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Pair Plead Guilty To Vehicle Break-In And Identity-Theft Scheme In Benton

2 years 10 months ago
BENTON - An Oblong man and Robinson woman pleaded guilty on Thursday, August 4, 2022, to breaking into cars, stealing checks and IDs from vehicles, and committing identity theft in order to obtain thousands of dollars from local banks by fraud. According to court documents, Zachary Patrick, 30, of Oblong, Illinois, and Briana Blair, 31, of Robinson, Illinois, stole checks and personal identifying information from a series of victims, often by breaking into the victims’ vehicles. Patrick and Blair then used the victims’ information however they could, writing and depositing fraudulent checks, forging victims’ signatures, and withdrawing and spending thousands of dollars as they traveled around eastern Illinois and western Indiana. The pair even opened a bank account using one victim’s stolen information. The pair was eventually caught in a hotel parking lot in Brazil, Indiana, breaking into yet another vehicle. Patrick and Blair initially identified themselves

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Protect Threatened Mussel Populations, Volunteer Today  

2 years 10 months ago
EAST ALTON – For over a decade, volunteers with the Illinois RiverWatch program, part of the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC sm ), has been monitoring mussel populations in the Upper Sangamon River. Last year, in collaboration with the Upper Sangamon River Conservancy, the Missouri Botanical Gardens and the St. Louis Zoo, the Illinois RiverWatch program started a new 10-year project with funding from the Living Earth Collaborative. “This summer, volunteers are needed to help collect and identify mussel species,” said Danelle Haake, Illinois RiverWatch Director and Stream Ecologist. “For this project to be successful, 20 to 50 volunteers are needed to help collect mussels during each of the sampling dates.” Each mussel collected will be identified, weighed, measured, photographed and released. Genetic sampling will also be done on two focal species in the river basin, the pistolgrip and round pig-toe mussel. The

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