Category Archives: News Briefs

Filing Taxes Just Got (A Little Bit) Easier

News Progress Posted on by

•March 30, 2016•

By Gerald Tilley
Social Security District Manager in Decatur, IL

Now that it’s March, your annual tax filing deadline is fast approaching. If you receive Social Security benefits, one of the documents you need to file your federal income tax return is your Social Security Benefit Statement (Form SSA-1099/1042S).

Your Social Security benefits may be taxable. This includes monthly retirement, survivor, and disability benefits. About one-third of people receiving Social Security benefits must pay taxes on some of these benefits, depending on the amount of their taxable income. This usually happens if you have other substantial income — such as wages, self-employment, interest, dividends, and other taxable income that must be reported on your tax return — in addition to your Social Security benefits. You will never have to pay taxes on more than 85 percent of your Social Security benefits, based on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules. Read More

Lovington Public Library April News

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•March 30, 2016•

The Reading Redbirds Book Club meets 3:45-4:45 p.m. Monday April 4 and 18

The club is for fourth-eighth graders and is a very busy group that likes to volunteer for jobs at the library too. Bring a book to discuss at our next meeting.

Wee Readers Story Time for preschool children starting at 2 years of age meets each Thursday from 10-10:30 a.m. Schedule is April 7-“Signs of Spring”, April 14-“What Makes a Rainbow”, April 21-“Earth Day/Worms”, and April 28-“Butterflies”.

Adults are welcome to stop by the Lovington Public Library and relax for an hour each Friday with coloring and meeting new people in the community. Coloring materials are furnished. Dates and times are 4-5 p.m. Friday April 1, 8, 22 and 29 and 2-3 p.m. April 15.

A beginners quilters class is being offered by Rachel Kinney at the library in two separate classes. The class, offered to fourth-eighth graders, will meet 10-11 a.m. Saturday April 9 and 16, and a pre-registration is required with a limit of six participants. Interested youth are asked to register at the library prior to the first class time and date. The class is free and all supplies will be provided. Read More

Nightmusic at Millikin

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•March 30, 2016•

Chamber brass group Nightmusic will perform in concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31, in Kaeuper Hall, Perkinson Music Center, on Millikin University’s campus. The concert is free and open to the public.

Based in Champaign, Nightmusic is dedicated to excellence in chamber brass performance and cultivating a diverse audience through collaboration and theatricality. The group performs on a wide variety of cylindrical brass instruments, resulting in a flexible instrumentation and unique sound.  Read More

Writing Project EIU Fall Institute Day

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•March 30, 2016•

Teachers, administrators and interested students are invited to attend the Eastern Illinois Writing Project/Teaching with Primary Sources at EIU Fall Institute Day Friday, October 14 on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

The Eastern Illinois Writing Project and Teaching with Primary Sources Project will present the annual Institute Day, titled “Beyond Pro and Con: Motivating Productive Arguments” from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

This year’s Institute Day will focus on teaching argument reading and writing across disciplines and the English Language Arts Common Core Standards. The Eastern Illinois University Teaching with Primary Source Project is co-sponsoring the event. Teachers from across disciplines and grade levels will share teaching ideas in multiple breakout sessions, maintaining a teachers teaching teachers model to creatively meet the Common Core Standards.

To highlight this interdisciplinarity across grade levels, the keynote speakers will be Dr. Tim Taylor and Dr. Fern Kory, EIU professors representing writing across the curriculum. Their workshop and discussion will highlight new ways of approaching argument. These events will address what Dominic Delli Carpini calls “Real research” that is motivated by a “sincere need to learn more about a topic so as to speak or write credibly about it, and to draw substantive and reasonable conclusions; finding information is a means to that end” (306). Read More

Remember When? 3-30-2016

News Progress Posted on by

Compiled by Bekki Ferguson-Stevens

25 Years Ago This Week

Four Moultrie County women represented the Moultrie County Homemakers Extension Assn. at the annual meeting of the Illinois Homemakers Extension Federation held recently in Champaign. Ruby Christy and Nancy Kuhns, both of Sullivan, served as voting delegates. Other delegates included Martha Shroyer of Lovington and Rosemary Wood of Sullivan. A watercolor by Nancy Burcham of Sullivan was a part of the cultural arts display at the conference.

More than 3,000 eggs were found in less than four minutes by the children who participated in the 30th annual Kiwanis Easter Egg Hunt in Wyman Park. Winners in the 2 and 3 year-old age group were Jennifer Stark, Alisha Utsler, Jonathan Scott and Cody Owens, and winners in the 4 and 5 year-old age group were Andrew Wilson,Michelle Manning, Emily Schoonover and Whitney Carnes.

In the 6 and 7 year-old age group winners were Michael Adams, Alex Aitken, Jennifer Roberts and Dane White, and the winners in the 8 and 9 year-old age group were Krista Boyce, Cory Wilson, Brook Coy and Dylan Dudley.

Top window displays for 1991 Moultrie County 4-H Week were recently announced. Windows were designed around the theme “4-H— New Horizons in 91.” First place went to The Sunnyside Flea Flickers of Bethany. Banner Blue of Lovington received second place followed by The Clover Kids and Moultrie Maids of Sullivan. Read More

Moultrie-Douglas Farm Bureau Keeps Busy Schedule

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•March 30, 2016•

By Tyler Harvey
Douglas-Moultrie Farm Bureau Manager

With spring right around the corner, it has been a busy time for both the Moultrie and Douglas County Farm Bureaus. The Moultrie County Farm Bureau attended their District 11 meeting Thursday, March 3 in Decatur.

For this district meeting, we were able to tour the Caterpillar plant in Decatur. The tour was well attended by all the counties that comprise District 11 which include Moultrie, Macon, Piatt, Dewitt, Christian, and Shelby counties.

The Moultrie County Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom recently visited the fifth graders at Sullivan Elementary School and gave a presentation on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) also known as drones.

Clint Robinson, MCFB board director, presented to the classroom and showed the students the very drone he uses on his farm. This technology is rapidly becoming very common in agriculture and has many uses including many uses in the field. The AITC program will be going to other schools to present to other students. The annual Farm Tour will also be coming up for the Moultrie County Farm Bureau at Mike and Joel Reedy’s farm. Please look in next month’s article for an update on this event.  Read More

Serve Illinois Encourages Mayors and County Executives to Help Recognize National Service

News Progress Posted on by

•March 30, 2016•

More than 3,000 participating officials will mark April 5 as the Mayors and County Recognition Day for National Service. As of the date of this release, 98 mayors and county executives in Illinois have signed on to participate. On April 5 mayors and county executives will hold public events and use traditional and social media to highlight the value of national service to the nation’s cities. Last year, 2,786 mayor and county officials representing more than 150 million citizens in all 50 states participated in the third-annual Mayors and County Recognition Day for National Service. The initiative is being led by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the National League of Cities, Cities of Service and the Statewide Commissions, including Serve Illinois. Read More

Eastern Illinois Foodbank Foodmobile Distribution at VFW

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•March 30, 2016•

Camp Farm Management and Eastern Illinois Foodbank are teaming up to distribute a truckload of food from the Eastern Illinois Foodbank to hungry area families.

The distribution will be held at Sullivan VFW located at 1146 State Highway 32 in Sullivan 10-11:30 a.m. April 16. All Moultrie County residents who meet income eligibility criteria are welcome.

Those attending are asked to bring bags or boxes to transport food. A representative from Eastern Illinois Foodbank will be present to assist families and individuals interested in applying for SNAP benefits. Read More

Lincoln and His Times Come to Effingham

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•March 30, 2016•

The Effingham County Cultural Center and Museum Association (ECCCMA) and Lake Land College are once again partnering to offer the second annual Celebration of Lincoln and His Times. The program topic this year will be “The Election of 1860”.

The presentation will take place on the second floor of the Effingham County Courthouse Museum at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 14. The event is free and open to the public. Doors will open at 6 p.m. to allow attendees the chance to look at the various displays, especially the Lincoln displays. Musicians from the Illinois Old Time Fiddlers Association will perform at 6:30 p.m. Read More