News Progress

•January 15, 2020•
Anna Fender of Sullivan, IL, has been named to the 2019 fall semester Dean’s List at Ohio Wesleyan University.
To earn Dean’s List recognition, Ohio Wesleyan students must achieve a grade point average of 3.5 or better on a 4.0 scale in all applicable classes. Read More

•January 8, 2020•
By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

In a recent column, I noted that most, not all, downstate school districts perform below statewide averages on 11th-grade English and math tests. I didn’t blame anyone, instead noting that performance is directly correlated to the household incomes within each district; the lower the average incomes, the lower the test scores. Thus it has been since I began looking at these kinds of data decades ago. As downstate school districts tend to be lower in overall household income than their suburban counterparts, scores also tend to be lower.
Another purpose was to startle downstaters — parents, community leaders, and school folks — into working harder to become at least average. Nobody likes to think of his community as “below average.” And most folks have been unaware of their situation.
But space limitations prohibited me from going further, to write about how Americans across the country appear to be sleepwalking through our own decline when it comes to education. Unfortunately, our grandchildren will pay a steep price for our provincial ignorance. Read More

•January 8, 2020•
Each year, the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires a homeless count be completed for the entire United States in January.
Why January? It is believed if some one is experiencing sleeping on the streets, in a car or in an emergency shelter, during the coldest time of the year, it is likely he has no support network and will remain homeless without assistance.
HUD uses this count to assist in determining if grant funds are effective in ending homelessness. Read More

Photo furnished

•January 8, 2020•
On Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 7:30pm, the Jupiter String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the University of Illinois, presents its winter recital in Foellinger Great Hall (500 S. Goodwin Ave). This season, the Jupiter Quartet celebrates of Beethoven’s 250th birthday year by pairing one of his quartets with some of the great composers who surrounded him over the last 250 years. For this program, the Jupiter Quartet joins Beethoven with works by Mendelssohn and Shostakovich.
Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122 is a profound and somber work, written in memory of a close colleague, the second violinist of the Beethoven Quartet. Its stark textures and solemn mood are relieved by the joy that pervades the rest of the program, which includes Beethoven’s intricate “Harp” Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74, and Mendelssohn’s brilliant String Quartet in D Major, Op. 44 No. 1.
The Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Now enjoying their 17th year together, this tight-knit ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music. The New Yorker claims, “The Jupiter String Quartet, an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” Read More

•January 8, 2020•
By Peter Hancock
Capitol News Illinois

Two of the state’s largest electric utilities owe their customers a combined $543 million in refunds, according to state regulators, but there is sharp disagreement over how much time the companies should have to pay it back.
At issue for Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison, also known as ComEd, is money they collected to pay future tax bills before federal tax cuts which took effect in 2018 lowered those anticipated rates.
When the corporate tax rate was slashed from 35 percent to 21 percent, both companies found themselves holding onto large surpluses, known as “excess deferred income taxes,” or EDIT.
For ComEd, which serves 4 million customers in Chicago and northern Illinois, the excess amounted to $385 million. For Ameren, which serves about 1.2 million customers in central Illinois and the Metro East area, it amounted to $158 million.
In a pair of rulings last year, the Illinois Commerce Commission, which regulates public utilities, said ComEd could pay off its EDIT over 38 years and Ameren could pay off its bill over 35 years. But on Monday, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced he is asking the ICC to reconsider that decision and shorten the payout period to just five years. Read More