News Progress

•June 8, 2022•
Bird lovers may resume using backyard feeders and baths effective Wednesday, June 1, 2022, wildlife biologists at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) advised today.
IDNR originally recommended the use of bird feeders and bird baths be suspended through May 31 in response to the EA H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Illinois. Read More

•June 8, 2022•
By Jim Baumann
NP Guest Writer

Reader David Bruun wanted to talk about double negatives. I’m not uninterested in the topic, so here goes:
“I was listening to the radio several days ago, and a Realtor was being interviewed as to financing a home purchase. The exact quote was as follows: ‘It is important that you were never not late in a mortgage payment.’ There are several of us who disagree, Is this not a double negative? And what does it mean — perhaps that one was never late in a payment?”
David, it IS a double negative, and it makes no sense.
When Mick Jagger sings “I can’t get no satisfaction,” the implication is not that he is 100% happy but that he can’t get ANY satisfaction.
He’s being colloquial, and he landed upon a word that was one syllable short of “any” so the lyric matched the beat. When I wrote that I’m “not uninterested” in the topic of double negatives, I was conveying a modest amount of interest rather than an all-consuming love for them. Read More

•June 1, 2022•
By Jerry Nowicki
Capitol News Illinois

The six Republican candidates for Illinois governor faced off Tuesday night in Chicago, albeit on two separate debate stages, hours after a shooting at a Texas elementary school that dominated a large portion of the debates.
A scheduling conflict between two TV networks – WGN and NBC 5 – had the candidates split into groups of three, with the NBC debate beginning at 6 p.m. and the WGN debate starting immediately after it at 7 p.m.

NBC’s debate included Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, the polling and money frontrunner, along with former Waterloo state Sen. Paul Schimpf and suburban attorney Max Solomon. The WGN debate that followed included Sen. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, Petersburg venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan and suburban paving magnate Gary Rabine. Read More

•June 1, 2022•
Summer vacations were once an annual tradition for millions of families across the globe. Warm weather getaways to idyllic beaches and welcoming resorts have long helped families make lasting memories, and revisiting that trend can be good for everyone.
Family vacation plans were put on the back burner during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a survey from IPX 1031®, 40 percent of respondents canceled vacation plans during the pandemic, while an additional 29 percent didn’t plan a vacation at all. But the pandemic alone cannot be blamed for people’s unwillingness to take time off from work, as pre-pandemic studies noted how professionals had increasingly begun to work longer hours and take fewer vacation days. For example, data from the U.S. Travel Association indicates that American workers failed to use 768 million vacation days in 2018. Read More