A special guest from the St. Louis Cardinals is coming to Jacksonville in January.

Illinois College baseball coach Jay Eckhouse made the announcement this morning on WLDS’ “AM-Conversation” that Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak will be in the city on January 11th.

Eckhouse says Mozeliak will speak for around 30 minutes and then take questions from the audience.

“I don’t recall him being the focus speaker of any event. I’m very excited because I’m an avid Cardinals fan and ready for the baseball season to get going. It would be fun to do something like this every year. We are holding it at the JHS auditorium because there are plenty of seats. For $45 that gets a person in and we have ballpark food. We are setting up a silent auction and we will have door prizes,” says Eckhouse.

With Mozeliak visiting Jacksonville days before the winter warm-ups in St. Louis and Spring Training in Jupiter, Florida, Eckhouse feels the event should be very entertaining.

“I know Cardinal fans aren’t happy with the way the year ended. It may be fun listening to the questions. What is really exciting to me is that the Cardinals clearly have to make moves, trades and resign guys. I think a lot of that will have happened by the 11th. That will be fun to pick Mozeliak’s brain on why he has done or not done certain things.”                               :

Eckhouse plans on reaching out to any and all baseball fans for the event. To purchase a ticket, call Eckhouse at 883-0179. There will be businesses around Jacksonville selling tickets in the near future.

There are new developments as the families of nine-year-old Sydney Watkins met in Cass County as her mother, Jennifer Watkins, fights for custody of her daughter.

ABC Newschannel 20’s Esther Kwon has the latest.

A court hearing has been scheduled for December 2nd at the Cass County Courthouse.

Some much needed renovations were recently completed at one of Jacksonville’s oldest homes.

Governor Joseph Duncan, who served as governor of Illinois from 1834 to 1838, had his mansion constructed off State Street between 1833 and 1835.

The house has served several purposes over the decades, including state business meetings and being the executive mansion of Illinois in the 1830s.

Jacksonville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Brittany Henry says construction on the east-side porch of the mansion wrapped up last week.

“It’s a huge project for the Governor Duncan Association and the DAR, because this is a $30,000 project. People are just really interested in history and I feel the mansion serves that purpose. With the renovation, people are excited to get back in it and see the changes. Not only are there new attendees, but also old, because they want to see the work done,” says Henry.

Henry says the Duncan Mansion had over 1,000 attendees this summer, a record setting number.

“It’s going to look so beautiful in the spring when the grass is up. Right now we are just encouraging people to go by and see the project. It is the community that helped support this. It is because of all their efforts helping us that this project was completed.”

Two organizations keep the Governor Duncan Mansion up and running. The Daughters of American Revolution operate the home and facilitate the tours, which run from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

The Governor Duncan Association is in charge of fundraising, which includes the Duncan Gala on December 6th. The evening will feature a three-course meal, live and silent auctions and musical entertainment.

Contact the Jacksonville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau to buy a ticket.

Jacksonville’s favorite lip balm company is enlisting the services of Elm City Center to help meet the companies growing product demand.

Serious Lip Balm is serious about lip balm… seriously. Khara Koffel and Megan Luckey started the company in November 2014 as a way to make simple gifts for friends in the community.

Within weeks the duo began producing their all-natural lip balms, healing balms and holiday gifts in bulk. Koffel describes the last two years as “a wild ride.”

“The current state of Serious Lip Balm is like a roller coaster we are holding onto with both hands. In the last six months we’ve gone from 12 retailers to 33. We are really excited about it,” says Koffel.

In an effort to help with the production process, Serious Lip Balm began a partnership with Elm City Center. Koffel says the three-month union has been fantastic.

“We really needed help labeling, specifically just putting labels on the tube and a safety seal. That kind of process can take up a lot of time for us. It keeps us from being able to make more and talk to people. We started paying Elm City for this and it was just miraculous. It took a huge burden off us and we were able to keep part of the process local. Recently they have started manufacturing some balms and we’ve stepped up our interactions with them,” says Koffel.

You can find Serious Lip Balm products in Jacksonville at Passavant Area Hospital Gift Shop, County Market and Soap Co. Coffee House. Serious Lip Balm is also sold in Springfield, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.

Any businesses looking to stock up on Serious Lip Balm products can found out more information at seriouslipbalm.com or on the Serious Lip Balm Facebook page.

Students from a Jacksonville college are joining the thousands of Americans protesting the Presidential Election results.

Anyone participating in the campus-wide Illinois College protest on Friday was encouraged to leave their classrooms at 12:15 as a way to voice their frustration with the election of Donald Trump.

What started as 75 students marching around campus holding sign and chanting “Love trumps hate” quickly turned into a gathering of hundreds.

Director of Diversity and Inclusion Joyce Mann has been with Illinois College since 2013 and says she’s never seen a protest of this size on campus.

“As a liberal arts college, we support free speech and the right of students to assemble. The protest was organized by students. This is their right and choice. As someone who works here, I’m in support of students expressing themselves. We are a campus that supports students being vocal and having open discussions, even when they are opposing views,” says Mann.

Sophomore and leader of Illinois College Feminists Cassie Mueller was one the creators of the protest. Mueller hopes the movement sent a positive message to the students and staff on campus.

“We need to acknowledge the needs of these people who feel trampled on by this election. I don’t think it is alright for everyone to say the election is over and we need to stop talking about this. One of the principles America is built on is democracy and that includes protesting when people feel infringed upon. We are being peaceful with this. We want to bring attention to our needs, because the campus is already divided on this,” says Mueller.

Mueller thanked fellow Illinois College diversity organizations, like the Black Student Union, LGBT groups and Latina groups, for their support and influencing others to join.

But there was two sides to this protest…

Illinois College Junior Noah Yantis advised students, whether they be conservative or Trump supporters, to stay in class.

“Basically our angle is that Trump supporters would rather stay in class, over than the liberal protesters who would rather be outside of class and wasting their time. We’ve gotten a lot of traction with that,” says Yantis.

Even though Yantis agreed the students had a right to protest, he wasn’t afraid to express his feelings on what took place yesterday.

“I think this is a stupid idea honestly. A group of protesters on a liberal arts campus, of less than 1,000 people in central Illinois, is going to have no impact on the presidential election. It isn’t like this is a local election. I think it gives IC a bad wrap, especially being in Morgan County, one of the reddest counties in the state,” says Yantis.

Check out our WLDS News Facebook page to watch live footage of the event and hear from the students and faculty members in attendance.

The Jacksonville Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign got an early jump on the holiday season.

The annual donation campaign started on Monday and is set to go through Christmas Eve.

Since the Salvation Army fell $77,000 short on its campaign goal, Captain Charles Pinkston pulled out the red kettles a week ahead of schedule.

“It just meant we had to tighten our straps as we went through the budget. We did end the year in a deficit budget, which isn’t a comfortable thing to do. We have to look at our goal this year and see what we can come up with and see what can be raised. If we don’t meet our goal this year then we will have to look at reducing or eliminating programs and staff.”

Pinkston says the drop in donations could be contributed to the increased use of credit and debit cards. To meet that need, the Salvation Army will offer a card swiping option at one of the seven Jacksonville kettle locations. Pinkston says the rest of the kettles will feature card swiping technology if this year is a success.

Pinkston has high hopes 2016 will be a bounce back year for the Red Kettle Campaign.

“Our overall goal is $200,000 and the kettle goal is $100,000. We are at seven locations: both doors at Wal-Mart, Midlands, ShopKo, County Market, J.C. Penney and the Walgreens on Main and Morton.”

The Salvation Army doesn’t receive federal or state funding.

Bell ringers can volunteer by contacting the Salvation Army at 245-7124.

Click here for the WICS ABC Newschannel 20 report.

Click here to read the indictment.

The 2016 General Election is over, so here’s a friendly reminder to take down those political signs.

After several phone calls to the Morgan County Clerk’s office, Jill Waggener is requesting those signs be removed from outside homes and businesses.

Waggener says there isn’t a law in place for the removal of political signs, but taking them down the day after the election concludes is common courtesy.

To check out the election results, click on our election tab.

The Republicans in Illinois’ 13th, 18th and 93rd Districts were victorious on Election Night.

Representative Rodney Davis is staying put in the 13th District. Davis earned almost 60-percent of the vote on Election Night in his victory over Democrat Mark Wicklund.

CNN called the election at around 10 p.m. on Tuesday with Davis getting 181,004 votes, compared to Wicklund’s 123,283.

In Greene County, votes overwhelming backed Davis as he coasted to victory, 4,103 votes to Wicklund’s 1,250.

Davis spoke with WLDS-WEAI News this morning and feels his experience in Washington D.C. gave him a big advantage.

“Well I’m looking forward to working with President Trump in a Republican Senate to do some big things. We want to reform our tax code and replace ObamaCare. ObamaCare is killing families and small businesses in Central Illinois. I talked with a friend who has an 87-percent increase in premiums for his family. That is with a $6,000 deductible. We have to do things Trump promised we would do and things the American people demand we do,” says Davis.

The 13th District covers parts of Bond, Champaign, Madison, McLean and Sangamon Counties, along with all of Christian, Calhoun, De Witt, Jersey, Macon, Macoupin, Montgomery and Piatt Counties.

Representative Darin LaHood maintained his 18th District seat in the House of Representatives through convincing fashion, earning almost three-quarters of the votes of West Central Illinoisans.

Polls from the four-county-area show LaHood received 3,611 votes in Cass County, compared to the 1,399 earned by Democrat Junius Rodriguez.

In Morgan County, LaHood took 76 percent of the vote, winning 11,085 to 3,471.

LaHood’s biggest margin of victory for the four county area came in Scott County, where he won 2,049 to 486.

Following his win, LaHood released a statement to WLDS-WEAI News which shows he is already looking into the future.

“I remain committed to finding common ground on priorities that encourage a growing economy and support our hard working families, farmers, small business owners, tradesman and those who protect our communities. We need to work across the aisle to incorporate more accountability and transparency in government from instituting term limits for legislators, protecting the Constitution and reforming Congress so it once again work for ‘we the people.'”

The 18th District also includes parts of McLean, Peoria, Sangamon, Stark Counties, as well as all of Adams, Brown, Hancock, Logan, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, Menard and Schuyler.

93rd District incumbent Norine Hammond won her State House race over Democrat John Curtis.

Polls show Hammond received 22,925 votes compared to her opponent’s 19,071. In Cass County, Hammond defeated Curtis 2,938 votes to 2,047.

The 93rd District includes McDonough, Knox, Mason, Schuyler, Fulton, Brown and Warren. Knox was the only county Curtis won.