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Play looks frivolous right up until you see what happens without it. Remove free play from a child’s day, or playful freedom from an adult’s life, and stress rises, creativity shrinks, and relationships often become more brittle. Why play matters more than it seems Play is easy to dismiss because it does not always produce something visible. It may not earn money, check off a task, or solve a problem on command. But psychologically, play does important work. It helps people explore,

On June 7, one of the most consequential events in world history took place in 1494, when Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas. The agreement drew an imaginary line through the Atlantic Ocean and divided newly claimed lands outside Europe between the two kingdoms. At the time, it was meant to reduce conflict between two rising maritime powers competing for trade routes, territory, and influence. Its effects reached far beyond diplomacy. The treaty helped shape the future of Latin

Fish were once so valuable that entire towns rose, traded, and survived because of them. That simple fact helps explain why fishing traditions run so deep in human history. Fishing was never just a way to catch dinner. It shaped travel routes, family roles, tools, stories, festivals, and even local laws. In many places, the habits built around rivers, lakes, and coasts became part of a community’s identity. The history of fishing traditions is really a history of how people learned to

On June 8, 793, Viking raiders attacked the monastery at Lindisfarne off the northeast coast of England, in what is often treated as the beginning of the Viking Age in Europe. The assault shocked the Christian world of the time because Lindisfarne was an important religious center, not a military target. News of the raid spread quickly through monasteries and royal courts, shaping how people understood the threat from the north. It still matters today because it marked the start of a period o

BUZZ MAGAZINE – On January 30th, A. K. Frailey published her personal reflections on life, love, faith & family in her third book in the My Road series, My Road Goes Ever On: Rise Again. March 28th, she published the first in a new children’s book series, Wise Home. Her adult daughters, Laura and Rebekah Frailey, drew all the illustrations, creating heart-to-heart art without an ounce of AI. On May 28th, her third collection of short stories, Spice of Life: And Other Stories, was

BUZZ MAGAZINE – Today, many complain about roadside billboards, calling them boring and an eyesore. In past eras, highway advertising was much more interesting. This year marks the centennial of Route 66, and it’s also the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Burma Shave signs, a series of five or six simple signs that entertained motorists with rhyming poems. Today, replica Burma-Shave signs are found along Route 66 in Illinois near Towanda, north of Bloomington Normal,

BUZZ MAGAZINE – When Route 66 was created in 1926, it found plenty of traffic. Illinoisans, as elsewhere, were falling in love with the automobile throughout the decade, and highways like Route 66 began to crisscross the state. Route 66 was one of many improvements that revolutionized transportation and economic growth around the state. After struggling over paths of ankle-deep mud for decades, Illinois residents were ready for a major overhaul of their roads in the early twentieth century.

A June 4, 1926 article in the Alton Evening Telegraph described Shurtleff College junior Margery Elizabeth Fish’s unanimous victory in an all-college oratory competition, the Atchison Prize in Oratory, held on June 3. Eight women participated in all. A men’s competition, the Haynes Prize, had been held in the past, but this was the first women’s oratorical contest ever held at Shurtleff during the college’s ninety-nine year history. Fish’s oration, titled

DeKALB, Ill. – More than 2,300 students received their bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Northern Illinois University in May. Included among the graduates were the following students from your area: HOMETOWN, STATE; NAME, DEGREE, MAJOR Brighton, IL Thomas Schlafer, Bachelor of Science, Sport Management Glen Carbon, IL Jaren Alnutt, Master of Science, Sport Management About Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University is a student-centered,

BUZZ MAGAZINE – A great way to grow a lot of food in a relatively small amount of space is by using the indigenous gardening method, the Three Sisters Garden. A Three Sisters Garden is a companion gardening method that utilizes three different plants with three different growth habits that all support each other to maximize their yields for you. Doing this gives you three staple crops in one plot of ground, and if you are intentional, you can even add some cousins to the plot to add some

BUZZ MAGAZINE – The original alignment of Route 66, which ran north-south through Macoupin County from 1926-30 and is Illinois Route 4 today, has long been rumored as a highway for gangster movement. The road was also used for smaller, less organized crimes. In early 1928, a crime spree that stretched from Peoria to Girard used the original Route 66 as part of its getaway, racing through Macoupin County before being nailed by an unlikely source – a Staunton newspaper editor who wa

BUZZ MAGAZINE – Six episodes of the award-winning PBS travel series Samantha Brown’s Places to Love featuring America’s iconic Route 66 have been officially designated an Official Route 66 Centennial Project, recognizing the series’ role in celebrating the historic highway as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2026. Hosted by two-time Emmy Award-winning travel expert Samantha Brown, the episodes take viewers on a journey along the full length of Route 66, highlighting

SOUTH ROXANA – A church in South Roxana is set to gain a solar energy system after recent permit approval. Village Board members voted 5-1 on June 2, 2026 to approve a special use permit for an accessory solar energy system for Connect Church, located at 1417 Herbert St. When the item came up for a vote, Board Member Tammy Adams asked why the solar energy system couldn’t be installed on the building itself. Mayor TJ Callahan said the building cannot support the weight of the sola

ST. LOUIS COUNTY - St. Louis County Police are investigating a double shooting early Saturday, June 6, 2026, in the 9700 block of Lanier Drive in Moline Acres that left one adult man dead and another injured, authorities said. Officers from the Moline Acres Police Department responded at about 12:37 a.m. Saturday, June 6, 2026, to a ShotSpotter activation in the 9700 block of Lanier Drive, according to a statement from St. Louis County Police. When officers arrived, they found two adult men

ALTON - Veterans, elected officials, and community members gathered Saturday morning, June 6, 2026, in Grafton to dedicate the National Memorial of Military Ascent, a monument honoring veterans and the broader wartime service and sacrifice of Americans, in a ceremony held on the anniversary of D-Day. “Thank you all for coming out today to honor our veterans and dedicate this memorial,” Mayor Mike Morrow said. Alton Mayor Goins said the timing of the dedication added to its significance.

GRAFTON - The National Memorial of Military Ascent was officially dedicated Saturday morning, June 6, 2026, in Grafton on the 82nd anniversary of D-Day with an emotional, hour-long ceremony. The ceremony began at 9:30 a.m. June 6, 2026, after the Mike Burke Orchestra played military songs at 9 a.m. The dedication included colors by the Leech Lake Ojibwe Honor Guard, American Legion Post 648, and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 805, followed by an invocation by NMMA Chaplain Warren Gohl and a communit

Sitting in the choppy waters of the English Channel the day before D-Day, twenty-year-old Private James R. Lambeth wondered what would happen on the beaches of Normandy. “We had no idea what we were getting into,” recalled Lambeth. “I’d never seen combat before, and had no idea what it would be like.” June 6 marks the anniversary of the massive D-Day invasion and Lambeth, a member of the 37th Amphibious Combat Engineers, was one of 156,000 men on Omaha Beach at

On June 6, the most widely remembered global event is the D-Day landings of 1944, when Allied forces crossed the English Channel and began the liberation of Nazi-occupied Western Europe. In the early hours of that day, troops from the United States, Britain, Canada, and other Allied nations landed on the beaches of Normandy in France, supported by aircraft and naval bombardment. It was one of the largest military operations ever attempted. At the time, it mattered because it opened a major Western

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Co-Chair of the Congressional Postal Service Caucus, questioned Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) Vice Chair Robert Taub during a House Oversight Committee hearing focused on the financial future of the U.S. Postal Service and the Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) Plan. Budzinski raised concerns about the PRC’s findings regarding the impact of the RTO implementation on rural communities and pressed Taub on

SPRINGFIELD – Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias’ comprehensive micromobility safety legislation passed the Illinois General Assembly and now awaits Governor JB Pritzker’s signature, bringing Illinois one step away from establishing the state’s first comprehensive framework to regulate dangerous high-speed e-bikes, e-motos and other powerful electric transportation devices operating on roads, bike lanes, bike paths and sidewalks. Senate Bill 3484 is the cornerstone