A local Congressman is applauding the decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior to continue to provide police escorts for Honor Flight visits to Washington D.C.

The National Park Service announced on Monday last week that it had reversed its decision to stop providing the escorts. On Friday, leadership from the U.S. Park Police and the National Mall and Memorial Parks group met with the Honor Flight Network to modify and create best practices to move forward.

13^th District Congressman Rodney Davis and other members of Congress urged the Department of Interior sent a letter to facilitate the return of Honor Flights by bringing back the police escorts for those trips.

Davis called the decision the “right thing to do” and that veterans deserve the ability to share the visits with other veterans and get to see the nation’s memorials as honor for their service. Davis says by restoring access to the escorts it ensures a safe and smooth visit for veterans to the nation’s capitol.

Land of Lincoln Honor Flights are scheduled to resume on June 14^th.

Two Bluffs municipal officials are retiring.

The Journal Courier reports that long-time treasurer Sharon Evans will be retiring. Evans has served as the village treasurer for the past 46 years.

Village Clerk Terry Kunkel is also retiring. Kunkel has been with the village for the past 9 years. According to the Journal Courier, Kunkel’s replacement has already been hired. Chrissy Willis has been hired to take over the position and will begin in two weeks.

A luncheon is being planned to celebrate both on June 1^st. The event will be open to the public.

The village board of trustees also appointed Kathy Brooks to an open village board position. The seat was vacated after the passing of trustee Rita Brockway in February.

An Adams County woman was sentenced to 2 consecutive 20 year sentences in the Illinois Department of Corrections Thursday afternoon in Adams Count Court.

33 year old Karen Blackledge pleaded guilty to one count of home invasion and one count of aggravated sexual assault, both Class X felonies on April 1^st.

The charges stem from a November 9^th incident in which Blackledge and 35 year old Bradley Yohn is alleged to have kidnapped 70 year old Christine “Tina” Schmitt under knife point, stabbed her, took her car, and then forced their way into Schmitt’s home along North Bottom Road. Scmitt later died on December 12^th.

Yohn remains lodged in Adams County Jail on $15 million bond awaiting a hearing on ineffectiveness of counsel and the possibility of representing himself on May 11^th.

Adams County Assistant State’s Attorney Josh Jones read victim impact statements from 3 of Schmitt’s grandchildren. Seven other family members made impact statements in the courtroom.

Muddy River News reports that Blackledge looked straight ahead for most of the hearing , shielding her face with her left hand as video and still cameras recorded her. She removed her glasses at one point and wiped tears from her face.

Adams County Public Defender Chris Pratt gave a statement of allocution for Blackledge explaining she would have a hard time speaking saying she had apologized for her actions and was ashamed.

Adams County Judge Amy Lannerd concurred with the negotiated plea agreement and sentenced Blackledge to 20 years in prison for the home invasion, followed by 20 years for the aggravated criminal sexual assault, with credit for 127 days served in custody.

Illinois’ Truth in Sentencing guidelines require that Blackledge serve 50% of the home invasion sentence and 85% of the aggravated criminal sexual assault sentence.

The Illinois State Police have released more information about a single-vehicle crash in Scott County that killed a toddler yesterday.

According to preliminary investigation reports, a 2022 Jeep Compass driven by 27 year old Makayla D. Brown of Winchester was traveling southbound on Sand Road just south of Bloomfield Road in rural Scott County at approximately 2:50 yesterday afternoon.

For an unknown reason, the Jeep left the roadway to the right and struck a tree. Brown and a 2 year old male passenger were both transported to Jacksonville Memorial Hospital with major injuries. The toddler later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased by the Morgan County Coroner’s Office at approximately 4PM.

According to the release from ISP, Brown has pending citations from the crash for driving under the influence and improper lane usage.

The child’s name is still currently being withheld.

State Police say no further information will be released at this time.

The Greene County Health Department is seeking the public’s assistance for annual monitoring of West Nile Virus.

Health Department Director Molly Peters says that monitoring and surveillance begins on Sunday: “Every year we put out surveillance to monitor mosquitoes to see if there are positive cases of West Nile Virus in pools of mosquitoes. Those little vector bins are located throughout the community. We set those out and we’ll collect mosquitoes from May 15th to October 15th. We report any positive cases of West Nile Virus in those pools of mosquitoes to the community and the state. If there are positive pools, it’s more likely that West Nile Virus can exist in humans. It’s an awareness throughout the community, and as we get to drier temperatures and hot days, it would be more likely that we’ll see West Nile Virus occur.”

Traditionally, as Spring moves to Summer, it becomes primary breeding season of the Culex pipiens or common house mosquito, which is the primary transmitter of West Nile Virus.

Peters says where the help from the public comes in is through the collection of dead birds. Peters says people should contact the Health Department at 217-942-6961, extension 102 if they have a fresh dead bird on their property that died by itself, has not decomposed, and did not present an obvious cause of death (i.e. crush, shot, or killed by a car): “It’s important to contact the health department within 24 hours of finding the dead bird. Then, we will instruct you on what to do with that dead bird and we will come and collect it. If there is a need to pick it up, we do put it in the freezer and maintain it, and then it gets tested for West Nile Virus to see if it’s in birds as well.”

Appearance of West Nile Virus usually occur within species of “perching birds” in addition to crows, blue jays, robins, cardinals, catbirds, mockingbirds, sparrows, finches, flycatchers, swallows, warblers, wrens, small or medium sized hawks, and owls. The birds are then sent off to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for testing.

Peters says to reduce any possibility to catch West Nile Virus that people should eliminate all ponding or pooling of stagnant water and weekly change out water collectors like bird baths, pet water bowls, and pools.

Triopia Superintendent Adam Dean was honored by his peers Wednesday in Springfield at a banquet hosted by the Illinois Association of School Administrators.

Dean was chosen as the Two Rivers Region Superintendent of Distinction for 2022. Dean says that he was chosen out of a large region full of great school administrators. He says he’s thankful for the staff, faculty, school board, and students that “make me look good.”

The Two Rivers Region is comprised of Adams, Schuyler, Brown, Cass, Pike, Scott, Morgan, Calhoun and Greene counties. Superintendents of Distinction were selected by peers in their region based on their commitment, dedication, and leadership.

Dean has been in education for 18 years, and has spent the last 3 as superintendent at Triopia. Those nominating Dean noted the district’s ability to stay in-person for learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, the expansion of career-based programs and curriculum during his tenure, and the expansion of technology and learning opportunities of staff.

Dean says he’s proud of the expansion of the CTE programming: “We started a business program here my first year. Recently, we built a greenhouse for our ag students. It’s been really beneficial for them through plant sales and fundraisers. I’m just really happy to bring more opportunities to students.”

Dean was honored with the award on Wednesday in Springfield at a luncheon sponsored by Horace Mann. Dean was one of 21 IASA regional superintendents of distinction that were recognized.

Illinois College has inducted two new members to its Board of Trustees.

Michael Bauersachs of Glen Allen, Virginia was a 1986 graduate of the college and is the co-founder and former president and CEO of Ramaco Resources. He is currently an investor entrepreneur and consultant, primarily working with energy, real estate and mining companies.

Luiz Guimarães of Barrington was a 1991 graduate of Illinois College is currently the North America Director of Services and Innovation with Environmental Resources Management, Incorporated, a company he has worked for the past 15 years where he has expertise in mergers and acquisitions; environmental, social and health impact assessment; enterprise carbon management; and climate governance.

Both men were inducted at the winter meeting held back in February.

The Illinois Department of Public Health received a scathing report from the Illinois Auditor General today for their handling of the COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home that killed 36 people in late 2020.

In a summary of the report, the audit says that IDPH did not identify and respond to the seriousness of the outbreak until 11 days after the outbreak began, even though the department was receiving almost daily updates about the deteriorating conditions at the veterans home.

The report says that Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff Tony Kolbeck requested on November 9^th, 2020 a site visit from IDPH as well as rapid tests and antibody treatments for residents. According to the Auditor General’s report, IDPH officials did not offer any advice or assistance as to how to slow the spread at the Home, offer to provide additional rapid COVID-19 tests, and were unsure of the availability of the antibody treatments for long-term care settings prior to being requested by the IDVA Chief of Staff.

The report noted that at the time the outbreak occurred when community spread of the virus throughout the state was extremely high.

It also says that onsite testing and results were delayed in getting results, accounting for further spread among staff members and then into the home’s residents.

Upon release of the report, many members of the Illinois GOP have blasted the Pritzker Administration and IDPH for what the Chicago Tribune has characterized as “a massive bureaucratic failure involving the administration’s response to the pandemic and the LaSalle deaths.” The full audit of the incident can be read at this link.

Free Turbo Tax commercials have been everywhere the last few years. Now, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul says Intuit, the owners of Turbo Tax, are going to pay $141 million to customers across the country who were deceived or mislead into using the alleged “free” tax-filing service.

Intuit, which offers the TurboTax tax-filing system, will suspend TurboTax’s “free, free, free” ad campaign and pay restitution to nearly 4.4 million taxpayers, according to a press release from Raoul’s office this week.

A Federal Trade Commission investigation was inspired by a 2019 ProPublica report that found the company was using deceptive tactics to steer low-income tax filers away from federally-supported free services which they qualified for and toward its own products.

Here in Illinois, approximately 130,000 people are set to receive a portion of the settlement.

Intuit will provide restitution to consumers who started using the commercial TurboTax Free Edition for tax years 2016 through 2018 and were told that they had to pay to file even though they were eligible for the version of TurboTax offered as part of the IRS Free File program.

Representatives of Intuit said in a blog post on Wednesday that they admitted no wrongdoing, but are simply trying to put the matter in the past.

Consumers are expected to receive a $30 check in the mail for each year they were deceived into paying for filing services with Turbo Tax.

A rural Pittsfield man has been arrested after a sexual assault investigation.

Pike County Sheriff David Greenwood announced the arrest of 18 year old Dylan C. Guthrie today on three charges of predatory criminal sexual assault of a family member under the age of 13, and one charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. According to court reports, the incidents occurred on or about April 9^th.

According to the announcement, the Pike County Sheriff’s Department initiated an investigation in rural Pittsfield yesterday. As a result of that investigation, Guthrie was taken into custody by Pike County Sheriff’s Deputies and taken to the Pike County Jail.

The Pike County Sheriff’s Office says it received assistance in the investigation from the Illinois Department of Child & Family Services and the Children’s Advocacy Network.