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DeKALB – More than 587 students received their bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Northern Illinois University in August. Included among the graduates was Torrie Gilmore of Jerseyville, who earned a Master of Arts in Teaching in Elementary Education. About Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University is a student-centered, nationally recognized public research university with a global network of nearly 260,000 alumni. With expertise that benefits its region, the country and the world, NIU offers more than 170 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs across seven colleges: Business, Education, Engineering and Engineering Technology, Health and Human Sciences, Law, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Visual and Performing Arts. Through its main campus in DeKalb and education centers for students and working professionals in Naperville and Rockford, NIU serves a diverse and international student body of over 15,400. The

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STAUNTON - During their Employee Appreciation Week celebration in October, the employees at Madison were challenged to donate non-perishable items for the local food pantries as part of a team bonding exercise. The Madison employees collected a total of 10 milk crates and multiple boxes of food. The items were then divided evenly between the Mt. Olive Care Center, the Bunker Hill Food Pantry, and the Staunton Helping Hands Center. These donations are just a small part of Madison’s commitment to care for the communities that they serve. Along with donating to the local food pantries, Madison is also sponsoring the Community Hope Center’s Christmas Toy Drive once again! Please help spread the love to a child for Christmas by donating a new and unwrapped toy for girls and boys ages 0-12. Toys will be accepted anytime until December 6th in their main office lobby located at 21668 Double Arch Road in Staunton. They thank you in advance for your generosity this holiday season!

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ALTON - The year might be winding down, but Alton Little Theater is still busy with preparations for several upcoming productions, including “A Christmas Carol,” “Sing in the New Year” and “The Exes.” Lee Cox, executive director, noted that the shows will be a lot of fun for performers and audience members alike. She is especially looking forward to “A Christmas Carol,” which premieres in mid-December at ALT. She plans to decorate the theater like a Victorian Christmas, and she can’t wait to share the holidays with the community. “I’m going to really knock myself out,” Cox said. “I want the foyer to be beautiful because I want a lot of first-time people to come and see that we’re a little different from community theaters that they may already have gone to. We’re just one little stop under professional, because we can’t pay the big bucks, but we have some true quality people.”

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Key Takeaways: Exercise doesn't need to stop during pregnancy! Cardio is great to improve cardiovascular health for mom and baby Lifting weights is still safe to do! Don't do any exercises that inflict trauma on the stomach Speak with your OB/GYN about exercise plans Gym moms, if your child is a future Olympic athlete, you’ll always be able to say you were their first-ever gym partner. Becoming pregnant doesn’t mean you have to toss your exercise plan to the side, says Mfowethu Langeni, DO, a family medicine physician at OSF HealthCare who specializes in obstetrics. In fact, it’s the opposite! “Whatever you are doing activity-wise before pregnancy, you can keep on doing those as far as your body will let you," Dr. Langeni says. “Early on in pregnancy, you will have that added weight and body changes. But exercising is totally normal and is actually recommended, about 150 minutes per week.” As your baby sits and kicks in the

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BELLEVILLE - Collinsville recorded a 4.3 percent unemployment rate in September 2024 compared to 4.6 percent in 2023. St. Clair County boasted a 4.7 percent unemployment rate in September 2024 compared to September 2023 and Belleville stood strong at 4.8 percent compared to 5.3 percent a year ago. East St. Louis’ unemployment stood at 7.6 percent, but was down from 8.1 percent a year ago. Granite City recorded a mark of 4.9 percent in September 2024 compared to 4.5 percent a year. O’Fallon stood strong at 4.4 percent compared to 4.3 percent a year ago. The metro areas which had the largest over-the-year percentage increases in total nonfarm jobs were the Carbondale-Marion MSA (+1.9%, +1,100), the Champaign-Urbana MSA (+1.0%, +1,300), and the Springfield MSA (+1.0%, +1,100). The metro areas which posted the largest over-the-year decreases in total nonfarm jobs were the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island IA-IL MSA (-1.3%, -2,300), the Danville MSA (-1.1%, -300), and the Peoria

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EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville’s unemployment rate dipped to 3.5 percent in September 2024, down from 3.8 percent in September 2023. Madison County posted a rate of 4.2 percent, compared to 4.4 percent a year ago, while Jersey County stood at 3.9 percent, Calhoun at 4.2 percent and Greene County and Macoupin County at 4.1 percent. Alton’s unemployment rate was 5.8 percent, compared to a year ago. Over-the-year, total nonfarm jobs in the state increased in nine metropolitan areas and decreased in five for the year ending September 2024, according to data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (DES). Over-the-year, the unemployment rate decreased in eight areas, increased in five, and was unchanged in one. “An expanding labor market and job growth across the state continues to instill drive and motivation in workers and jobseekers searching for new employment opportunities,” said Deputy Governor

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ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Metropolitan Police are investigating a deadly shooting in south city. Officers were called to Klocke Street off of Louisiana Avenue in Dutchtown around 3:20 p.m. Friday. When officers arrived they found a man with critical injuries. EMS rushed him to the hospital where he later died. Police haven’t released any [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) issued the following statement after Donald Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States: “As deeply, deeply disappointed as I am by the results of the election, make no mistake: my Democratic colleagues and I—unlike many Republicans after the 2020 election—will uphold the will of the American people, fulfill our constitutional duty and do our part to ensure a peaceful transfer of power. Vice President Harris should be proud not only of her campaign, but also of helping reestablish the quintessential American tradition of accepting the results of our elections. In this country, party loyalty must never take priority over the oath we swore to support and defend our Constitution. “I also sympathize with the millions of Americans who are distraught by the knowledge that Donald Trump will soon be President once again. To each of you, please know that I am as dedicated today as I’ve ever been

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The Poplar Street Bridge, which has never been known by its formal names, opened on this day in 1967.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will display an original edition of the Gettysburg Address from Nov. 15-24. Details:

Let's talk turkey—and sides and desserts. We've compiled a list of options for dine-in or carryout.

Most people agree that actual facts matter – in such activities as debate, discussion and reporting. Once facts are gathered, verified and distributed, informed decision-making can proceed in such important exercises as voting. But what happens when important, verified facts are published and broadcast widely, yet the resulting impact proves underwhelming – or even meaningless? […]

Republicans, eyeing such a close result, will try to overturn the state’s new right to abortion. It’s just a question of how.

While some updates were made, the essence of the diner remains intact.

A more than 100-home subdivision could be built along Manchester Road in St. Louis County if it gains approval.

by Eli Hager and Jeremy Schwartz

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

In 2018, Arizona voters overwhelmingly rejected school vouchers. On the ballot that year was a measure that would have allowed all parents — even the wealthiest ones — to receive taxpayer money to send their kids to private, typically religious schools.

Arizonans voted no, and it wasn’t close. Even in a right-leaning state, with powerful Republican leaders supporting the initiative, the vote against it was 65% to 35%.

Coming into this week’s election, Donald Trump and Republicans had hoped to reverse that sort of popular opposition to “school choice” with new voucher ballot measures in several states.

But despite Trump’s big win in the presidential race, vouchers were again soundly rejected by significant majorities of Americans. In Kentucky, a ballot initiative that would have allowed public money to go toward private schooling was defeated roughly 65% to 35% — the same margin as in Arizona in 2018 and the inverse of the margin by which Trump won Kentucky. In Nebraska, nearly all 93 counties voted to repeal an existing voucher program; even its reddest county, where 95% of voters supported Trump, said no to vouchers. And in Colorado, voters defeated an effort to add a “right to school choice” to the state constitution, language that might have allowed parents to send their kids to private schools on the public dime.

Expansions of school vouchers, despite backing from wealthy conservatives, have never won when put to voters. Instead, they lose by margins not often seen in such a polarized country.

Candidates of both parties would be wise “to make strong public education a big part of their political platforms, because vouchers just aren’t popular,” said Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, a teachers union. Royers pointed to an emerging coalition in his state and others, including both progressive Democrats and rural Republicans, that opposes these sweeping “school choice” efforts. (Small-town Trump voters oppose such measures because their local public school is often an important community institution, and also because there aren’t that many or any private schools around.)

Yet voucher efforts have been more successful when they aren’t put to a public vote. In recent years, nearly a dozen states have enacted or expanded major voucher or “education savings account” programs, which provide taxpayer money even to affluent families who were already able to afford private school.

That includes Arizona, where in 2022 the conservative Goldwater Institute teamed up with Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and the GOP majority in the Legislature to enact the very same “universal” education savings account initiative that had been so soundly repudiated by voters just a few years before.

Another way that Republican governors and interest groups have circumvented the popular will on this issue is by identifying anti-voucher members of their own party and supporting pro-voucher candidates who challenge those members in primary elections. This way, they can build legislative majorities to enact voucher laws no matter what conservative voters want.

In Iowa, several Republicans were standing in the way of a major new voucher program as of 2022. Gov. Kim Reynolds helped push them out of office — despite their being incumbents in her own party — for the purposes of securing a majority to pass the measure.

A similar dynamic has developed in Tennessee and in a dramatic way in Texas, the ultimate prize for voucher advocates. There, pro-voucher candidates for the state Legislature won enough seats this Tuesday to pass a voucher program during the legislative session that starts in January, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said.

The day after the election, Abbott, who has made vouchers his top legislative priority, framed the result as a resounding signal that Texans have now shown a “tidal wave of support” for pro-voucher lawmakers. But in reality, the issue was conspicuously missing from the campaigns of many of the new Republicans whom he helped win, amid polling numbers that showed Texans hold complicated views on school choice. (A University of Houston poll taken this summer found that two-thirds of Texans supported voucher legislation, but that an equal number also believe that vouchers funnel money away from “already struggling public schools.”)

In the half dozen competitive Texas legislative races targeted in this election by Abbott and the pro-voucher American Federation for Children, backed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Republican candidates did not make vouchers a central plank of their platforms. Most left the issue off of their campaign websites, instead listing stances like “Standing with Public Schools” and “Increased Funding for Local Schools.”

Corpus Christi-area Republican Denise Villalobos pledged on her website that if elected she would “​​fight for increased funding for our teachers and local schools”; she did not emphasize her pro-voucher views. At least one ad paid for by the American Federation for Children’s affiliated PAC attacked her opponent, Democrat Solomon Ortiz Jr., not for his opposition to vouchers but for what it claimed were his “progressive open-border policies that flood our communities with violent crime and fentanyl.” (Villalobos defeated Ortiz by 10 points.)

Matthew Wilson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, said that this strategy reflects a belief among voucher advocates that compared to the border and culture wars, vouchers are not in fact a “slam-dunk winning issue.”

In the wake of Tuesday’s results in the presidential election, NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd said that Democrats had overlooked school choice as a policy that might be popular among working-class people, including Latinos, in places like Texas. But the concrete results of ballot initiatives around the nation show that it is in fact Trump, DeVos and other voucher proponents who are out of step with the American people on this particular issue.

They continue to advocate for vouchers, though, for multiple reasons: a sense that public schools are places where children develop liberal values, an ideological belief that the free market and private institutions can do things better and more efficiently than public ones, and a long-term goal of more religious education in this country.

And they know that popular sentiment can be and has been overridden by the efforts of powerful governors and moneyed interest groups, said Josh Cowen, a senior fellow at the Education Law Center who recently published a history of billionaire-led voucher efforts nationwide.

The Supreme Court could also aid the voucher movement in coming years, he said.

“They’re not going to stop,” Cowen said, “just because voters have rejected this.”

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Return to a time when steamboats ruled the river. The one-hour narrated riverfront cruise aboard the Riverboats at the Gateway Arch explores the history of downtown St. Louis, including the […]

The post St. Louis Riverfront Cruise appeared first on Explore St. Louis.

Flooding is still causing issues for drivers around the St. Louis area following heavy rainfall earlier this week. Water over the road in one area forced emergency crews to respond again Friday afternoon.