•November 10, 2021•
Last Wednesday, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation that children 5 to 11 years old be vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine. CDC now expands vaccine recommendations to about 28 million children in the United States in this age group and allows providers to begin vaccinating them as soon as possible. Read More

25 Years Ago This Week

Park commissioner Wayne Lindley credited two members of the England family for Sullivan’s success in landing a $98,800 grant from the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources for work in Wyman Park. Jodi England, a college student, wrote the grant for the city last summer, and her father, Griz, made the three-minute presentation to the state department earlier this fall. The amount from the state must be matched by the city either in cash or in-kind services. Work that was to be done was construction of a handicapped-accessible fishing pier, construction of an adjacent handicapped-accessible picnic shelter pavilion, a sidewalk leading to the area from the north parking lot and the construction of a 16x14 ft. building to house a snack bar and handicapped-accessible restrooms on the north side of the lake. The grant also included funds for a 40x80 building to house a snack bar, restrooms and a storage area between the south softball diamonds, lights for the new north ball diamond and a fence for the north ball diamond as well as maintenance and repair work on the shop and shed. Read More

25 Years Ago This Week

The Moultrie-Douglas Extension soybeans variety plots had been harvested. The soybean variety plot, planted by Yoder Farms on the Marvin Jones farm two and one-half miles north of Arthur, averaged 46.3 bushels per acre. Yields in the plot ranged from 40.5 to 51.5 per acre.
Sullivan High School, one of 12 schools in Moultrie, Christian and Montgomery counties competing in the sectional FFA Soil Judging Constest won the sectional with a total of 1,563 points and Shaun Casteel of Lovington, a member of the Sullivan FFA, earned the top individual score overall with 532. Also placing in the top five for Sullivan were Carrie Wildman in fourth place with 518 points followed closely by Royce Bean in fifth place with 504 points. Read More

•November 3, 2021•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

How serendipitous!
Just as I was about to start typing something/anything here today, I received an email from the good folks at Merriam-Webster with the news that they have added 455 words and definitions.
You read that right: 455.
If this isn’t evidence that language changes, I don’t know what is.
Without further ado, here is a look at some of my favorites:
• Fluffernutter
When I was in elementary school there was a boy who lived across the street and two houses down from us. We were good friends, but I don’t remember his name. What I do remember was his mother would regularly make us Fluffernutter sandwiches, which is peanut butter and marshmallow fluff on white bread. Read More

•November 3, 2021•
By Capital News Illinois

Illinois lawmakers gave final approval in the early hours of Friday morning to a new congressional redistricting plan that divides the state into 17 districts, one fewer than it currently has due to its loss of population since the 2010 U.S. Census.
It was the fourth draft plan that legislative Democrats had proposed over the previous two weeks, and it was introduced to the public after 7 p.m.
Like earlier versions, it collapses two southern Illinois districts into a single district while carving up much of downstate Illinois into a number of oddly-shaped districts that put cities as far apart as East St. Louis and Champaign into one district, with Bloomington and Rockford linked in another.
“This will be the most gerrymandered map in the country,” Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, said during floor debate. “And this process will be used as the poster child for why politicians should never be allowed to draw their own maps.” Read More