Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White says that Driver’s Services Facilities will remain closed an additional week amid the latest surge in Covid-19.

Secretary of State departments will attempt to return to conducting in-person transactions on January 24^th. Driver Services facilities operating on a Tuesday – Saturday schedule will reopen on Tuesday, Jan. 25^th.

White says that three Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) facilities will open on Tuesday, Jan. 18, for in-person CDL services only.

In addition, the Drivers and Vehicles Services hotline phone number remains open at 800-252-8980. Customers with issues involving administrative hearings may email adminhearings@ilsos.gov or call 312-793-3722 or 217-782-7065.

For more information, visit ilsos.gov.

The City of Virginia has a new police chief.

The Cass County Star Gazette reports that Daniel W. Smith was sworn into office at Monday night’s Virginia City Council meeting.

Smith replaces Martin Fanning. Former Mayor Reg Brunk had named Fanning interim police chief on October 5, 2020 after the resignation of Bryce Kennedy from the position. Kennedy left the post after alleged inappropriate text messages between Kennedy and a minor were leaked to the public.

According to the Star Gazette, Fanning moved on to become the full-time Police Chief in the Village of Ashland last month after the retirement of former chief Jim Birdsell.

The McDonough and Schuyler County Health Departments have a new health administrator. The joint county health departments announced last night that Registered Nurse Kerri Allen has been approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health to become the new Public Health Administrator for both counties.

According to an article in the McDonough Voice, previous Health Administrator Lynnette Cale submitted her resignation to both counties effective March 18^th of last year.

Allen has been with the health departments as a nurse and Community Health Director for 10 years. She also serves as an obstetrics labor and delivery nurse at McDonough District Hopsital in Macomb.

Allen said in the announcement last night that she is proud and excited to continue to serve her native Macomb and the surrounding area and looks forward to continuing both health departments’ partnerships with their respective community partners in promoting health and wellness to serve the community’s needs.

A recent conviction vacated by an Adams County judge is drawing national attention and anger.

Adams County Judge Robert Adrian reversed his own conviction last week of 18 year old Drew Cameron of one count of criminal sexual assault from a bench trial held on October 15th. According to the Quincy Herald Whig and WGEM, at a sentencing hearing on Jan. 3rd, Cameron’s attorney made a pair of motions to the court, saying that a mandatory minimum sentence imposed by state statute would be inappropriate.

According to transcripts from the hearing obtained by the Herald Whig, Adrian said that the time Clinton had served in the Adams County Jail was enough punishment. Cameron had served 148 days in the Adams County Jail since his arrest. Adrian says per the transcript, “For what happened in this case, that is plenty of punishment.” Cameron was facing a minimum of 4 years in prison in the case.

Adrian went on to dole out harsh criticism at the parents who held the May 30th graduation party where the alleged assault happened, scolding them for letting minors drink alcohol and swim in a pool at the party in only their underwear. According to the 16 year old victim’s testimony, she was sexually assaulted after she had passed out at the party and woke up with a pillow over her face and Cameron on top of her. She eventually was able to push Cameron off of her and leave, eventually telling a friend and then her father about the incident. Her father called police shortly after learning about the assault.

On Tuesday, the Quincy Area Network Against Domestic Abuse (Quanada) issued a statement blasting Adrian’s decision and his comments during the hearing: “The verdict and Adrian’s comments send a chilling message to other rape victims that their behavior, not the rapists’, will be judged. Shame the victims, free the rapists. This judgment reinforces the fact that standards for women have always been impossibly high while they are impossibly low for men.” The statement goes on to say that justice was not done in the case.

The Crisis Center Foundation located in Jacksonville posted similar criticism on their Facebook Page yesterday: “For the reprehensible precedent Judge Adrian has set by not upholding the law, we ask that you censure, suspend, and/or remove him from his position in the Eighth Circuit Court in Illinois.” The post shares a Change.org petition from Quanada asking signers to agree to a petition to file charges against Adrian “for Abuse of Judicial Discretion and Power.” The case has now reached international attention, drawing a by-line in the Washington Post yesterday, and The Independent in the United Kingdom, as well as ABC News, The Daily Beast, Newsweek, and the New York Post.

The disdain for Adrian’s ruling has now spilled over onto other cases in his courtroom.

WGEM and the Herald Whig report that Adrian told Josh Jones, the lead trial attorney for the Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office, to leave his courtroom yesterday. According to the report, Adrian said that his wife had seen where Jones had liked a Facebook comment attacking Adrian about the Cameron ruling and asked him to leave the court. According to the report Adrian said: “I’m not on social media, but my wife is. She saw the thumbs up you gave to people attacking me. I can’t be fair with you. Get out.” According to the Herald Whig, Jones had liked a post on Quanada’s Facebook Page.

Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha told the Herald-Whig he was “mystified” with what happened in court. Farha told the Herald Whig that his office had never had trouble with Adrian in the past and that his office would be handling the situation internally. The exchange happened while Jones was appearing for the Natasha McBride first degree murder case. McBride is charged in connection with a 2020 crash that killed a Rushville grandmother and her three infant grandchildren. WGEM says that court proceeded normally after Jones’ exited, but Adrian was not on the bench later in the morning for cases that had been assigned to his docket.

Chief Judge of the 8th Judicial Circuit, J. Frank McCartney of Pike County, told Muddy River News he drove to Quincy yesterday to review Adrian’s comments and address the issue: “I was made aware of the situation Wednesday morning. There are going to be some things done over the next few days and weeks that will hopefully alleviate some of the issues. I can’t comment any further than that right now.”

The 8th Judicial Circuit holds jurisdiction over Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Mason, Menard, Pike, and Schuyler counties. Adrian has been on the bench in Adams County since 2010.

A man whose arrest was the subject of a video by Cass County Sheriff Devron Ohrn in October of last year is heading to prison.

42 year old Bogarth O. Lopez of Beardstown was arrested at his residence by Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies in the 800 block of West 7^th Street in Beardstown on Oct. 4, 2021. Ohrn accused the residence of being an illicit drug business in the video and went on to detail his frustration on the war against methamphetamine distribution and addiction throughout the county.

Lopez was initially charged with possession of methamphetamine, methamphetamine delivery, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance, manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance, and a Schuyler County warrant for a petition to revoke probation on a possession of methamphetamine less than 5 grams charge and cruelty to animals warrant.

On Monday, Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of methamphetamine delivery less than 5 grams. All other Cass County charges were dismissed per the plea. He was sentenced to 3 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, a $200 county fine, plus fees and costs. He was credited 102 days served in the Schuyler County Jail.

The Cass County sentence is to be served concurrently with a Schuyler County sentence of 5 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections after probation was revoked in that case on December 22^nd. All original fines, fees, and costs in the Schuyler County case was reimposed. Lopez also pleaded guilty to one count of cruelty to animals and ordered to pay an undisclosed amount of restitution in that case. Two other counts of cruelty to animals were dismissed per the plea.

The Prairieland United Way’s annual campaign is running behind this year.

Executive Director Karen Walker said last week that the annual campaign is a little above 60% of its goal this year. Walker says that employee groups have been late to report: “I think there’s just been a lot of….you know, some of our employee campaigns have done well and even better than past years and others we’re struggling with even getting to do a campaign, just some changes I think, in the overall leadership supporting the community. Hopefully, we will still have that and we are just running behind schedule on that.”

Walker says she’s encouraged by the Price Is United event’s ticket sales so far: “So far, we have about a third of our tickets left. There is still time to get tickets. I certainly encourage anyone who has thought about coming but just wasn’t sure to give it a chance. There are some great prizes to win and it’s really a fun time.”

Price is United returns Saturday, February 5^th at 6PM at Hamilton’s in Jacksonville. A table of eight is $320. Tickets are available at the United Way Heroes Table for $400. Deadline for table tickets is Feb. 1^st.

The Jacksonville Noon Rotary is going to have to adapt its annual February fundraiser due to a rise in Covid cases in the area.

The “Casino Royale” styled Valentine Dance, auction and fundraiser have been postponed and will be changed to an online silent auction beginning in February.

Noon Rotary President Cathy Jo Littleton-Wahl says that an in-person event this year goes against one of Rotary’s mission statements to the public and its members: “One, we need to know that we need to be able to raise money so that we can continue the good work of the Rotary, and so cancelling was not an option; but then, we were all very concerned about the rising numbers. We knew that the in-person [event] would not fit our Four-Way Test. Two pieces of that Four-Way Test are “Is it fair to all concerned?” and “Is it beneficial to all?”. We didn’t feel like it met either one of those criteria. We did have success last year with our virtual event. We thought we would revamp it and recreate it. We will actually be doing it from February 1st through the 28th.”

She says last year’s online event was still fun because Rotary members ribbed one another online over the auction through Facebook posts and videos. She said the teasing and competition was all in good fun and created an enjoyable fundraiser despite the circumstances. She hopes that atmosphere will return again this year.

Wahl says that the Casino Royale style event is too cool to pass up and it will be revisited at a later date: “I tell you what, that’s just too cool to have in a virtual event, so we are going to have an in-person event and we’ll do our James Bond-styled event. We really want to have those shaken-not-stirred martinis, the glamorous clothes, and all of those things. It’s kind of hard to do all of that virtually.”

Wahl says she hopes that the community will support the online auction, as the money raised will be for three school scholarships provided through the Rotary, matching funds for district grants for projects in the Jacksonville community, and purchase of supplies for South Jacksonville Elementary.

Details of the auction will be posted on the Rotary’s Facebook page and website.

The Illinois Department of Corrections is once again pausing intake of prisoners from county jails. IDOC announced the temporary pause yesterday evening. County Sheriff’s were notified yesterday morning.

IDOC reports Covid outbreaks Graham, Logan, Menard and Northern Reception and Classification Centers. They are currently using the intake space at these locations as isolation locations for those who have been exposed or have tested positive for Covid-19.

IDOC says it will continue accepting individuals from county jails who are scheduled to be released from custody the same day they are transferred. Individual requests for intakes due to special circumstances, such as medical or safety concerns, will be considered. When COVID-19 cases decline, IDOC expects space to become available for county jail intakes.

IDOC says 75% of the incarcerated population and 66% of staff are vaccinated against COVID-19.