Laws from wasting deer meat to hand-held cellphone use

Photo by Keith Stewart
Arthur-Lovington High School senior Brittany Rader dials a phone number prior to buckling up and driving. With the new ban on hand-held usage of cellphones beginning this year, drivers will either have to resort to headset devices or voice-controlled applications if they want to continue to use their electronic device.

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogess.com

Its formal name is House Bill 1247 (HB1247), but to many drivers, it’s their next ticket.

Back in May of 2013, both houses approved the total ban on the hand-held usage of “electronic communication devices”–which to you and me means, largely, cellphones. Though the law also excludes hand-held personal digital assistants and portable/mobile computers, most of the attention is on cellphone usage, which now, must be hands free. The only way around the new law is to either not use your cellphone while driving or to do so with it out of your hands and with the help of bluetooth or other wireless headsets or voice controlled apps, such as Apple’s Siri. Read More

In final year of teaching, LGS instructor hosts last holiday tradition

Photo by RR Best
Lovington Grade School teacher Debbie Long reads a story to her students during her annual Christmas Tea Sunday at her home in Sullivan. Since this year marks Long’s last teaching, so will it for her holiday tradition.

by Christina Whitford
Sullivan Reporter

Growing up as a little girl in Decatur, Debbie Long always knew she wanted to dedicate her life to teaching children. With the support of her family, she was able to create a very successful career out of teaching, one that will culminate this year, her 35th.

Long followed her dreams and graduated from Illinois State University in 1978. From there she began her career teaching in Lovington in 1979.

“Ever since I can remember I wanted to teach children,” Long recalled. “I would get all the neighborhood kids and teach them in my school room in my basement. My grandpa even got me a chalk board out of an old one room school house and hung it up for me.” Read More

Photo by RR Best
A Sullivan police officer waves traffic back away from the Asa Creek bridge in Sullivan Sunday after heavy downpours caused flash flooding.

Though scattered and infrequent damage is still sustained

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Sunday’s storm, which was responsible for approximately 80 reports of tornadoes including those near the Altamont, Tuscola, and Gifford areas, left Moultrie County, by comparison, in relatively good shape.

Nonetheless, parts of the county did suffer extensive damage from what is generally believed as straight line winds. Read More

Earn performance award for 12th year

by Jake Dilley
Reporting in Sullivan

Sullivan Schools have gone above and beyond to receive the SchoolSearch 2013 Bright Star Award for the 12th time in the last 13 years.
This year, Sullivan joined 90 other Illinois school districts (out of 866 districts) in receiving the Bright Star Award, which looks at districts whose students’ academic performance ranks in the upper one third of Illinois school districts but whose expenditure per pupil ranks in the lower one-fourth of Illinois school districts for the previous school year. Read More