News Progress

•September 20, 2023•

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has endorsed the recommendation by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the newly FDA-approved COVID-19 shots for everyone over the age of 6 months. The federal agencies have given the green light for updated mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer that target the currently circulating strains of the COVID-19 virus.

Heading into the fall, IDPH is closely monitoring data on COVID-19 as well as other respiratory viruses including flu and RSV. The federal guidance comes as data indicates an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations in Illinois and the nation, with a seven percent increase statewide in the week ending September 2, the most recent period for which data is available. There are currently 12 Illinois counties at a medium level for COVID-19 hospitalizations according to the CDC national dashboard, meaning they exceed ten new cases per 100,000 population in the last week. Read More

•September 20, 2023•

By Jim Baumann

NP Guest Writer

There are those who say “mother-in-laws” and “attorney generals” and those of us who know the “in law” and “general” are modifiers.

You wouldn’t pluralize a modifier, would you? So it should be mothers-in-law and attorneys general.

Reader Bob Anderson pointed out to me the term “femme fatales” in a recent obituary. My first thought: That must have been a spicier-than-usual obit.

Bob’s point, however, is the plural should have been ”femmes fatale,” because “femme” is the noun modified by the adjective “fatale.” Think “Your mothers-in-law are femmes fatale.”

Man, I should be writing romance novels. Read More

•September 13, 2023•

The famous story of the January 1945 liberation of Bataan Death March survivors held in the Notorious Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines will be told at the Sept. 21 meeting of the Moultrie County Historical Society. Dalace Scroggins, a Moultrie County man, was among the 100 Army Rangers and Scouts involved in the liberation. The prisoners stories of mistreatment, suffering and starvation while in the hands of the Japanese combined with the awful tales from the liberated German prison camps intensified efforts to defeat these evil regimes and end World War II. Vic  Arendell, son-in-law of Scroggins, will present the story along with that of two Moultrie men Morrison A. Wood and Edward C. Conlin who survived the death march only to die in the Philippine prison camps. The public is invited to attend the presentation on Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. at the History Center at 1303 S. Hamilton in Sullivan.