for students from John Wood’s Applied Science in Ag Business program directly into Western’s bachelors program for Applied Science: “The important thing about this is we really spell out which classes students will take, so there is no question for them about which classes they’ll need to complete their degree here. Most importantly, all of those classes are agreed upon by Western Illinois University to transfer. When they go in at WIU, they’ll come in at junior standing and finish their last two years there.”

Renfro says it solidifies an already long-standing partnership between the two schools who have a history of working together: “We view this agreement as the first of many opportunities that we will both be working on and encouraging our teams to work on to maximize transferability for our students here at John Wood Community College and benefit Western Illinois University in receiving students that will complete their bachelor’s degree. Usually how these articulation agreements work is we have point people, faculty that are involved. We couldn’t do it without them. As any one of us make changes to our curriculum, we work with them and then, we make changes to the articulation agreement and update it in making sure that those students are just taking the hours of classes that they need here and the hours that they need there.”

Renfro says agreements like this one ensure a smooth, affordable transition for students looking to get their bachelors degree in a four-year time span. He says it demystifies the process of course selection while also offering students crucial hands-on experience offered by John Wood before they finish up with a bachelors degree at Western.

The Pike County Board will be filling a vacancy.

The Pike Press reports that long-time board member John Birch was resigning from the county board due to health concerns.

County Board Chairman Andy Borrowman thanked Birch for his lengthy term of service to the county. Birch won re-election to a new 4-year term in November.

Birch served on three county board committees that will also have to be filled. The Pike Press reports that the Pike County Republican Central Committee will provide 3 nominations to fill Birch’s vacancy. Borrowman says he expects to receive those nominations ahead of the Pike County Board’s February meeting, with anticipation of seating Birch’s replacement at that February meeting.

A Hannibal, Missouri man with a lengthy criminal history on both sides of the river is going to the Illinois Department of Corrections for over a decade.

30 year old Dylan S. Howell was sentenced on Tuesday in Pike County Circuit Court to 11 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections on methamphetamine delivery charges.

Howell pled guilty to one count of methamphetamine delivery between 5-15 grams, a Class 1 felony, and one count of methamphetamine delivery less than 5 grams, a Class 2 felony, on January 5^th in Pike County. Howell was arrested by Pike County Sheriff’s Deputies on April 12^th of last year after a lengthy investigation.

Howell has been arrested for similar charges in both Illinois and Missouri along with other offenses since 2015.

Howell was sentenced to 11 years in IDOC on the Class 1 felony charge and 7 years on the Class 2 felony. Both are to be served concurrently. Howell was also ordered to pay a $1,000 county fine plus court costs. He was given credit for 211 days served in the Pike County Jail.

The family of a missing Macomb man is asking for the public’s help.

38 year old Eric Fischer has been missing since around noontime on January 8^th. According to a report from KHQA, Fischer was seen in footage purchasing a blue and black huffy mountain bike, a bike pump, and a grey backpack at the Macomb Wal-Mart. He took it to the parking lot, filled the tires, then rode it north out of the parking lot in Macomb and has not been seen nor heard from since.

In the video, Fischer was wearing black Shoes, blue jeans, a black Jeep hoodie, a black a gray north face coat, black ball cap, and sunglasses. Family members says that Fischer uncharacteristically missed work and meeting up with his children as a part of a shared custody arrangement.

The family told KHQA that they believe him to be in danger due to “a descriptive and suicidal text that was sent to his ex-wife.” The family has been conducting ground searches over the last week and a half.

The family is asking for people living in Macomb and the surrounding area to check their security cameras, doorbell cameras, and trail cams in case Fischer was captured on any of these devices.

Fischer is described as a white male, standing 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing approximately 175-200 pounds. He has shaggy, light brown hair and a long beard. He also has a tattoo of an eagle on his neck, and a sleeve tattoo on his right arm that has an eagle, a tiger, a girl, and lightning bolts.

Anyone who has seen or heard from Fischer since January 8^th is asked to call the Macomb Police at 309-833-4505, McDonough County Sheriff’s Department at 309-833-2323, or the Macomb Area Crime Stoppers at 309-836-3222.

The attorneys for a family of a man who died allegedly at the hands of two Springfield EMS workers have released information from a preliminary hearing from Sangamon County Court on Friday.

WTAX reports that nationally renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump and attorney Bob Hilliard released information from the a recorded call in the van in which EMT Peggy Finley says, “I’m not messing with his vitals. Not poking the bear.” The attorneys said this call alone demonstrates that Earl Moore, Jr. needlessly died after being strapped faced down to a stretcher, causing him to eventually to suffocate to death.

The evidence reveal also included testimony from a pathologist who said that Moore sustained rib fractures caused by the restraints that were too tight and not from receiving CPR.

The third piece revealed by the attorneys were training records obtained from LifeStar EMS dated from May & June of last year that showed that both Finley and fellow EMT Peter Cadigan had received training not to place any patients in a prone position.

Both Cadigan and Finley face first-degree murder charges and a civil lawsuit in accordance with their alleged involvement in Moore’s death.

The criminal case has been set for a pretrial hearing on February 6^th.

People who live along the Illinois River Basin may see a strange sight in the sky this month.

The Peoria Journal Star reports that U.S. Geological Survey will start sending out a helicopter towing a large hoop to make low-level flights over the Illinois River Basin as part of ongoing groundwater studies. The flights are scheduled to start tomorrow and last 3-4 weeks.

The helicopter will collect geophysical measurements as part of the USGS’ Next Generation Water Observing System. The copter will fly relatively low to the ground, a few hundred feet above the surface. A sensor that resembles a large Hula-Hoop will be towed beneath to measure tiny electromagnetic signals that can be used to map underground features.

Surveys will not occur directly above populated areas. The helicopter system will only be visible from any particular location for a short time. Planned flight paths and survey progress can be found at arcgis.com.

A major pipeline project has been stopped…at least for now.

WAND-TV reports that Navigator Heartland Greenway LLC filed a motion with the Illinois Commerce Commission to voluntarily withdraw its application certificate to construction a CO2 pipeline through the state on Friday.

According to a press release by the Coalition to Stop CO2 pipelines, Navigator failed to secure the easements required for a sequestration site in Christian County, rendering their application incomplete.

Navigator says they are going to re-file a new application next month and expand their project by adding another lateral route.

Pam Richart, co-founder of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines and co-Director of the Eco-Justice Collaborative said in the press release that because Navigator was unable to secure the sequestration site, a senior staff member with the ICC recommended the commission dismiss the project 2 months ago.

The project has picked up a number of opposition groups since their initial application in July. The opposition says Navigator’s petition should be put on hold or dismissed until The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration updates national regulations for CO2. The PHMSA says they hope to complete the rule-making process in October 2024.

Members of the Coalition to Stop CO2 pipelines believes that Navigator is now looking to place the sequestration site in Montgomery County after they failed to receive easements in Christian County. Navigator is alleged to have only received 6% of the easements it needs along its proposed route from Iowa into Illinois.

The murder trial of a Jacksonville man will have to wait on an upcoming motion to be heard in March.

39 year old Joshua E. Wilson appeared in Morgan County Court in front of visiting Macoupin County Judge Kenneth Diehl on Friday. Wilson is accused of three counts of first degree murder in the shooting death of 26-year-old Malcolm V. Fitts of Chicago and formerly of Jacksonville on February 28, 2021.

Fitts died of multiple gunshot wounds at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital after being transported from the parking lot of the Turner High Rise Apartment complex.

The case has gone through several hurdles over the last nearly two years, due to Covid-19 and other cases slowing down the course of the case. In August of last year, the biggest problem arose when Wilson’s defense counsel Marcus Shantz told the court that he was missing a thumb drive of video surveillance footage from the Morgan County Housing Authority property after it was removed from an envelope sent in the mail to his office by the Morgan County State’s Attorney’s office. State’s Attorney Gray Noll told the court in August that they directly sent the files to Shantz’s office electronically.

A jury trial setting was canceled in the case in November and more time for review of evidence was given in a follow-up hearing in December.

State’s Attorney Gray Noll says Friday’s hearing amounted to the submission of a motion to suppress the video evidence that arrived back in August: “Mr. Wilson’s attorney, Marc Shantz filed a motion that was entitled “A Motion to Prohibit the Introduction of Certain Video Evidence.” The State was just handed the copy [on Friday afternoon], but based on the conversations with Mr. Wilson’s attorney, it sounds like he is asking that the video surveillance [footage] that the State would be introducing into their case in chief…he is asking that the videos be suppressed and not be allowed to introduce it.”

Also introduced on Friday to both sides was some subpoenaed medical records from JMH, which are currently in review. Noll says after the motion is heard the case will likely proceed to trial.

In Shanz’s motion to suppress, he says that no camera was positioned to capture the actual shooting on February 28, 2021 and the files are incomplete and defective due to time lapses. Shanz says the lapses show approximately 34 minutes missing. Noll says that’s the nature of the surveillance system at the Hi Rise: “They have a system that is a motion activated system.”

Shanz says in the motion to the court that due to the time gaps and the positioning of cameras, the defense will argue that the crime in question could have just as easily been committed by a pedestrian on foot than by Wilson.

The motion is expected to be heard on March 23^rd.

The Greene County Health Department is getting behind a technological initiative they say is defined as a part of public health.

The health department released a statement on their Facebook page last Saturday saying that technological advances are paramount to the existence of rural setting like Greene County. The statement says those advances allow access to resources that have been or will be eventually depleted from a certain area.

Health Department Administrator Molly Peters says that the Greene County Health Department is behind the county-wide initiative to bring broadband to the community because it would be at the core of ensuring both economic and educational strength and growth in the county for the future: “Broadband definitely opens up the avenue for potential of telehealth visiting. It allows for people to access resources easily, quickly; and without that, it really puts us at a disadvantage of accessing mental health counselors, or psychiatrists, or people that may not be in this area. I think it’s important long-term to really consider how quick the Internet is in making it for ease of access to healthcare for this community. In general, we know that many in our community do not have good access, and that really hampers many of the resources that are available to them. As a rural setting, we definitely know that this is something that needs to continue to evolve.”

In the statement last Saturday, the health department says that a good broadband connection will allow emergency services and hospitals to function faster and more efficiently. The health department says that the Covid-19 pandemic laid bare the necessities of having a good Internet connection in the county.

Currently, the Greene County Economic Development group is working to bring a county-wide broadband network that would bring up to 1 gig Internet speeds to the door to all of the residents in the county. The project is estimated to be about $93 million and has been granted to Frontier.

On Wednesday, the Greene County Board had a standing-room-only meeting with officials from around the county discussing the broadband project. Frontier is asking for a local contribution of $1.1 million to put the project in better financial position to receive state and federal grants. The Greene Prairie Press reports that the county wouldn’t be asked for all of the money up front but would be obligated to pay it out over phases of the project, with 10% due when installation of fiber begins. Frontier representatives told the board Wednesday that they would also write the grant to the state and federal governments at no cost to the county, but would need the financial commitment to move forward. The grants’ deadlines are the end of January. Members of the Greene County Board took no action on the project on Wednesday.