13^th District Congressman Rodney Davis has introduced legislation to help truckers meet the new Green Energy push.

Davis introduced the Supporting Trucking Efficiency and Emission Reductions Act or STEER Act on Thursday. The bill would establish a Department of Energy voucher program that assists truckers in purchasing and installing fuel-saving, emission-reducing technologies. Specifically, the voucher program would cover expenditures associated with adopting fuel efficient technologies on Class 8 trucks.

Davis says that by providing the voucher system, the trucking industry will be able to cost-effectively install these systems on new trucks and retrofit existing trucks, with the potential to accelerate deployment of these new technologies by more than a decade.

The bill has been referred to the House’s Committee on Energy and Commerce.

A Brown County murder trial is set to move forward with a special jury selection process at the end of this month.

41 year old John M. Dean of Mt. Sterling faces one count of first degree murder for allegedly shooting 44 year old Rebecca Niewohner of Mt. Sterling to death on the evening of June 14, 2019.

Defense attorney John Leonard requested at a July 29^th hearing that jury selection, called in law as voir dire, will be conducted on an individual and separate basis. Brown County State’s Attorney Michael Hill voiced objections to that motion in a hearing on Wednesday, saying that there could possibly be up to 150 potential jurors called to be questioned in the county. Hill had indicated after the July 29^th hearing he may possibly agree to the motion under certain stipulations due to the publicity and the intimacy of the Brown County community. Despite the objections, Judge Charles H.W. Burch granted the defense’s motion to conduct voir dire on an individual basis.

A state motion, proposed jury instructions, and any further stipulations for the court to consider are scheduled to be heard on Thursday, August 26^th. Dean is set to go to trial by jury next month. Dean remains lodged at the Schuyler County Jail on $1 million bond prior to trial.

Governor J.B. Pritzker says more help is on the way for the state’s small businesses.

Pritzker is opening up the Back to Business Grant program for the state this coming week: “Further accelerating our economic recovery, we are announcing $250 million in Back to Business grants to help small businesses all across Illinois hire back staff and cover operating costs. These are grants, not loans so not a single cent has to be paid back.”

Pritzker says the program will focus on businesses in areas hardest hit by economic hardship and will prioritize businesses who have yet to receive any government assistance: “Starting on August 18th, business owners will be able to submit their applications for Back to Business grants. Priority will be given to businesses who haven’t yet received state funding through other programs, as well as the communities and industries hardest hit by the pandemic. Crucially, we are making investments so that equity isn’t just our intention but our outcome. We are doubling down on our investments Community Navigator program that the Biden-Harris Administration held up as a model for the nation. This localized, personalized assistance is what makes this program more accessible for entrepreneurs who are eligible, yet may not know where to get started or how to get started.”

The program is supposed to build on last year’s Business Interruption Grants, which provided $580 million to small businesses and childcare providers in the depths of the pandemic. The application process will be available on the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s website on Wednesday, August 18th. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and partner organizations will hold webinars over the next several weeks to provide virtual technical assistance on demand.

A Greene County school that recently held contentious debate over the school mask mandate has decided to follow the guidance.

North Greene School District #3 voted Wednesday night 4-1 to opt to follow Governor J.B. Pritzker’s mask mandate for schools in the state.

North Greene Superintendent Mark Scott says that the school board opted to follow his recommendation along with several other organizations, and ultimately, the experts when it came to masks in schools. Scott says a letter sent out from the Illinois State Board of Education was released shortly before the North Greene School Board met Wednesday night: “[ISBE] is stating that [school boards] don’t have local control over this. This is mandated by the governor and you should follow it or we are going to slap your hand and possibly pull your accreditation and your funding. That came out at 4 o’clock, which I got it sent out to board members before our meeting at 6. Our district legal counsel said you need to follow the mandate. Our insurance company said you need to follow the mandate. Illinois Association of School Boards said you need to follow the mandate. ISBE said you need to follow the mandate. I recommend that we need to follow the mandate. Four of the board members present voted to follow the mandate. One has personal opinions just the opposite and voted against it and doesn’t think we should have to wear a mask, which everyone is entitled to their opinion.”

Scott says he doesn’t like mixing politics with education. His ultimate goal is keeping school open: “I don’t think whether you’re Republican, Independent, Democrat, whatever you are – the governor of Illinois put forth a mandate. ISBE says they are going to enforce it. All of the associations that I belong to and the school board belongs to says we need to follow it. Our legal counsel tells us to follow it. Our insurance company tells us to follow it. IDPH tell us to follow it. The local health department says we need to follow it. The CDC tells us to follow it. That’s all I need to make my decision. There is people out there that are way more educated on health matters and infectious diseases than what I’ll ever be. I’m going to listen to the experts.”

Scott says any student or staff who violate the mask policy will be cited for gross misconduct and be sent home immediately.

Scott says he shares frustrations with everyone, but he ultimately wants to keep the school open, keep away from remote learning, and to keep everyone safe: “To me, when the Governor puts the mandate whether you think he legally can or not. He’s the governor of Illinois. We are an Illinois public school. We follow under ISBE’s guidelines. We rely on a lot of state aid from the State of Illinois. How can you not follow it? I don’t know. That’s just where my feelings lie. I wish it would have stayed recommended, but just like the Governor uses his researchers and everything and they say that we should wear a mask right now. It just all a big mess. To me, the main thing is to keep the kids in school, and if we’ve got to wear masks to keep them in school, I’m all for it. I don’t want to have to go back to this remote learning business no matter what. If we’ve got to wear a mask to stay in school, I’m fine with it.”

Smaller school districts have faced extreme push back from some parents about requiring masks in schools. Pikeland’s School Board voted on Friday to follow the mask mandate, according to WGEM. The Warsaw school district was notified Thursday night in a letter from the Illinois State Board of Education that the district’s recognition status has been lowered to “On Probation” for being non-compliant with masking requirements. Nearby, Camp Point Central’s School Board said Wednesday during their board hearing in a 3-2 vote that masks would be optional for students. The Meridian school district in Macon County voted last week to stick with a mask-optional policy, as well.

Most school districts return to learning for the Fall in the next two weeks.

Virginia School District Superintendent Gary DuPatis followed up with comments on Friday on a previous report about the district taking out a $1.8 million bond for operations.

DuPatis says it’s all a way to put the debt service in the district in a better financial position: “The bond that we have out now is when the new building was built and the addition put on back in 2014. Those bonds are still outstanding. We are looking to issue working cash bonds that will put the district in a better financial position and be able to update our curriculum, keep class sizes low. Also, the plan is to do that to restructure these existing bonds that we have for the building so that when we issue the working cash bonds, the tax rate will not increase. We will keep tax rates the same so we do not have an increase on the taxpayer.”

DuPatis emphasized that the property tax rate will stay the same unless a taxpayer’s home was reassessed at a higher value by the County Assessor’s Office. DuPatis says that the other need to issue the bond was to meet a state mandate on teacher salaries and curriculum: “The other part of [the bond issue] is, coupled with the teacher shortage, we also have new laws that come into place where we have to over the next 3 years increase our teacher salary so that we meet a minimum of $40,000 per teacher. That’s a state law. We also have to incorporate in that same time frame an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour for our non-certified staff. Those additional expenses need to be offset and we’re not seeing the influx of general state aid from the Evidence-Based Funding Formula. We are not seeing the influx that’s going to cover all of those costs. We are trying to be proactive so that we have the money for the district so that we can keep providing a top education for our students and keep the district moving forward as it needs to in these changing times, especially with technology and updating curriculum.”

DuPatis says that the updates in curriculum to history, foreign language, and STEM courses also incurs some extra costs to the district that will be covered by the new bond.

Governor J.B. Pritzker announced the signing of 3 bills reforming education and juvenile justice in the state yesterday.

The first law will seek to end the use of physical restraints to discipline students in public schools. The legislation, which received wide bipartisan support, aims to eliminate solitary time out and other restrictive interventions within three years, while expanding training and accountability in schools as it relates to these practices.

The bill bans prone restraint. It may only be permitted for use as an emergency measure until the end of the 2021-22 school year. The bill also prohibits the use of medical and chemical restraint. The legislation ensures that timeouts, isolated timeouts, and other forms of physical restraint may only be used if a student’s behavior is an imminent danger to the individual student or to others, and the school staff member applying the invention tactic must be trained in its safe application. The law takes effect immediately.

The second bill prohibits schools from issuing policies on hairstyles historically associated with race or ethnicity. It also addresses dress code biases towards people of color, especially in regards to hairstyles. The bill prohibits school uniform and dress code policies from restricting hairstyles that have been historically associated with race, ethnicity, or hair texture. This may include, but is not limited to, braids, locks, and twists. The bill requires the Illinois State Board of Education to provide schools with educational resource materials to teach about protective hairstyles. The bill was written after 4 year old Jett Hawkins of Chicago was told his braids were in violation of the school dress code.

Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton said during the bill signing yesterday that school children should no longer be discriminated against for the way they wear their hair: “For generations hair styles and textures were used to shame and belittle, to discipline and degrade; and it’s really unbelievable to me that in 2021, we are still fighting policies in our schools that harm, shame, and discriminate against – in particular, black children, because of how they wear their hair.”

The bill goes into effect January 1^st.

The third bill involves reforming juvenile justice by reducing mandatory minimum sentences, among other changes in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.

House Bill 3513, also known as the Procedural Justice for Youth Act, removes mandatory penalties that create longer sentences for younger teens than for older youth who commit the same crimes. In one change, youth given the label of habitual juvenile offender or violent offender will receive a proportionate extension to their stay in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice and will no longer be committed until age 21. Concurrent sentencing has been clarified so calculating sentences is uniformly done for youth across Illinois.

The bill also makes operational changes allowing IDJJ to align with national practice standards. IDJJ is now not allowed to use isolation or room confinement as a punishment in response to youth behavior in their institutions. The bill takes effect immediately.

The charges of a man connected to multiple burglaries around Greenfield have been released by the Greene County State’s Attorney’s Office.

18 year old Darrius D. Williams of Greenfield was arrested Thursday evening by Greenfield Police in connection to a string of thefts from vehicles and burglaries in the area on or about that day.

Williams has been charged with residential burglary, two counts of burglary, seven counts of burglary to a motor vehicle, and one count of theft over $500 and less than $10,000.

The charging documents list 10 separate addresses in Greenfield. The theft over $500 charge is linked to the theft of a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun.

A 16-year old juvenile has also been charged in the case, but those charges have not been released due to the suspect’s age.

The charges range between Class 1 and Class 3 felonies, which can carry up to 5-15 years in prison and fines up to $25,000.

Williams and the juvenile are currently lodged at the Greene County Jail without bond pending a first appearance in court.

The Jacksonville Area Museum is gearing up for its grand opening next month.

The museum is scheduling volunteer training sessions on Thursday, August 26th at 6PM and 10AM Saturday, August 28th for those who wish to apply to be a part of presenting the museum to the public.

Executive Director David Blanchette says that volunteers will be a crucial piece of the museum’s day-to-day operations: “[Potential volunteers] only need to attend one of those two sessions for those who wish to apply to be a part of presenting this exciting, new, local attraction to the public. Volunteers should be willing to greet the public and answer any basic questions that the public might have about the museum. There will be other, assorted light tasks that are associated with it. Basically, since we are an all-volunteer board and an all-volunteer institution, volunteers are going to be an extremely important part of the day-to-day operation of this facility.”

Blanchette says that several local service organizations have pledged volunteers on specific days each month as part of their commitment to keeping the museum open. The museum will be following all CDC and IDPH protocols in place at this time upon opening.

Blanchette says the grand opening and special events leading up to the grand opening are just around the corner: “We will have our grand opening on Saturday, September 25th at 10AM. We are still putting the final touches on what we want to do at that ceremony. We do know that we will have a members-only preview event, which will be offered on Wednesday, September 22nd. The invitations for that will soon be mailed out, so people who are museum members – this is going to be one of the perks that they get.”

The museum will be open thereafter from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday each week. Admission will be free, but since the museum is entirely funded by donations, a free will donation of $5 is suggested to help keep the institution operating.

The Jacksonville Area Museum will use original artifacts, storytelling exhibits, and the building itself to show people the history, past and present, of Jacksonville. For more information, visit jacksonvilleareamuseum.org or connect with them on Facebook.

The Illinois Department of Insurance is reminding the public that the special enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act ends on Sunday.

The Biden-Harris Administration opened the enrollment period in February in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. IDOI says since then more than 47,000 Illinois residents have selected new health plans – nearly double the enrollment during the same time last year.

Additionally, the American Rescue Plan, offers increased savings for many consumers who buy health insurance directly through the ACA Marketplace at Healthcare.gov or Getcoveredillinois.gov. Even consumers currently enrolled in a plan can update their application to check for extra savings. Consumers can get visit the Illinois exchange to see if they qualify for the up to 40% savings at getcoveredillinois.gov.