Lady Braves Take Sullivan at Home

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•December 2, 2015• Sullivan Lady Redskins met a tough Mt. Zion Lady Braves team at home November 30. Mt. Zion won 50-37 over the Sullivan team. Coach Sheri McCain pointed out the rebounding will have to improve. “I do know the ones who start taking pride in rebounding will be our varsity starters,” Coach McCain said. Lizzie Green was the leading rebounder with seven. She also contributed five field goals for 10 points. Green had two steals and led with assists at seven. “Every time we did something well offensively, we would turn around and make mistakes defensively,” McCain continued … Read More

Sparrows Annual Auction is This Weekend

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•December 2, 2015• The Sparrows Unlimited Inc. annual auction will be held at Jerry’s East End in Lovington at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, December 5. Sparrows main objective yearly is to raise money to buy Christmas presents and coats for children of Lovington whose families may be in need of assistance. This year more than 115 children will receive a better Christmas because of the generosity of the Lovington community. … Read More

Thinking About Health: Medicare Makes It Easier for Doctors To Offer End-of-Life Counseling

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•December 2, 2015• By Trudy Lieberman Rural Health News Service What a difference six years makes! In 2009 at the height of the debate on the Affordable Care Act, New York’s former lieutenant government Betsy McCaughey appeared on television and made this startling remark: “Congress would make it mandatory-absolutely require-that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner.” McCaughey said the proposed law would help the elderly learn how to “decline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go in to hospice care…all to do what’s … Read More

Okaw Valley Teaches Drone Technology

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•December 2, 2015• By Derek Pope For the News Progress Agricultural technology has undeniably come a long way since its humble beginnings, perhaps more so in recent decades than at any other time in its history. But this year could mark the advent of one particular technological wonder in agriculture that, before now, hadn’t quite taken off—the drone. With Moultrie County being the seat of some of the best farming in Illinois, it only seems appropriate that Okaw Valley High School’s ag department is poised to make the most of this emerging commercial technology. Thanks to a grant from the … Read More

Obituaries 12-2-2015: Richard Lucas

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Richard Lucas Funeral services for Richard Wayne Lucas, 77, of Shelbyville were held at 2 p.m. Sunday in Howe and Yockey Funeral Home in Shelbyville. Burial was in Glenwood Cemetery in Shelbyville. He died at 9:05 a.m. Wednesday Nov. 25, 2015 in Eastview Terrace in Sullivan. … Read More

Civil War Historian Reflects on the Soldier’s Life

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•December 2, 2015• By Nick Fiala for the News Progress The Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society’s annual dinner at the First United Methodist Church in Sullivan featured guest speaker Gary Blessman of Minnesota. Blessman is a Civil War historian who recently authored a book on the 126th Illinois Infantry Regiment of Illinois, entitled Three Years Off the Farm. His great-great-grandfather, Edwin R. Grubbs of Hillsboro, was a private in Company D of that regiment. Blessman began his research for what became Three Years Off the Farm in 2010. After the passing of his  last maternal aunt, Blessman’s family stumbled … Read More

Understanding Illinois: State Suffers from Rauner-Madigan Machismo

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•December 2, 2015• By Jim Nowlan NP Guest Columnist Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan are taking themselves way too seriously over the state budget impasse—and in the process (or lack of it) they are seriously messing with the lives of seniors, the mentally ill, domestic abuse victims, and college students. We can help resolve the stand-off by putting pressure on our local lawmakers to force their leaders to craft a budget now—if the lawmakers have the courage to stand up to their bosses. I participated this past week on a panel discussion in Aurora on the … Read More

Harnessing Nature in Medicine at Lake Land College

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•December 2, 2015• Lake Land College Library to present National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibit: From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry The Lake Land College Library will host the National Library of Medicine’s most recent traveling exhibit, From DNA to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry, throughout the month of January. The exhibit will be housed on the main level of the Judge Learning Resource Center on the Lake Land College campus, 5001 Lake Land Blvd., Mattoon. This exhibition explores some of the processes, problems and potentials inherent in technologies that use life and how … Read More

Director Retires, Prairie Winds Blow On

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•December 2, 2015• For 30 amazing years Virginia Darnell directed the Prairie Winds from Sullivan as they performed for seniors in Moultrie, Douglas, Shelby and Coles counties. Last week Virginia directed her final performance at Courtyard Estates in Sullivan, announcing it was time to step aside and do other things. Darnell, Theresa Shaw, Anna Ruscin, and Mike Grose are all retiring from the group with a dinner reception in their honor set for Monday, December 7 at the First Christian Church in Sullivan. While working as activity director at an area nursing home in 1986, Darnell noticed the folks there … Read More