•May 27, 2020•

Lake Land College honored Kathy Black, division chair business/business instructor, as the 2020 recipient of the Faculty Association Outstanding Service Award. After 23 years of service to Lake Land College, Black will be retiring at the end of August.
Several members of the Lake Land College Faculty Association nominated Black for the award.
Black said her fondest memory was how much friendlier the students were than at other places she has taught. On her first day at Lake Land College, Black recalled a student holding a door open for her, something that had not happened previously in her teaching. Read More

•May 27, 2020•
Reflecting the trying times we are enduring, an oil painting titled “War Paints” by Red Hill High School’s Lydia Higgins has been selected as the winner of the 2020 Congressional Art Competition for the 15th District of Illinois, Congressman John Shimkus (R, Illinois-15) has announced.
“Lydia’s technique certainly stood out in her piece. It is a worthy champion to wrap up my final art contest,” said Shimkus, who is retiring from Congress at the conclusion of his current term.
Lydia Higgins, Red Hill High School,
“War Paints,” oil painting Read More

25 Years Ago This Week

A tornado ripped through Bethany at 9:45 p.m. Tuesday mowing down fields south of the business district.
“You know they say it sounds like a train,” Kathy Steimel said. “Well that’s just how it was.”
The tornado drove right through the Steimel farm, blowing a shed to pieces and collapsing the barn but leaving their house untouched.
Not only has Sullivan native Tony Armstrong achieved something for himself, but he’s brought academic bragging rights of the area to his own high school as well.
Armstrong is the lone student from the area and in particular, Sullivan High School, who was named to the Illinois High School Assn’s Academic Team. Read More

•May 27, 2020•
By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Since I live in a small out-of-the way county that has had one reported case of COVID-19, a second recently rumored, I have been hesitant to write about The Big Disruption in our lives. I am obviously not sharing the valiant struggles of nurses and their associates, at the side of infected patients gasping for air, most in densely populated urban centers like Chicago, or in nursing homes.
I will not gainsay or second-guess decisions made thus far by top elected officials, who are up to their eyeballs in alligators. My thoughts are about what we might learn for the future from our plight of the present.
As is typical when crises pop up, often unanticipated or undetected until too late, there has been a food fight of finger-pointing among elected officials. Governors are blaming the president. Mr. Trump is pointing his finger at everyone and anyone but himself. Congress is playing dumb, as if, “We didn’t know nuttin’.”
Yet some members of Congress knew enough to dump their stocks before the market tanked, without letting you and me in on the pending crisis. Maybe we could have been ahead of the curve instead of trying to flatten it. Read More