The Routt Alumni Association and Knights of Columbus are partnering with the local Marine Reserves to host a night of Christmas celebration in support of the local Toys For Tots Campaign.

Christmas trivia, a Christmas sweater contest along with food and drink will be available starting at 6PM at the Jacksonville KC Hall on December 4^th.

Entry to the KC Hall that evening for each individual is a toy to be dropped in one of the Toys for Tots Collection Boxes. The entry fee per Trivia team is just $20. There will be a cap of 20 teams for the evening.

Jim Crosier of the Marine Reserves says that December 4^th will be a big day for the Toys for Tots Campaign: “Every weekend from now until Christmas, I’ll be doing some type of toy drive. I’ll be doing something somewhere even if it’s not heavily publicized. Last Saturday, we did a little toy drive in the Hardee’s parking lot on West Morton. There’s a 4-member team from Illinois College that did that one, and they did really well. We are going to be doing another one at Hardee’s on December 4th and that will be our big one.”

The Toys for Tots campaign has collection boxes at 30 businesses around the Jacksonville area if you are unable to make the drives. Crosier says one of the massive distribution events for the toys will be on December 18^th at the Jacksonville American Legion. The public is invited. For more information, jacksonville-il.toysfortots.org.

A local scholarship program that aims to keep students in local colleges is coming off a successful fundraising dinner. The Jacksonville Promise is just $3,725 away from its $120,000 fundraising goal for 2021.

Dr. Charles Sheaff says the Evening of Promise Dinner recently held at Hamilton’s was an enormously successful event and he believes the group will reach its goal by the end of the year: “I’m hopeful and actually fairly confident that we will reach our goal. There are a number of donors that donate to us annually that haven’t made a donation yet this year. I’m hoping they respond to the letter that we sent out about the Evening of Promise, and our fundraising drive asking that they close out their donation just before the end of December so that we will hit our goal. I’m not planning to do another fundraiser or another emailing drive. We will probably just put out Facebook notices about how fundraising is progressing, but we are within three-and-a-half thousand of our goal. I think we are somewhere over $116,000 for the year in total.”

Sheaff says that the fundraising goal would also cover some minor expenses, but over 90% goes towards covering all of the scholarships. He says the Tracy Family Foundation covers most all of the group’s operational costs. In total, the Evening of Promise dinner raised approximately $15,000.

During remarks at the dinner, Sheaff noted that fundraising efforts really didn’t begin until 5 weeks ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since its inception in the Fall of 2016, the Jacksonville Promise has grown from 17 scholarships of $2,000 each to 41 scholarships of $3,750 each. According to Sheaff, Illinois College has provided statistics to the group showing from 2013 to 2020, there was an increase in the number of local students by 8 per year beginning in 2016 when the scholarship program started.

Sheaff says that the group is currently working on securing a restricted endowment from the Million Estate that used to go to MacMurray College. Sheaff says the endowment funds will be yet another piece to the scholarship fund.

Last year, Jacksonville Promise expanded qualifications to all schools in Morgan County in order to keep more students local.

For more information visit Jacksonville Promise on Facebook or visit their website here to donate or find more information on the Promise Scholarship.

Illinois is set to get an estimated $17 billion in funding as a part of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden yesterday. Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot were among the many people on hand to witness Biden making the bill into law.

Several Democratic Congressman saw pieces of legislation they pushed in the House of Representatives make into the bill. U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth’s provision to ensure Americans with disabilities can access rail transit, giving them more independence and access to employment by establishing a discretionary grant program to fix railway access programs. It also permanently establishes a Disability Advocate Seat on the Amtrak Board of Directors to advocate for access to their commuter rail system. The provisions also include federal Scott’s Law standards pursued by Duckworth, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, and Congresswoman Cheri Bustos.

Two local Republican Congressmen have their qualms about the bill and the process of getting it into law.

18^th District Congressman Darin LaHood says that he’s all for making investments in the nation’s hard infrastructure but he says he’s not in favor of majority-party Democrats holding bills hostage to get votes on other bills: “It focuses on hard infrastructure – roads, bridges, airports, and rail systems, rural broadband. Those are all things that I’ve supported. The bad part is two things – 1. It adds about $280 billion to the deficit over 8 years, so that goes on the backs of taxpayers. It adds to our $29 trillion that we are already in debt. Secondly, unfortunately, [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi tied it to the reconciliation, or the tax raising bill. If she would have brought this bill up back in August when it had passed the Senate in a clean vote and not tied it to the reconciliation tax-raising bill, it probably would have passed with about 80 or 90 Republicans supporting it, but she didn’t do that. She held it hostage, and so, that’s unfortunate. It is the law of the land now. In general, as I mentioned, hard infrastructure is good for this country. I just wish the process of it would have been done differently.”

13^th District Congressman Rodney Davis says he is a big fan of infrastructure investment and he thinks there are a lot of good Republican provisions in the final version. Davis says, though, the re-authorization packages that he has voted for in the past have probably invested more into hard infrastructure than what the new bill will do: “I’m pretty confident that we’ve been actually able to invest in our normal reauthorization processes, but in the pandemic relief funding bills, we actually gave on an annual basis nine times more to some of these areas of transportation modalities than what these $1.2 trillion bills are going to give to them over 5 years. So we have already invested historic amounts in our airports, in our transit system, and in other hard infrastructure before this vote came about, and there is still billions left to be spent.”

The Illinois Chamber of Commerce along with several state Democrats took the opposite approach as the two Congressmen, calling the new law a generational investment on par with the New Deal of the Roosevelt era, saying it will piggyback upon the 2019 Capital Bill signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker. The ICC also says that the broadband roll out will help secure economic investment into rural areas by giving communities fast and stable Internet connectivity.

The new federal bill is also expected to piggyback upon the most recent Illinois energy bill pushing for more reliance for more renewable forms of energy, including incentives for building electric charging infrastructure for electric vehicles along with updates to energy grids bringing on more solar and wind energy into the nation’s power grid.

A Quincy Woman and Springfield man facing multiple charges in Adams County Court revealed an interesting discovery yesterday.

34 year old Bradley Yohn and 33 year old Karen Blackledge were in Adams County Court yesterday to hear charges of home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated vehicular hijacking, residential burglary, and aggravated criminal sexual assault. The two had been extradited from the Sangamon County Jail on Monday after being arrested by Springfield Police and U.S. Marshals last Wednesday.

According to KHQA, Judge Tad Brenner read court documents that revealed Yohn was mistakenly released from jail in St. Charles County, Missouri last month just three weeks before his alleged crimes in Adams County. Yohn had been arrested October 19th in St. Charles County on charges of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon, with a cash-only bond of $50,000. However, officials there inexplicably released Yohn without posting the bond, and charges were refiled the next day, according to the Quincy Herald Whig.

Brenner then announced he had decided to increase Yohn’s bond from $10 million to $15 million. Adams County Assistant State’s Attorney Laura Keck told KHQA it was the highest bond she had ever witnessed being set in Adams County.

Brenner also noted Yohn’s prior convictions in Adams, Pike, Morgan, Sangamon, Scott, and Hancock counties in Illinois, as well as in Marion and Audrain counties in Missouri. According to WGEM, Brenner also pointed out pending charges in Marion and St. Charles counties in Missouri. And, he said Yohn was found to be in possession of items belonging to the alleged victim. Blackledge’s bond is set at $5 million.

Brenner ordered that both Blackledge and Yohn have ankle bracelet GPS monitoring, report daily to the Adams County probation office, and have no contact with any of the alleged victims if they were to make bail.

Springfield Police are continuing to investigate whether Yohn and Blackledge are responsible for the shooting death of 30 year old Derek Banker Barnett of Virden, whose body was discovered in a car in a nearby alley where Yohn and Blackledge were apprehended.

Both defendants were appointed public defenders yesterday in Adams County Court. Their next court hearing has been set for Monday morning.

The Morgan County Commissioners sadly now have a spot to fill within the next two months.

With the passing of Commissioner Bill Meier last week, the Morgan County Republicans will need to caucus to choose a replacement, according to Commissioner Chair Ginny Fanning: “By state statute, the seat needs to be filled within 60 days of the elected official’s passing. Within the next 60 days, the [local] Republican Party will need to caucus, and they will determine a candidate that they would then like to present to the County Board. Then, the County Board will vote on that person, and that person will then take the seat. They will then be in that seat until November 2022. Bill was up for re-election this coming. That person will hold that seat and need to be, then in the November election because that seat will be available then.”

Fanning says that despite her and Commissioner Brad Zeller coming from opposing political parties that they will most likely accept the recommendation brought to them by the Morgan County Republican Party.

No names have been mentioned as to who may step in to replace Meier.

A Missouri man pled guilty to a burglary charge in Greene County Court last week. 36 year old Corvis D. Johnson pled guilty to one county of burglary with no property damage on Wednesday. Johnson is the second of four people who have pled guilty to charges as a part of a series of arrests tied to vehicle burglaries in Carrollton between December 2020 and January 2021.

According to Carrollton Police reports, Officer Jesse Faul pursued a white sedan that had occupants that had been driving a stolen Jeep and had left the stolen vehicle parked in the middle of the road near the Carrollton Municipal Pool. The stolen Jeep was later traced back to vehicle thefts in St. Louis and Mexico, Missouri.

Faul pursued the vehicle into Jersey County. Faul had radioed ahead to Jersey County Sheriff’s Deputies about the pursuit. Jersey County Sheriff’s Deputies had placed stop sticks near the north end of Jerseyville to help conclude the pursuit. The pursuit reached speeds in excess of 120 miles per hour when the vehicle hit the stop sticks. The driver’s side front tire was punctured by the strips, and the car continued at speeds of 90 miles per hour through Jerseyville. Faul continued the pursuit to Illinois Route 109 before performing a pit maneuver on the suspect’s vehicle. The maneuver spun the vehicle into a ditch, terminating the pursuit.

According to Faul’s report, the 4 subjects in the vehicle exited the vehicle on foot. Faul was able to subdue the driver of the vehicle. Two of the other three subjects were taken into custody by other police departments that followed the chase, while the fourth subject was later found and arrested. Two of the suspects were armed at the time of their arrest. Faul was recognized by Two Rivers Crime Stoppers on October 24th for his work on the case.

Police arrested 20 year old Quindarian L. Wright of St. Louis, 22 year old Jamie M Dwyer of St. Charles, Missouri, Johnson, and a 15 year old male juvenile. Wright is facing 18 counts of burglary related to burglaries dating back to at least December in Calhoun, Jersey, and Greene. Wright is next due in Greene County Court on December 13^th. Dwyer pled guilty to possession of a stolen vehicle back on August 6^th. He was sentenced to 2 years probation, fees, court costs, and $285 restitution.

Johnson was sentenced to 5 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and court costs. Johnson is still facing guns, drugs, and theft of motor vehicle charges in Madison County after a grand jury indictment in July.

Johnson is believed to be connected with an organized vehicle theft ring based out of St. Louis that were arrested in December 2020 and in January in Greene, Jersey, and Calhoun counties.

The Illinois State Police District 20 Troopers responded to a tractor trailer fire in Pike County early this morning.

According to preliminary police reports, a 2021 Kenworth double semi trailer was traveling eastbound on Interstate 72 taking the Interstate 172 northbound exit ramp in Pike County at approximately 3:33 this morning.

The driver, 27 year old Cody Geary of Mason City noticed that the trailer brakes had caught fire on the rear trailer and pulled to the right shoulder of the roadway. Geary attempted to extinguish the fire himself but failed. Then, he disconnected the second trailer from the first and pulled several feet away.

The second trailer became fully engulfed and was completely destroyed. Interstate 172 northbound was closed at this location for approximately 1 hour while cleanup occurred.

No injuries were reported.

Two people charged in a reported carjacking, robbery, and sexual assault of a 70 year old Adams County woman were back in Quincy yesterday for a court hearing.

WGEM reports that 34 year old Bradley Yohn of Springfield and 32 year old Karen Blackledge of Quincy were arrested by Springfield Police about 2PM last Wednesday at a residence in the 1900 block of Cornell in Springfield. U.S. Marshals discovered a suspicious vehicle in an alley way nearby and discovered the body of 30 year old Derek J. Banker Barnett of Virden, whom Sangamon County Corner Jim Allmon later said was killed via a gunshot wound.

Yohn and Blackledge each face two counts of home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated vehicular hijacking, residential burglary and aggravated criminal sexual assault in Adams County Court yesterday. In addition, Yohn was charged with an additional vehicular hijacking that occurred in Adams County two weeks ago.

According to WGEM, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office confirmed last Thursday that they are working with Illinois State Police and Springfield Police on a homicide investigation.

Morgan County continues to be the exception to the rule on gas prices.

Morgan County continues to remain well under the state average and now the national average for a gallon of gas this week. Today, Morgan County is coming in at an average at $3.35 a gallon. Locally, in Jacksonville, prices still remain volatile from station to station ranging from $3.35 to $3.47 a gallon.

Elsewhere in the region, Springfield saw a slight drop to $3.46 a gallon, down a nickel from last week. Sangamon County is at $3.45 overall. Heading west, Scott County is also 12 cents higher than Morgan County at $3.47 a gallon. Nationally, the average sits at $3.41 a gallon.

AAA says that he ongoing tight supply of crude oil will likely keep gas prices fluctuating, instead of dropping, for some time. According to recent data from the Energy Information Administration, gas stocks slipped and demand went down last week. However, oil prices are currently topping $80 a barrel contributing to the high prices.

In comparison to last year, gas prices hovered just over $2 a gallon.