The Illinois National Guard is leaving Beardstown after 35 years.
The Cass County Star-Gazette reports that the National Guard unit stationed in Beardstown is consolidating with units in Macomb. The move started at the beginning of this month and should be completed by the end of February.
The Schewe Community Center will eventually be given over to the Beardstown Park District completely. The deed paperwork for the building and 10 acres of surrounding property is expected to be completed in March.
Officials from the Illinois National Guard told the Star-Gazette it was necessary to combine assets to maximize potential grants and to more efficiently use their resources.
The Schewe Building is named for local philanthropist Karl Schewe who donated $200,000 for the building’s construction, which was completed in 1987. The building has been co-owned and jointly occupied by the National Guard and the Beardstown Park District ever since. Schewe, a well-known area stockbroker and landowner who died in 1995, was known for large donations of money and land to various area organizations including: $500,000 to Illinois College for its Karl H. and Louise H. Schewe Library, which was finished in 1976; gave time and money to the University of Illinois YMCA; and is responsible for the donated funds to build a gymnasium for the Lutheran Grade School in Beardstown.
The building is going to be in continual use with the Park District expected to take over all 20,000 square feet of the Community Center building along with a 4,000 square foot storage shed for events, offices, and programming.
The Sangamon County Republican Party has chosen a familiar face from local sports as the replacement for Mike Murphy’s unexpired term in Illinois’ 99th Legislative District in the General Assembly.
Sandy Hamilton, a Springfield realtor and former head volleyball coach for Sacred Heart-Griffin, was chosen from among a field of three candidates at a public meeting held this evening in Bradfordton.
Brenden Moore of the Decatur Herald & Review tweeted the news saying that Hamilton was chosen from a field that included Kelly Thompson, who plans to run against Doris Turner for Illinois Senate in the new Illinois 48th Senate District. Thompson, a project manager for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce-affiliated Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group, made her plans known earlier this month. Hamilton also lives in the newly drawn 48th Senate District and the newly drawn 95th House District, which will become fellow Republican State Representative Tim Butler’s district in 2022. Hamilton has not made her plans known for 2022 at this time, according to Moore.
Moore reports that Sangmon County GOP Chair Dianne Barghouti Hardwick said that Hamilton stood out because she was a “fresh face” but someone who had supported the party’s candidates in the past by working on their campaigns.
Moore also reports that Hamilton and long-time SHG football coach Ken Leonard drew national attention in September 2020 when they appeared on an episode of Fox and Friends to advocate for allowing Illinois high school sports to play amid the Covid-19 pandemic while the IHSA and Governor J.B. Pritzker had Fall sports shut down. Fall sports ended up being moved to Spring of this year as a result.
The three groups alleged the new maps apportionment was maligned and used bad data to not ensure equal representation of all of the state’s population, especially to disenfranchise Latino voters in Chicago’s legislative districts and Black voters in the Metro East. The ILGOP claimed the maps used inconsistent data to gerrymander districts heavily in Democrats’ favor. The lawsuits also alleged the maps adopted in September violated the“one person, one vote” provisions spelled out in Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Illinois Democrats sought to have all of the lawsuits dismissed in filings in July. Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Illinois Senate President Don Harmon praised the court’s decision in a joint press release: “From the beginning we have been guided by the goal of creating a fair map that recognizes the true diversity of the people of this great state. We appreciate that the court recognized and affirmed our efforts to ensure all communities across Illinois receive equal representation. We would like to thank Chairs Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez and Sen. Omar Aquino, Vice Chairs Rep. Curtis Tarver and Sen. Elgie Sims and the bipartisan Redistricting Committees for their work, as well as members of the public who offered testimony and insight throughout this redistricting process.”
Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods called the ruling a disappointment: “This ruling is a disappointment, but that does not mean we will ever stop fighting for independent maps in Illinois. While we didn’t get the outcome we believe the people of Illinois deserve, the fact remains that Gov. Pritzker and his cronies broke their promises and failed Illinois families. It didn’t have to be this way. Gov. Pritzker could have kept his promise to support independent redistricting, but instead signed a map that was ruled unconstitutional and another that was opposed by voting rights groups throughout Illinois. Gov. Pritzker and his Democratic allies have made their allegiance clear: they are more committed to protecting the same political insiders who have been wrecking our state for decades than defending voting rights in Illinois.”
MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz also called the ruling a disappointment in a joint press release today: “In particular, we believe that the court reached conclusions about the extent of crossover voting by non-Latinos to support Latino-supported candidates that are not accurate under the law. Nonetheless, the legislatively-drawn districts will be in effect as a result of today’s decision, and MALDEF will be carefully monitoring electoral outcomes in the districts we have challenged. It is incumbent upon the legislative leaders and governor who enacted these maps to ensure that, in fact, their dismantling of Latino-majority districts and failure to create new Latino-majority districts do not result in any diminution in the political and policy influence to which the growing Illinois Latino community is entitled. This includes ensuring that all government appointments, political leadership, and policy development properly respect Latino community interests and significance. Despite today’s decision, the compressed and difficult federal litigation MALDEF pursued has ensured that the original and faulty, malapportioned lines were never used, and has succeeded in sending a critical message about the appropriate future ongoing recognition of the Latino community’s increased and central prominence in Illinois’ future.”
MALDEF staff attorney Ernest Herrera also went further in the joint release saying Latinos will now be under-represented in the Illinois General Assembly: “The Court unfortunately agreed with Illinois’s legislative leaders that their map was just good enough for Latino voters for technical reasons, despite the facts that Latinos remain underrepresented in the General Assembly and continue to be left behind in education, housing access, healthcare, and income. Rather than provide Latinos equal opportunity to choose candidates who best represents their interests, today’s decision signals to the Latinos of Illinois that they remain significantly dependent on the purported munificence of the current majority political party. Despite this, Latinos in Illinois remain undeterred in building and struggling for true political power for their communities, and MALDEF continues to support them in that struggle.”
The NAACP has not provided comment on the decision at this time.
The loss brings to a close a 9-month fight over the state’s decennial remap process.
Information has been released about a fatal Cass County Car Crash from December 23rd.
According to a Cass County Sheriff’s report, a call came into 9-1-1 dispatch at 7:34AM Thursday, December 23rd of a single vehicle in a ravine in rural Virginia.
Upon arrival, sheriff’s deputies found a 2016 Volkswagen Jetta on the north side of Virginia Road, a quarter mile east of Thompson Road, about 3 miles west of Virginia.
According to the report, the car had been traveling eastbound and the vehicle’s left set of wheels exited the roadway, traveled just over 100 feet until the right wheels then left the roadway. The vehicle then careened into a fence before jumping across a ravine and hitting an embankment on the west side of a driveway. After striking the embankment, the vehicle rolled backwards approximately 20 feet before coming to a stop, with the rear of the car hanging over the east bank of the ravine.
The driver of the vehicle, 29 year old Jarod N. Robeson of Springfield and formerly of Virginia, was found deceased inside the vehicle. According to the report, it appeared the vehicle had been at the scene for some time and there was no evidence of anyone else being in the vehicle at the time of the crash.
The investigation into the crash remains ongoing and no further information is available at this time.
An area Congressman is reacquainting himself with portions of the listening area, as he is likely to represent them in Congress a year from now.
Current 13th District Congressman Rodney Davis says he’s been talking to constituents and old friends in the newly drawn 15th District over the last few weeks. He says it’s been great catching up with old friends and hearing their concerns about what’s going on in Washington D.C.: “It’s been wonderful to travel to some of these counties and reacquaint myself with some of my friends that I haven’t talked to in a few years. I was in Charleston and Shelbyville last week. I have been up to Quincy and to Menard County, Logan County. I’m excited to come back to Jacksonville and see my old stomping grounds where I spent a year as a freshman at Illinois College. These are areas of Illinois that are familiar with who I am and I’m familiar with what their needs are because I’ve worked hand-in-hand with Congressman [Darin] LaHood since he’s been representing that district. We are going to continue to work together throughout this next year on addressing some needs that may be brought to my attention and to his. Then, I’m hopefully going to have a seamless transition from Darin to me once the next election takes place. I’m hopefully blessed to be sworn in for another term.”
Congressman Rodney Davis making the rounds in Jacksonville (Courtesy of Elect Rodney Davis Twitter)
Davis says that he plans to continue constituent services throughout the district, and continue a track record of holding help desks as he has done since first coming to Congress. He says that time management and travel logistics will have to be monitored more closely now that the 15th District doubles the number of counties he will be representing. However, Davis says he is going to continue to rely on his staff to remain in touch in all the communities throughout the district in order to get his district’s needs heard in Washington D.C.
Davis says he’s been having conversations in Jacksonville about maintaining a Congressional Office that’s been in existence since the era of Bob Michel: “I really love the Jacksonville community, and they have had a Congressional Office since the time of Bob Michel. That’s a pretty tough to make a decision to make that change. When you look at my history, I have a history of not establishing large offices in large communities. I establish smaller offices because I truly believe that the best way to represent a Congressional district, especially one this large, is to give our constituents a place to go to talk to a human being – to be able to talk to a human being about what their issue with the federal government is. I have 6 district offices right now, and some of those are in areas that I will no longer represent. So, I’ll be looking at them and I’ll also be talking with Darin. I’ve already talked with Mayor [Andy] Ezard, too. He brought it up, so I know how important that office is in Jacksonville.”
Davis says he’s also heard from Congressman Darin LaHood and his father, Ray LaHood about the importance of the Jacksonville Congressional office, as well. The elder LaHood served in the 18th District from 1995-2009. Davis says his conversation with Mayor Andy Ezard also went deeper than just the Congressional Office for Jacksonville: “We talked about what the priorities are for the City of Jacksonville. Not just what the city is going to look like for the next 6 months, but what is it going to look like in the next 6-10 years…20 years. It’s really great to have leaders like Mayor Ezard that have that long-term vision of what Jacksonville should look like, because those are the partnerships we need at the federal level to help find a way that we can partner to move the local agenda forward. That’s why we sat down with Mayor Ezard, and we’ll be sitting down with some county officials to really get to know them and what makes, in their mind, Jacksonville and the communities surrounding Jacksonville tick.”
Davis says he is still working out the details on where personnel will shift and where his offices will be located when it comes time to transition into his new district.
Davis says he is going to continue to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Office to continue to help small communities find federal grant money and low-interest loans to help with capital improvement projects and to move local infrastructure projects forward. Davis says he’s going to do that, even now that his former Congressional opponent, Betsey Dirksen-Londrigan, is now the state’s Rural Development Director. Londrigan was named to the position by the Biden Administration on December 17th. Davis says many small communities don’t know what resources are available to them: “I look forward to working with [Mrs. Londrigan] and the great folks that make up that agency to continue to provide great resources to communities that have benefited over my time in Congress.”
Davis says he is still working on issues for farmers in his district and around the country. Davis says the bipartisan Veteran and Beginning Farmer Assistance Act, which would reauthorize the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas program is still sitting in committee: “We hope the Democrats that are in charge will call that bill for a mark up. That means that we’ll debate it and vote on it in our Ag committee that I have served on since I got to Congress. Then, eventually get it to the floor and move it on to the Senate. If it doesn’t move under this Democratic leadership, we will take over the majority as Republicans in the House after the next election. I look forward to looking to debate that in the next farm bill. What will be my third farm bill will begin to be debated once the Republicans take over the majority in January 2023. We will try to implement some of the language that’s in that bill into the next farm bill because it’s important that we get the next generation to get engaged in agriculture and not feel like it’s the government trying to take farms away from families. It’s how we get new beginning farmers and ranchers engaged so that we have the ag sector that we’ve come to appreciate and sometimes take for granted.”
Davis says the return to the Obama Administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rules is going to hamper farmers with over regulation: “With a decision like this, for the Biden Administration not to find a compromise to say: ‘You know what? Maybe our farmers are going to be adversely impacted by rules and regulations at the EPA in Washington through this Waters of the U.S.’ Instead, they make a bone-headed decision to try and bring back the Waters of the U.S. provisions to appease the Far Left. We are going to fight like hell again when we take the majority, and we will make sure that those onerous rules and regulations are not implemented when a Republican majority is in the House once again in January of this coming year.”
According to current EPA administrator Michael Regan, the new water rule is currently under development. He anticipates a new proposal redefining WOTUS to be developed at one point in 2022. The agencies already have several virtual hearings scheduled in January to collect feedback from pre-registered attendees.
Ag groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Corn Growers Association continue to voice their concerns with these developments, stressing the importance for farmers to “have a rule that is fair and doesn’t require a team of attorneys to interpret.”
Davis says that he knows places like his rural district and Rural America needs the federal government to work and work efficiently: “I’m a Conservative…a proud Conservative. I’ll never sacrifice my core values and principles. I’m going to stand up for life, always stand up for the Second Amendment, but there also comes a time when government’s got to work for the American people and we’ve got to get things done. Passing a budget is something that we did as Republicans every year I was in Congress. We took a lot of heat for passing our budget priorities. We are going to continue to move back to that when we are in the majority and we kick the Democrats out of power after November 2022.”
Davis hopes his next term in Congress will continue to push both his district and and Rural America’s values. Current 15th District Congresswoman Mary Miller, who lives in Oakland, currently lives in the newly drawn 15th District. She has not yet announced whether she will run in the district or move south to face fellow Republican Mike Bost in the newly drawn 12th District. Holiday post cards with Miller’s face and ads online have begun to circulate in the Jacksonville area – an area Miller does not currently represent in Congress; possibly forecasting a move that she may primary against Davis in the coming year.
A photo of a Holiday Card from Mary Miller sent to Jacksonville during the week of Dec. 25. Miller does not currently represent Jacksonville or any counties in the listening area.
Davis has said in other interviews that he has faced primaries in the past and has been challenged before, and he’ll continue to face challenges as they come. Davis defeated Erika Harold in 2014 by a 13-point margin, and Ethan Vandersand in 2016 by a 50+ point margin in Republican primaries.
Davis says in the interim when he returns to Washington D.C. in January that he’s going to continue to attempt to hold Democratic leadership accountable for a lack of security at the Capitol building and continue to question the current January 6th Select Committee’s motivations and hold their proceedings under scrutiny: “It certainly wasn’t a tourist day. It’s something that I don’t want anyone Republican or Democrat or American to ever experience again. It showed our adversaries what they can do to take down a branch of government, and we’ve got to do better. My job has been to make sure the security posture gets better. Unfortunately, under Democratic leadership, it is not. The House officers, like the Sergeant at Arms, have done nothing to put the House in a better security posture, in my opinion. I will change that when I am the chair of the House Administration Committee. Anyone who walked into the Capitol that day knew they broke the law, and they are going to be held accountable for that and should be. We, as Americans, have to stand up and recognize that we don’t settle our differences with violence. I didn’t like that somebody came to a baseball field to try and kill me and my friends a few years ago because he differed with us politically. We don’t settle grievances with bullets on a baseball field, and we don’t settle our electoral grievances by attacking the Capitol. We need to do better to make sure the Capitol is never attacked again. At the same time, we have to make sure that the American people have faith in our elections. That’s what I’ve been trying to do through the House Administration Committee.”
Davis says that voter security and possibly a Voter I.D. law are things he feels are priorities in helping the country feel that the nation’s elections are secure, fair, and safe. Davis says that the election processes in Central Illinois currently are a prime example of how his belief of safe, fair elections can be conducted.
The Illinois Department of Public Health is centralizing COVID-19 contact tracing to get information about isolation and close contacts to infected people faster amid an increase in COVID-19 cases across the country.
Starting Tuesday, all positive cases entered into the state’s data systems associated with a cell phone number will get an automated text message from IDPH.
The initial outgoing text will read: IDPH COVID: There is important info for you. Call 312-777-1999 followed by a link.
People who call the number in the text will be considered as “opting in” for an interview. Public health officials will prioritize case investigations for people who are 65 years and older and are at higher risk of severe illness, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations.
As we reported last week, most confirmed positive cases will now be traced through the State Contact Tracing Surge Center. Local health departments, according to IDPH, will continue to respond to cases in high-risk settings, including congregate facilities.
Local health departments will also continue to have oversight of schools and daycares, including assistance with mitigation strategies and outbreak management.
Members of the Pike County hospitality community lost an appeal in State Appellate Court yesterday. 15 various restaurants throughout the county filed a writ of mandamus naming Governor J.B. Pritzker and acting director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Alicia Tate-Nadeau as defendants.
The petition alleged that, beginning in March 2020, to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the Governor issued a series of executive orders under the authority conferred upon him by the Illinois Emergency Management Act to prohibit operations of bars and dine-in restaurants. According to the suit, the restaurants alleged that the closing constituted a taking of their personal property interests in their businesses, which required the payment of just compensation. The suit directed that the Governor’s office to fix and pay a just compensation amount to the closed businesses.
In October 2020, the Governor’s counsel filed a motion to dismiss the suit which was granted in December 2020.
The court yesterday found the appeal was insufficient to state a claim upon which relief they were to be granted and that the restaurants had failed to establish an entitlement to any compensation in their arguments. In turn, they upheld the trial court’s decision to dismiss the case.
The location and time is being changed for the decision meeting to select the person to represent Illinois’ 99th Legislative District.
The public meeting will take place at 5:00 pm on Thursday, December 30, at the Gardner Township Town Hall, located at 1266 North Bradfordton Road in rural Springfield.
The Sangamon County Republican Party are looking to select the replacement of Mike Murphy at the meeting.
The new location is within the current boundaries of Illinois’ 99th District.
The Illinois Secretary of State is shutting down Driver’s Service Facilities for two weeks beginning January 3rd.
Secretary of State Jesse White’s Office announced today that due to the most recent surge in Covid cases that all Secretary of State departments will not conduct in-person transactions – including Driver Services facilities – from Jan. 3rd through January 17th.
All departments and Driver Services facilities will reopen on Tuesday, Jan. 18. White is encouraging the public to visit ilsos.gov for online services. Online transactions will remain open for all departments to conduct office services.
In addition, the Drivers and Vehicles Services hotline phone number will remain 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.
As a reminder, White has extended all driver’s license and ID card expiration dates to March 31st but does not apply to commercial Driver’s licenses and CDL learner’s permits. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has extended the federal REAL ID deadline to May 3, 2023.
