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Couples names: Tim & Ashley Nevlin City: Highland Date met or started dating: June 16, 2006 Date married: June 16, 2018 What makes your relationship special? We have been together since we were teens! We have experienced so much of life together, all the crazy ups and downs & always come out stronger. Share a memory you have made together: We have so many good memories together, but my favorite has to be our family camping trip to Yellowstone National park! It’s absolutely beautiful!

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Couples names: Derek & Katelyn City: Fieldon Date met or started dating: November 9, 2014 Date married: October 9, 2015 What makes your relationship special? Oh man! Where do I begin? Our love story started when we were so young. We got married as soon as we graduated high school freashly 18. Then you joined the Military and off to Alaska we went. We had to learn so much together. We took a huge leap of faith together and im so thankful for every journey, every state we went too. We are special because we were best friends before dating and we still are eachothers rocks. Share a memory you have made together: Our very first memory: 7th grade math class. I remember you sat directly behind me and we would always get in trouble for talking but the kickers is you would always pick and flick your belly button lint at me. That's day our friendship began.

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Couples names: Michael & Haley Ferguson City: Wood River Date met or started dating: January 1, 2015 Date married: September 17, 2016 What makes your relationship special? No matter what we go through we’re always there for each other. We have our ups and downs but we’re always working on striving for the best in each other. Share a memory you have made together: Seeing the Grand Canyon in person.

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Couples names: Andrea and Cody City: Wood River Date met or started dating: May 13, 2010 Date married: August 27, 2022 What makes your relationship special? Laughing together, having lots of fun and out blended family with seven kiddos. Share a memory you have made together: Shopping for Halloween decor and him surprising me by decorating the entire house while I was at work. Halloween is our favorite holiday.

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Couples names: Angela and Josh City: Wood River Date met or started dating: November 1, 2022 What makes your relationship special? The laughs and love we share. I have never felt so connected with someone. I can finally be myself and for that I adore him! He loves me for me and I love him for him! Together we are Pooh and Honey. Share a memory you have made together: Playing games. We absolutely love playing games and just enjoying one another's company! (Inside joke 8,9,10).

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EAST ALTON - The RiverBend Growth Association held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, February 13, 2023, for a new member celebrating its two-year anniversary. Heather’s Zen Den Yoga Studio is located at 95 Eastgate Plaza in East Alton, Illinois. The RiverBend Growth Association team coordinated the ribbon cutting for the owner, Heather Garrigus. Her team includes Andrea, Chandra, Louise, Pam, and Sheena. In attendance were RBGA members, Ambassadors, and community members. The studio specializes in offering a warm and welcoming environment of Zen to the community with a variety of yoga classes for everybody. All body types and skill levels are welcome. The studio was founded in 2021 as a dedication to Heather’s brother. Heather’s Zen Den strives to be the destination for zen in the community. Classes include Beginners Yoga, Buti Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Warm Flow Yoga, and Lunch Break Yoga. Upcoming events are a Wellness Weekend with Kundalini Yoga on Apri

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Couples names: Ed & Dawn City: Brighton Date met or started dating: April 27, 1996 Date married: September 27, 1997 What makes your relationship special? We are a team. We have so much in common. Share a memory you have made together: We’ve had so many it’s hard to pick just 1 We have 3 amazing children & 3 beautiful granddaughters.

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Couples names: Dillan & Bethany Plummer City: Jerseyville Date met or started dating: September 9, 2013 Date married: September 19, 2016 What makes your relationship special? We like the same things we connected at first meet she’s the girl version of me. She’s the love of my life we connected on the first day and ever since then she’s been the life of my world. Share a memory you have made together: Me and her and her mother we went to Nashville Tennessee on a vacation for a couple days and this is when her mother had cancer. That was the most wonderful day of my life. That was the most wonderful time of our life spending that week with them and our kids.

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Couples names: Rodney & Lyndsay White City: East Alton Date met or started dating: May 15, 2015 Date married: May 1, 2017 What makes your relationship special? We definitely have a one-of-a-kind relationship. We pester each other, laugh at each other , and with eachother. I would definitely say we are the standout couple in our friend group LOL. Share a memory you have made together: We have two beautiful children! And we just bought our first home in September of 2022..

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Couples names: Jarrid & Kedra City: Bethalto Date met or started dating: August 28, 2009 Date married: May 5, 2018 What makes your relationship special? We’re best friends first and partners second. The love and respect we have for each other is what makes us so strong. No matter what happens in life, at the end of the day we have each others back and always will! Share a memory you have made together: We met in our sophomore and junior year of high school so we have so many great memories and look forward to making many more! The best so far is sharing our honeymoon in the mountains with just us and the dog.

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Couples names: Chelsey & Shawn City: Alton Date met or started dating: December 28, 2013 Date married: December 28, 2016 What makes your relationship special? We started as friends and have maintained that friendship as the backbone of our relationship. Share a memory you have made together: In 2018 we moved to China together. We stayed there for almost 5 years teaching and traveling.

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EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville School District 7 will hold an informational night and open house at Lincoln Middle School at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, for community members to learn more about how the zero-tax-rate-change bond, if passed, would address needed renovations and a partial rebuild of the aging school building. Edwardsville School District 7 will have a $100 million zero-tax-rate change bond referendum on the April 4, 2023, ballot. If approved by voters, the district would be able to issue $100 million in bonds to address essential safety and security upgrades, identified facility needs and other identified critical maintenance. While some schools require more repair and renovation than others, every student attending school in our district will improve from improved school buildings. The informational night will begin with a presentation in the auditorium that will include architectural plans for Lincoln. District leaders, staff, and students

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ST. LOUIS - Charlee Soffer, a former St. Louis resident locally known as the “St. Louis Superman,” is embarking on a new journey halfway across the country as he and his wife Colleen begin their lives together after spending years in a long-distance relationship. They are asking the public for donations to their GoFundMe fundraiser to help cover moving expenses as they start the next chapter of their story, which has so far included multiple Superman events, an emergency marriage over Zoom, and much more. Charlee’s career as St. Louis Superman began when he moved to the city after graduating from Jersey Community High School in 2005. He went to his first Superman Celebration in Metropolis the next year and became the sole pupil of Christopher Dennis, the “Hollywood Superman” who was well-known for impersonating the superhero on Hollywood Boulevard. Charlee returned to the event every year, and on his sixth year going, he met Colleen. They started

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EDWARDSVILLE – The passion for her students and the field of healthcare is what makes Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Myjal Garner, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, stand out as a “SIUE Difference Maker”. The School of Nursing (SON) instructor and family nurse practitioner at the SIUE We Care Clinic strives to ensure that her students feel supported and succeed in their educational endeavors. “It is truly an honor to be a part of my students' journey,” said Garner. “My students inspire me more than they will ever know. The nursing students are choosing this profession, which is a career unlike any other, in my opinion. They are entering a field that I have loved since I was nine years old, so it is an honor to help prepare them for it.” Senior Katie Schuecking, one of Garner’s multiple nominators as a SIUE Difference Maker, acknowledges the great impact that Garner has had on her throughout her academic career. "Dr. Garner is an

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SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois State Police (ISP), working with local law enforcement and community partners, continues to decrease the supply of opioids and other drugs devastating many neighborhoods. In 2022, the ISP Metropolitan Enforcement Groups (MEGs) and Drug Task Forces across the state seized 679 firearms, 26,679 pounds of drugs, and arrested 1,942 individuals. The ISP MEGs and Drug Task Forces are on the front lines of narcotic enforcement, prevention, and treatment strategies. MEGs and Task Forces represent a collaborative effort among state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies to enforce Illinois drug laws and investigate gang activity. “Every neighborhood deserves to be free from violence,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We’re getting results through an evidence-based and data driven approach focusing on violence prevention. I’m thankful for the hard work of our dedicated law enforcement officials who risk their lives in orde

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EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville High School's orchestra continued an eventful year with Director Victoria Voumard this past weekend at the Illinois State University campus for the 14th Annual Invitational High School Orchestra Festival. "We had six high schools, seven string orchestras, and approximately 350 string students on campus for the day," Voumard said. "You had rehearsals, clinics with the ISU artist String Faculty, and an opportunity to hear other orchestras in the Festival Concert." Voumard described the festival as a great experience for her students. Here was the Edwardsville High School schedule for Friday: 9:00 a.m. - Rehearsal on Braden Auditorium stage 9:30 a.m. - Clinic with Dr. Block 10:00 a.m. - Clinic with Dr. Kate Lewis, professor of viola 10:30 a.m. - Clinic with Dr. Igor Kalnin, professor of violin 11:00 a.m. - Move to Brown Ballroom to hear the ISU Symphony in concert Noon - Breakout sessions by instrument: All violins to Brown Ballroom – master

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EDWARDSVILLE – A Metro East Sanitary District commissioner is on the county board agenda this Wednesday – for removal. “Illinois law allows me to both appoint and remove MESD commissioners, with county board approval,” Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler said. The MESD board has five commissioners, two appointed by the St. Clair County Chairman, two by the Madison County Chairman, and one by the Mayor of Granite City. The commissioner on the agenda was appointed in 2017 and the term expired in December 2022. “I asked the commissioner to step down, at the conclusion of the term,” Prenzler said. “But the commissioner refused.” Illinois law (70 ILCS 2905/3-4) states: Commissioners shall be paid the same salaries as the county board members from either St. Clair or Madison County whichever is lower. Prenzler said that in addition to salary, commissioners also receive health insurance benefits – benefits that Madison County

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) encouraging them to use the authorities granted to them under the Clayton and FTC Acts to appropriately investigate interlocking directorates in the life science industry and take all necessary steps to combat this anticompetitive practice. An interlocking directorate occurs when an individual simultaneously serves on multiple corporate boards of directors. The practice can raise competition concerns, particularly when the individual serves on the boards of companies in the same industry or where the companies are competitors. Recent research suggests that anticompetitive interlocking directorates frequently happen in the life science industry, potentially resulting in coordination on pricing and other decisions that result in consumer harm. Under the Clayton Act, it is illegal for a person

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ALTON - Jerry Rumph, president of OSF St. Anthony's Health Center in Alton, appeared on a recent episode of Our Daily Show! on Riverbender.com to discuss the work the organization does, the Moeller Cancer Center, their partnership with SSM Health, and much more. Rumph said that while OSF is technically a Catholic health center, you don’t have to be Catholic - or able to pay them - to receive treatment. “The thing that we really focus on is not necessarily about being Catholic, it’s really about taking care of patients, the whole person - the mind, body, and spirit,” Rumph said. “We really focus on the person, the individual, the dignity of the person, what they’re there for regardless of their ability to pay. We actually honor that and we cherish the ability to take care of patients who are underserved or who lack the ability to pay for their healthcare.” Despite St. Anthony’s being part of a large ministry of 15 hospitals,

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URBANA, Ill. - Most deciduous trees are best pruned while they are in full dormancy. This happens to be February or March for this part of the country. While many of our landscape trees don’t necessarily need yearly pruning, the same can’t be said for fruit trees, especially if you want your trees to consistently bear fruit. If fruit trees are left to their own devices, they can quickly get too tall to easily harvest fruit at the tops of trees. Fruit trees are pruned for several reasons. First, to open the canopy so that all branches receive sunlight. The more sunlight a branch gets, the better its fruit production will be. Second, to help manage diseases and make pesticide applications easier. Opening the canopy to sunlight and air allows the canopy to dry out faster, helping to reduce disease problems. Finally, pruning keeps trees short so that fruit can be reached. Most people, especially when they first start, are intimidated by pruning fruit trees and end up pruning

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