News Progress

•March 16, 2016•

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is reminding small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses and private nonprofit organizations in Illinois that April 12, 2016 is the deadline to apply for a working capital disaster loan due to excessive rain and flooding beginning on June 1, 2015.

The loans are available in all counties in Illinois except for Lake; the counties of Clinton, Des Moines, Jackson, Lee, Louisa, Muscatine and Scott in Iowa; and Cape Girardeau, Clark, Jefferson, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Mississippi, Perry, Pike, Ralls, Saint Charles, Saint Louis, Saint Louis City, Sainte Genevieve and Scott in Missouri.

“When the Secretary of Agriculture issues a disaster declaration to help farmers recover from damages and losses to crops, the Small Business Administration issues a declaration to eligible entities affected by the same disaster,” said Frank Skaggs, director of SBA’s Field Operations Center East in Atlanta. Read More

Photos furnished

•March 16, 2016•

Okaw Valley February students of the month are junior Brianna Casias, daughter of Paula Clardy and Jamie Casias and senior Nic Brown, son of Mari Brown.

Casias plans to graduate in December of 2016 and then attend Lake Land College for two years before transferring to St. John’s in Springfield for a nursing degree.

Brown’s plans include going to Lake Land College to get a degree in broadcasting.

•March 16, 2016•

Multimedia artist John Borden Gabb will conduct Sullivan Art Club’s first workshop of the 2016 season Saturday, March 19.

The workshop will be held at St. Columcille Church hall located on the east end of the church at the corner of W. Jackson and McClellan streets. There is a dedicated entrance to the hall adjacent to the parking lot.

Gabb hails from the Effingham area and is the owner of Brush Hill Gallery. Many of his works which are vibrant and colorful are in private collections in the United States and abroad.  Read More

•March 16, 2016•

The Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond (ALAH) FFA Alumni Chapter will begin offering scholarships this spring.

The scholarships are available to students who are entering either their first or second year of post-secondary education at a trade school, junior college, or university.

Students do not need to be agriculture majors to receive a scholarship.  Read More

•March 16, 2016•

By Trudy Lieberman
Rural Health News Service

Not many of us think about needing air ambulances. We don’t dwell on that possibility, but for people hurt in car accidents or who live in smaller or rural communities without medical care at hand, being airlifted to a hospital can mean the difference between life and death.

Increasingly, the service also can mean the difference between getting well at a price you can afford or at a price that could push you over a financial cliff. Air ambulances have become the centerpiece of a nationwide dispute over balance billing, a practice that requires unsuspecting families, even those with good insurance, to pay a large part of the bill.

In Nebraska a woman who was injured when her van rolled on a gravel road found herself with a $44,000 air ambulance bill. Her insurance paid most of the bill. A North Dakota man who got a $67,300 bill from a company that transported his wife to the Mayo Clinic had to pay more than $50,000 out of pocket. In Ohio, a man filed for bankruptcy because he owed $22,000 to an air ambulance company, which had placed a lien on his home. Read More