•July 24, 2019•
With high temperatures trending in recent weeks, those spending time outside should know the signs that they are getting overheated and need to get out of the elements.
“There are about two and a half patients out of 100,000 who seek care for heat related illness,” said Dr. John Rinker, Chief Medical Officer, OSF HealthCare Saint James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center. “Certainly in the summer months it’s more common. You’ll see it a lot more surrounding people participating in high risk activities: people that play sports, so think high school kids who are otherwise healthy, but they’re doing two-a-day football practices or they’re playing baseball out in the summer. They are certainly at higher risk for heat exhaustion.”
According to Dr. John Rinker, Chief Medical Officer at OSF HealthCare Saint James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac, it’s important to not only recognize the risk factors and symptoms of heat-related illness and injury, but what to do if you start exhibiting them as well. Read More

•July 24, 2019•

The Dine with a Doc®-Sullivan is scheduled for 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. August 6 at the Max J. Knight Community Building Banquet Hall (at Mason Point) located at One Masonic Way in Sullivan. Read More

Midwest, Illinois needs to get their act together

•July 24, 2019•
By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Many rural Midwest towns have become like my stereotype of Appalachia – main streets of mostly empty storefronts; lots of unskilled folks left behind, yearning for jobs “on the line” that are gone forever; too many single mothers struggling to make it on low-wage work, or welfare, lacking the time or know-how to nurture high educational expectations in their children.
Small town decline began at least a century ago, when farm families exchanged horse and wagon for the Model T. They could thus bypass the nearby village and its tiny general store, and head for farm-market towns of 1,000 to 3,000 or so folks, with their greater offerings.
Old duffers like me remember growing up in these towns post-WWII, when parking was hard to find on Saturday evenings. Farm wives bustled in and out of the long row of main street shops, buying, and maybe even bartering fresh eggs for some credit. The municipal band tootled in the park. It was a great time and place to grow up.
My town, and hundreds like it, have now been bypassed for small cities like Princeton, with 7,000 or more folks. These places tend to have a hospital, a good grocery, a couple of big box stores, and maybe better schools than the rural towns. Read More