News Progress

•September 16, 2015•

Submitted by U of I Extension

The fall series of University of Illinois Extension’s Four Seasons Gardening program, which focuses on environmental stewardship and backyard food production, gets underway this month. The first session of the series is titled, Practical Weed Control. The program is offered at 1:30 p.m. September 22 in both the Coles County Extension Office, located at 707 Windsor Road, Suite A, Charleston, and the Moultrie-Douglas Extension Office, located at 122 South Walnut Street in Arthur.

This session is also available for home participation by pre-registering at http://web.extension.illinois.edu/hmrs/4seasons/ Read More

•September 9, 2015•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

The state of Illinois typically lurches from year to year, focusing on its annual budget, never looking to the horizon. At present, operating without a formal budget as Gov. Rauner and Speaker Madigan wage their war of political attrition, the state is operating month to month, even day to day, as the courts step in to tell Comptroller Leslie Munger which bills to pay and when.

Given our grim budgetary situation and sullied state reputation, we almost desperately need to do some long-term thinking about Illinois, or we may crash. We don’t know where we are going.

I still recall from a 1970s book the lament of then North Carolina governor Terry Sanford that there is no one in the governor’s office whose only job is to gaze out the window and brood about the problems of the future.

More recently, former governor Jim Edgar told a group of up-and-coming Illinois leaders that, “Once you come into the governor’s office, there is no time for ‘the vision thing.’”

To put a point on Edgar’s remark, I remember when I was helping with the transition of new governor Jim Thompson into office in 1976, his chief of staff came into my office late one afternoon. He slumped in a chair and sighed that he had 400 telephone message slips(!) on his desk from mostly influential people who wanted something or to tell Thompson how he should run things. Read More

•September 2, 2015•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Some readers might think this column a tad eccentric. I like to call it “thinking outside the box.”

I propose a plan for Illinois to dramatically increase volunteerism for the state’s educational and social services, as a way of picking up some of the slack that results from state budget cuts.

Here’s the situation. Illinois will be figuratively toting an anvil on its back for the coming decades, represented by the $110 billion, or probably more, in unfunded pension liabilities.

To right the situation, which the state high court has ruled must be done, will require about $7 billion off the top of each year’s state budget. That is equal to almost two percentage points in the rate of the individual income tax. The rate now stands at 3.75 percent but will later in the year, I predict, go up to about 4.75 percent to balance the budget for the coming year.

As a result of budget shortfalls over recent years, there have been cutbacks in funding for social services and a woeful failure to meet what the state’s own experts say is the minimal amount of funding necessary to provide an adequate education. Read More

•August 19, 2015•

by Mary Hughes
Moultrie County Dove Inc., Outreach Coordinator

Studies consistently report victims are at a 75% higher risk of serious injuries and/or death once the victim has decided to end a relationship and/or while they are trying to leave.   The abuser believes he no longer has the power to get the victim back and under his control.  This is the most dangerous time for the victim and her children.   Although no one can accurately predict when or if a batterer will kill or escalate violence to a life threatening level, there are many indicators that can serve as warning signs that a batterer may be reaching that level.  It is important to note that while these indicators are a valuable assessment tool, the presence or absence of one or more indicators cannot definitively predict the behavior of a batterer.

The most important indication of life-threatening violence is the victim’s perception of her danger.  If the woman is very afraid and says she will be killed or may be killed, then the possibility of life-threatening violence is present.  National experts on domestic violence state that battered women are usually the best evaluators of the potential for lethal violence because they generally have more information about the batterer than anyone other than the batterer himself.  At the present time it appears that the best approach to screening for life-threatening violence is a combination of the women’s perspective and the domestic violence advocate’s assessment.

As long as the perception exists that the victims’ reluctance is the problem, efforts will be focused around what the victim should and should not do.  The question frequently asked is “How can we get victims to cooperate better?”  But that is the wrong question to ask since it is not likely to lead to greater perpetrator accountability or victim safety.  The questions most likely to lead to effective, long term solutions are:  “What can be done to hold perpetrators accountable? And who is in the best position to do that?” Read More

A Message From Dove, Inc.

•August 5, 2015•

by Mary Hughes
Moultrie County Dove Inc., Outreach Coordinator

Domestic violence is when one person in a relationship purposely hurts another person physically and/or emotionally. Domestic violence is also called intimate partner violence because it often is caused by a husband, ex-husband, boyfriend or ex-boyfriend. Women can also be abusers. Domestic abuse strikes couples of all races, religions, social economic status and sexual orientation. Warning signs for individuals to consider if they suspect they are the victim of intimate partner violence include feeling demeaned, assaulted or excessively controlled by their partner. Domestic violence is a cycle with three phases. In phase one there is increased tension, anger, blaming and arguing (walking on egg shells). In phase two there is an explosion with hitting, slapping, and kicking, strangling, use of weapons, sexual abuse and verbal threats. In phase three the abuser may deny the abuse and or say he is sorry and that it will never happen again. Most victims do not recognize the cycle of abuse because they minimize and deny the abuse on a daily basis so they can cope. Statistics show that a victim may leave her abuser five to seven times before she is successful at staying away. There are many reasons for this including being sabotaged by the abuser, pressure from her family and or church, lack of finances, lack of support from the community, lack of accountability by the criminal justice system and hope. Hope that the abuser will change, hope that she can keep their family together and hope that the violence will stop. Domestic violence affects our whole community including our children. As a community we must take a stand and send the message that domestic violence will not be tolerated. That message then needs to be upheld by our criminal justice system including our police department, sheriff’s department, state’s attorney and our judges. Domestic violence is a learned behavior and without holding the abusers accountable and providing support and education to victims the cycle will continue. Read More