Routt Catholic High School has its new lady’s basketball coach.
Valerie Creviston has been hired as the new head coach for the Routt Catholic High School girls’ program.
Creviston replaces longtime Routt coach Joe Eilering, who retired from coaching earlier this year.
Creviston is the wife of Routt Athletic Director and football coach Barry Creviston. The Journal Courier reports that she has been coaching the Routt girls this summer during camps and workouts.
Creviston was a star player at Wheaton Saint Francis High School and later starred at Benedictine University. She went on to earn her doctorate in physical therapy at Northwestern University.
Creviston is the co-founder and president of Operation Uniquecorn, Incorporate which is a non-profit dedicated to assisting the needs of children with invisible disabilities along with their families by providing resources and assistance in finding medical and therapeutic services.
Jacksonville Police have apprehended one man and are looking for at least two others after a person was beaten and left unconscious early this morning in the McDonald’s parking lot on West Morton Avenue.
According to a press release, at approximately 4:19 am, Officers of the Jacksonville Police Department received a call for a disturbance at McDonald’s. Officers located a victim in the parking lot that appeared to be unconscious. EMS arrived and transported the victim to the hospital for treatment. Officers began the initial investigation and determined three suspects were responsible for the offense of Aggravated Battery against the victim. The suspects fled in a white Dodge prior to their arrival.
One suspect, identified as the driver of the Dodge, 28 year old Jorian B. Clemons of the 1200 block of Lincoln Avenue was located alone and apprehended a short time later. Additional suspects remain at large and have not been identified yet.
Clemons was subsequently charged with two counts of Aggravated Battery and is being held at the Morgan County Jail awaiting arraignment.
The case remains under investigation. Anyone with further information is urged to contact the Jacksonville Police Department Investigative Division at 217-479-4630.
A panel of 3 judges will rule on whether the Illinois General Assembly currently under Democrats control violated the Constitution when they drew the state’s new legislative maps using American Community Surveys statistics.
According to Capital News Illinois, Lawyers for plaintiffs and the state told the panel of federal judges Wednesday the issues involved in two lawsuits challenging the state’s legislative redistricting plan are “straightforward” and ought to be resolved in short order.
The two lawsuits — one by Republican legislative leaders and another by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, or MALDEF — both argue that the new state House and Senate district maps violate the U.S. Constitution because they were drawn using survey data rather than official U.S Census numbers, which have been delayed this year due to the pandemic and other factors. Lawyers for the two suits also argue that the maps violate the “one person, one vote” principle under the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. The suits are asking for an independent commission be created to draw the maps.
Both suits name the Illinois State Board of Elections and its individual members as well as Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon as defendants.
Those two cases have since been consolidated and assigned to a three-judge panel, as is required under federal law whenever a suit challenges the constitutionality of a redistricting plan. Those include Judge Robert Dow Jr., of the Northern District of Illinois; Judge Jon E. DeGuilio, of the Northern District of Indiana, and Judge Michael B. Brennan, of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
After the hearing on Wednesday, the panel issued an order directing all parties to begin lining up their expert witnesses and setting a schedule of deadlines for filing briefs. The case is tentatively set for trial September 27th-29th.
A unique group of Vietnam Veterans met in Pisgah last night as a part of their annual reunion to remember those lost during the Vietnam War and those who have passed away in the 50 years since its end.
Shane McGath, son of the late Sergeant Robert McGath and Robert’s widow Judy hosted the Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol Ranger reunion at Shane’s home in Pisgah last night. It’s the first reunion held since 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Different members of the group of veterans host the reunion each year. Last night’s banquet was part of a multi-day event here in Central Illinois with activities continuing in Springfield today.
Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol Rangers or LRRPs (pronounced “Lurps”), were small, heavily armed long-range reconnaissance teams that patrol deep in enemy-held territory. The US Army LRRP concept was created in 1956 by the 11th Airborne Division in Augsburg, Germany and used in Europe throughout the late 1950s during the Cold War for the events of a possible war outbreak, they would be used behind enemy lines to provide surveillance and to select targets of opportunity.
In December, 1965 during the early portions of the Vietnam War, the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, formed a LRRP platoon, and by April 1966, the 1st Infantry Division, 25th Infantry Division and 173rd Airborne Brigade formed LRRP units as well. On July 8, 1966, General William Westmoreland authorized the formation of a LRRP unit in each infantry brigade or division in Vietnam. By 1967 formal LRRP companies were organized, most having three platoons, each with five six-man teams equipped with short-wave radios. In February 1969, all US Army LRRP units were folded into the newly formed 75th Infantry Regiment, later designated as the 75th Ranger Regiment. The art of long-range patrolling and the skills and tactics of the Vietnam LRRPs set the standard for today’s Long-Range Surveillance Rangers (LRS’s) and Marine reconnaissance units.
The gathering in Pisgah was a special one, as the reunion group announced the release of two recently-created videos highlighting a heroic mission by a Cobra Helicopter Pilot who saved a group of 4 LRRPs in June 1968. First Lieutenant Larry Taylor piloted the small craft into enemy territory on the night of 18 June 1968 and carried Team Wildcat 2 of Company F, 52nd Infantry, 1st Infantry Division of Bob Elsner, Billy Cohn, Gerald Paddy and Dave Hill three miles out of a rice patty. The four men had been surrounded by North Vietnamese during a recon mission and had spent most all of their ammunition and were outnumbered, by an estimated 16 to 1. Taylor, going against orders and low on fuel, lowered his small craft to the ground and carried the men 3 miles to the outskirts of Saigon to safety.
An artistic rendering of the Cobra Helicopter extraction of Team Wildcatt 2 by California artist Darrin Hostetter. The painting was commissioned by fellow LRRP Dave Flores.
Of the four men of Wildcat Team 2, only Hill survives. Hill is currently working on getting Taylor, who is still living, recognized with the Medal of Honor for his deeds on that night in June of 1968. Hill says that he has been working since 2017 to submit paperwork to get Taylor the medal: “He really got gypped. What he did was way beyond the Silver Star that he got awarded. We didn’t know how to [get him nominated for the Medal of Honor], so we talked to Bob Corker, who is a Tennessee Senator at the time to sponsor it. It was over the 3 year time limit [for the process], and at the point we started was almost 50 years in 2017. We’ve been pushing this thing through over the past four years, and rightfully so, it’s tough process. They don’t give them out for nothing. At any rate, we push, we push, they push back. We answer questions and sent it back and resubmitted the application. At this point, we are resubmitting to the Pentagon and additionally, it goes to the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of the Army. If the SecDef approves it, it’ll be recommended to the President of the United States, in this case President Biden, and he will be the one who would award it.”
Dave Hill (left sitting) watches the Larry Taylor Interview video produced by Freedom Sings USA. Shane McGath (right leaning on bar) and Dave Flores (right, white t-shirt standing) help present the videos.
The group recently partnered with Freedom Sings USA out of Chattanooga, Tennessee who partners with veterans of all wars to help them heal through the power of music and songwriting. The partnership produced the song “No Man Left Behind” written by Don Goodman and Steve Dean performed by country artist Ron Wallace. The song documents the June 1968 Rescue Mission. The group also produced a video of an interview with Lt. Taylor providing his firsthand account of the event. Both videos are available on YouTube here and here.
Hill hopes that the videos will help spur interest and bring recognition for Taylor who saved his life. Hill says he has read about similar deeds by other Vietnam helicopter pilots who have been awarded the Medal of Honor and he feels that Taylor is just as deserving for the recognition.
A photograph of the original Team Wildcatt 2: Standing, L-R Dave Hill and Billy Cohn.
LRRP Reunion Group President Dave Flores says the group of LRRP units get together each year for a food banquet, reminisce, catch up on current life with their families, and at the end of the reunion read the names of those who were Killed in Action during the war, and in recent years have begun to read the names of those who have passed away since the end of the war in 1970.
Flores says that the LRRP units were unique from other Vietnam units because they worked together in such small groups and had such a shared experience: “I talked to guys when I was working after the war who were in Infantry companies and I asked them: ‘Hey do you guys go to any reunions or do you see some of the guys you served with?’ Most of them say ‘no.’ They say: ‘I was only good friends with a couple of guys but we don’t have reunions. I don’t go’ and this and that. A lot of those guys say: ‘You go every year, Dave.’ I tell them that our relationship with the guys that I served with – we had 12 operational teams at the height – I knew every one of those guys. We had 6-man teams. Those 6 guys stayed in the same tent. We hung out. We out into the field for 4 or 5 days at a time, shared the same experiences. That makes for a different relationship. Seeing these guys once a year, there’s a lot of connection there that doesn’t go away.”
Hill hopes that a recent letter of recognition by four-star General B.B. Bell for Taylor along with 100 other pieces of documentation and witness accounts in the new submission will help get the nomination over the top.
In all, the reunion last night in Pisgah had over 35 members from all around the country in attendance last night. The late Robert McGath and his wife Judy began attending the reunions in 2003. Judy and Shane still attend the reunion since Sgt. McGath’s passing in 2019, and were invited to serve as the honorary hosts of the LRRP reunion this year. Sgt. McGath served as LRRP from July 1968 to July 1969. Flores hopes that stories of all Vietnam Veterans and what they endured at home and abroad will never be repeated, and hopes through their stories, people will appreciate the sacrifices made by all those who serve both now and in the past.
Frontier Communications is closing its retail store in Jacksonville.
The telecommunications company announced yesterday that it would be closing 16 retail store locations nationwide on July 31st.
The retail location in Jacksonville is located at 330 West Beecher Avenue.
Frontier says that retail teams have been working remotely with customers since the pandemic began, and it has transformed how the company now does its business. Frontier team members will continue to serve residential, small-business, education and enterprise customers.
Bud Hirst, assistant vice president of Frontier’s Alternate Channels team said in a press release that the company has welcomed the innovation of meeting customers where they wish to be met – online and through the phone. Hirst says that the change has made it easier to contact Frontier for customer needs.
Jacksonville will join stores in Marion and Bloomington as a part of the closure.
For more information about the closure, visit frontier.com.
The identity of a rural Scott County boy who died as a result of an ATV accident Tuesday night has been released.
Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon told the State Journal Register yesterday that a preliminary autopsy revealed that 11-year-old James “Kerr” Ballard of rural Murrayville died as a result of injuries sustained during the accident. Scott County Sheriff Thomas Eddinger told WLDS News that Ballard was traveling home from a neighbor’s house when the accident occurred on his family’s property, causing the ATV to overturn and land on top of him. Ballard was wearing a helmet during the accident according to Eddinger. Ballard was first transported to Passavant Area Hospital before being transported to Springfield. Ballard was pronounced dead at 9:59 p.m. at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield Tuesday.
Winchester Grade School is currently offering support services to Winchester students currently grieving the loss of their classmate. Ballard was a 6th grader at the school. No appointment is needed for the services, according to Superintendent Kevin Blankenship.
A funeral service for Kerr will be held at 2PM Sunday at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Winchester with internment to follow in Manchester City Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2-6PM tomorrow at the church. Daws Family Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. Memorials are suggested to a fund set up in Kerr’s name.
A local pastor is working on getting a substance abuse program going in the Jacksonville area. Pastor Brian Hart of Go Church says that 25 years ago he was a different person in the throes of drug addiction. He says a chance encounter with the Adult & Teen Challenge program in Nebraska changed his life. He says since completion of the program he’s been sober over a decade and is now a church pastor.
Hart says he would like to bring a similar program to the Jacksonville area to help families and individuals struggling with drug addiction. He says they will be starting with a curriculum based on the Adult & Teen Challenge program called Living Free. He says he needs facilitators of support groups he hopes to place at different locations throughout town: “I’m looking for core members on July 31st at Go Church. It’s $25, and that includes your meal, your book, and snacks. It’s from 9AM-3PM, and it’s going to explain really break down what Living Free is. When you find out what this is, they are not asking us to teach the class or to have any kind of drug prevention knowledge or anything like that. This [training] lays it all out with the curriculum. All you are really doing is being a person who says, ‘Okay, we are getting a little off track. Let’s pull back on.'”
Hart says that if the Living Free program grows, he hopes it will eventually bring another residential program for both men and women to Jacksonville.
Hart says the program is unlike other addiction programs that he’s either been involved in or heard about: “You have got to get to the root of the problem. I tell everybody this that drugs and alcohol are not the problem – drugs and alcohol are your solution to a problem. Like I have long said, Jesus speaks Truth to the problem – no more problem – no more drugs and alcohol. Drugs and alcohol are just a fruit. Just like gambling is a fruit, beating your wife is a fruit, whatever it may be that you have a problem with, you have to ask what is the root of this problem and why do you keep baring this fruit; why do you keep going back. I didn’t want to go back to drugs and alcohol. It’s a horrible life. I hated it, hated myself, and lost almost everything. What this program is going to bring is that there seems to be a huge gap between what you want to do [about the problem] and what can be done. I always always on the other side of that gap. I never knew. I saw people happy and I wanted to know how do you get this freedom. This program shows you how to bridge that gap and get that freedom.”
If you are interested in becoming a small group facilitator for the program or want more information, contact Hart via email at brianhart12330@gmail.com or visit livingfree.org. Registration for the program is $25 for materials and food. Deadline is Friday, July 30th.
Two noteworthy Morgan County Court cases met at a crossroads in front of 2 different visiting judges in Morgan County Court yesterday afternoon.
21 year old Dustin Finlaw made his first appearance as his own counsel in Morgan County Court in front of visiting Sangamon County Judge Jack Davis yesterday afternoon. Davis called the 3 year old murder case for a pre-trial conference. Finlaw faces first degree murder charges and obstructing justice for the stabbing death of 43 year old Robert Utter of Rushville in Meredosia in May 2018. Finlaw was granted the option to defend himself in court last month with Morgan County Public Defender Tom Piper appointed as standby counsel. Judge Davis asked Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll if discovery had been granted to Finlaw since the June court date. Noll indicated he had turned over an accordion file worth of reports and statements along with hours of video to Finlaw. Finlaw told the court that he had filed a motion for a speedy trial the day before the hearing. Judge Davis granted the motion setting a pre-trial status hearing for Friday, August 20th at 1:30 in the afternoon, with a jury pre-trial conference for September 8th and the jury trial set to begin on September 14th. Finlaw was remanded back to the custody of the Morgan County Sheriff.
Morgan County Public Defender Tom Piper asked for a lengthy continuance in the case because of his need to be standby counsel in the Finlaw case and would not be able to meet a September jury call. Judge Cherry then admonished Baldwin of his in absentia rights and set a pre-trial hearing for September 29th at 1:30th with a jury trial set for October 4th. Baldwin is free on his own recognizance after posting bond back in April.
A Granite City man and a White Hall woman are behind bars in Greene County after a stabbing in White Hall Sunday night.
According to a press release from White Hall Police Chief Luke Coultas, at approximately 10:58PM Sunday, White Hall Police were called to an active physical disturbance in the 500 block of Bridgeport Street near Bruce Drive.
Upon arrival, a White Hall officer found 31 year old Brandon Brown unresponsive with two stab wounds to the back sitting in a car. According to the report, the wounds were received during a fight with another male and female subject known to the victim. The suspects fled the scene at a high rate of speed in a White SUV, and according to the report, had a 5 year old child of the female suspect in the vehicle.
Greene County Sheriff’s Deputies located a vehicle matching the description of the suspects’ vehicle just north of Carrollton on Route 67 still traveling at a high rate of speed. The deputy was able to stop and detain the suspects without further incident.
The deputies then arrested 26 year old Tyler D. Lockhart of Granite City and 39 year old Tiffany A. Syrcle of White Hall. Lockhart has been charged with Aggravated Battery with a deadly weapon, and unlawful use of a Weapon. Syrcle was charged with aggravated battery for allegedly punching Brown’s girlfriend who was also present during the altercation on Bridgeport Street in White Hall. According to the Journal Courier, Syrcle is Brown’s ex-girlfriend. The altercation allegedly arose over a custody dispute between the two parties.
Brown was transported to Passavant Area Hospital by Boyd Memorial Emergency Services with life threatening injuries, which included a punctured lung. According to the Alton Telegraph and the Journal Courier, Brown was released from the hospital and is in recovery at home.
The Roodhouse Police Department and White Hall First Responders also assisted at the scene.
Lockhart is being held at the Greene County Jail in lieu of $35,000 bond. Syrcle is being held at the Greene County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bond.
According to Chief Coultas, the investigation into the incident remains ongoing with the possibility of additional charges being brought by the Greene County State’s Attorney’s Office at the completion of the investigation.
Mitchell is currently at Graham Correctional Facility awaiting a bench trial in Greene County.
Hacker had citations and charges of methamphetamine trafficking, armed habitual criminal, methamphetamine delivery, possession of a stolen firearm, possession of a narcotic instrument, possession of drug paraphernalia, improper lane usage, and driving on a suspended or revoked license dropped per the plea.
Hacker was sentenced to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, 18 months of Mandatory Supervised Release, a $2,500 county fine, plus fees and court costs. Hacker was given credit for 333 days served in the Morgan County Jail.
