News Progress

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

•July 29, 2015•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest  Columnist

The relative handful who follow Illinois politics closely are captivated by the unresolved mano a mano tussle between Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Mike Madigan over the failure to enact a state budget.

The policy outcome is not in much doubt: a somewhat trimmed budget and a bump back up in the income or other taxes, to be hammered out sometime before Labor Day.

The open question is whether Rauner will, as part of the deal, achieve any of his “turnaround agenda” of business-friendly changes and votes on term limits and redistricting reform.

A related, more beguiling matter for political junkies is which combatant will come out of this adjudged the winner.

As a friend once observed, politics is “football without muscles,” so we love the political game going on.

At the moment, most of my political friends seem to think (worry?) that Speaker Madigan, the wily veteran, has the upper hand with Rauner, the feisty newcomer. But we are still in the early rounds of this contest, if I may mix metaphors.

To get an assessment of how the fight is playing out, I meandered from my home office in Toulon down the main drag to Connie’s Country Kitchen, the fount of all wisdom. Read More

•July 22, 2015•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

The overtime budget battles going on right now in Illinois and many other states are largely caused by relentless increases in health care costs that for decades have been growing faster than the tax revenues to pay for them. And it is only going to get worse, as the Baby Boom Generation moves into old age, where they will devour health care.
As a child in about 1950, I recall coming home from grade school with a flyer that encouraged my parents to buy health insurance for me at $1 per month from a new company called Blue Cross. Back then, few had coverage, and the cost to society of health care was modest.
But all that has changed, dramatically. For example, where is the commercial growth in your nearest city? At the hospitals, I will bet, which are also often the largest employers in town. And what occupations do you encourage your children and grandchildren to enter? Again, health care, I’ll wager, as that’s where the jobs are. Read More

•July 15, 2015•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

I have long lamented that I don’t know how things work—electricity, telephone, computers, Internet. Guess I was never stimulated into such discoveries by my science teacher, who himself probably didn’t know how things worked.
This past week, however, I visited a path-breaking new public elementary school that is all about learning how things work. I had been told about the place by an impressed educator friend who said, “Nowlan, you gotta see this place.”
The John Dunham STEM Partnership School is located on the campus of Aurora University, in the rustbelt city of same name on the western edge of Chicagoland. For 200 3rd to 8th graders from surrounding, often gritty public schools, the school is devoted full-time to exciting youngsters about science, technology, engineering and math. Read More

•July 8, 2015•

by Jerry Ginther
NP Columnist

From the second floor of the yard office I could hear the low rumble of diesel locomotives idling in the train yard below. One was the yard engine that a short time earlier had finished putting together a southbound freight. The other was the three unit engine consist of the freight train readying for its departure from Wisconsin Street Yard in Indianapolis. This was my first regular job for the Illinois Central Railroad. One of the telegraph operators had recently retired leaving an opening on the afternoon, 4 p.m. to midnight shift.
The blackness of night had settled over the yard two hours earlier. Now, all that was visible on the train were the lights along the sides of the coupled units as they sat motionless in the dark. The yard engine crew had come into the yard office to acquire updated switch lists from the yard clerk. After completion of the assembly of the outbound freight, the yard tracks would now be void of those cars. These changes made it necessary for the switch crew to get updates on what cars remained, their destinations, and on which tracks they were located. They surveyed the new lists as they waited for the outbound freight to clear the yard track it was occupying.
The outbound train crew had been in my office, picked up the train orders, clearances and messages of instructions, which I had stapled together in two sets for the crew members on both ends of the train. Each one had checked his watch with the standard clock on the wall and compared the time with each other. Finally, they checked the register to be sure that all superior trains due Wisconsin Street Yard had arrived or left. Read More