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* Happy Friday! What’s going on in your part of Illinois?
posted by Isabel Miller
Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 7:49 am
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I read that one of the alleged spy balloons shot down last week was from a northern Illinois balloon club.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/16/mystery-object-balloon-illinois-biden-00083355
Comment by Steve Rogers Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:34 am
Rich Egger of TriStates Public Radio (91.3 Macomb) posted on their website yesterday that our local newspaper, The McDonough County Voice may soon be closing. The interior looks full of boxes and items-no people. They let go their news staff last year and lease on the space expires at the end of March. No local news has been reported in the Voice for the past 6 months.
Another publication “The Community Brief” has stepped up with a combination of a weekly print copy and 2 days a week of on line content with a modest subscription which has been great. They also distribute free flyers at local businesses during the week. It’s still very sad to lose a newspaper in a town that has had one since the mid 1800’s
Comment by Soulou Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:34 am
For those who may not know, Gannett has also abandoned and shuttered the papers in Canton, IL, Galesburg, IL, and other papers in West Central Illinois.
These papers has fiscal issues for sure. But for Gannett to buy them and then shutter them is the antithesis of journalism. And now once again, “Forgottonia” will be forgotten.
Comment by @ Soulou Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:44 am
@ Soulou was me. Sorry about the mistake
Comment by H-W Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:44 am
This week has lasted a month. Really need this three day weekend and to step away from reading bills.
Comment by Give Me A Break Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:45 am
The vast majority of homeless people have addictions, trauma, mental disease. Sure wish politicians would stop using them as a pawn against Lori Lightfoot.
Comment by Frumpy White Guy Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:46 am
Steve Rogers, CapFax had that yesterday afternoon.
Comment by very old soil Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:48 am
I learned something new this morning. It is possible to lock a key fob inside a running vehicle. New Jeep Grand Cherokee, a rental. Fob is in the back,just staring at me. I put a suitcase in vehicle and set keys down and hit the auto close before I realized I didn’t pick keys back up.
Note to self, open hatch, put keys in pocket. Roadside assistance says 90 min maybe to arrive. It’s cold up here in Elk Grove, at least can sit in the hotel while I wait.
Comment by FormerParatrooper Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:56 am
===I read that===
Coulda read that on the blog yesterday https://capitolfax.com/2023/02/16/afternoon-roundup-33/
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 8:59 am
It seems Galesburg should be big enough to support a newspaper or at least a decent newsletter, it’s around 30k people. Once upon a time even smaller towns had its own paper that employed printers, a delivery service based on child labor etc.
Why can’t the news industry which now can do without those costs survive? Or were classified ads secretly the sauce that made news survive all along back in the day?
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 9:13 am
==For those who may not know, Gannett has also abandoned and shuttered the papers in Canton, IL, Galesburg, IL, and other papers in West Central Illinois.==
As I once sadly predicted. Are they essentially being merged into the Peoria Journal-Star (which also covers Canton, Galesburg, as well as Macomb)?
Comment by Stuck in Celliniland Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 9:14 am
Mea culpa. I went home after lunch yesterday because I was sick, so I didn’t see the PM round-up.
Comment by Steve Rogers Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 9:16 am
@Rich Miller, sorry, I too was not reading yesterday afternoon. still, I’m skeptical about balloon club and the shot down one. and, why can they do this?
Comment by Amalia Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 9:19 am
Most of the area along I-74 between Peoria and Galesburg actually still have quality local journalism. The Weekly Post (Elmwood) and Prairie News (Toulon). Covering local news and sports for those areas which the Peoria Journal Star, Register Mail (Galesburg) and Star Courier (Kewanee) all used to cover (even in all 3 newspapers at the same time) but Gannett has now simply abandoned. It is a weekly paper, however.
Chatham also has a good local newspaper (Clarion), published by the same group that prints the Auburn paper (and perhaps some other small town Sangamon County weeklies). With local news that actually used to also be covered in the SJR.
Don’t forget the Illinois Times too. Maybe the IT needs to consider going to twice a week?
Comment by Stuck in Celliniland Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 9:20 am
Western Illinois loses another newspaper that has been around since the early 1800’s, which is a sad trend for news and democracy.
Comment by West Wing Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 9:25 am
FAA regulations apply to: “Any unmanned free balloon that (i) carries a payload package that weighs more than four pounds and has a weigh/size ratio of more than three ounces per square inch on any surface of the package, (ii) carries a payload package that weighs more than six pounds, (iii) carries a payload of two or more packages that weigh more than 12 pounds, or (iv) uses a rope or other device for suspension of payload that requires an impact force of more than 50 pounds to separate the payload from the balloon.” https://pilotinstitute.com/part-101/
Comment by very old soil Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 9:34 am
Dayton comes to Rogers Park to play Loyola. Sold out, but you can watch on ESPN 2 at 6 p.m.
Comment by JCT Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 9:40 am
H-W/Soulou,
The Register-Mail is still offering print subscriptions on its web site. What’s up with that?
Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 11:03 am
== is possible to lock a key fob inside a running vehicle. New Jeep Grand Cherokee, a rental. ==
This is no consolation, but somebody needs to suggest to Jeep they reprogram / recalibrate their fob system to be smarter.
At least one manufacturer, Ford, has figured it out. I once tried to do the same thing in my Lincoln. Opened hatch, put keys in jacket, took jacket off, put in cargo area. Couldn’t get hatch to close, kept pressing button. Finally remembered where I had put the key fob. Removed it, hatch closed.
Comment by RNUG Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 11:58 am
RE: Gannet … I often wonder how much longer the USAified SJR will survive here in Springfield. They’ve already moved the printing, and a lot of the reporting, to Peoria. They’ve cut out Saturday. And the news is, mostly, two days old. If it wasn’t that my wife prefers hardcopy, and I do too for at least the crossword and Sudoku, we would quite subscribing. And I agree with others, we get better in depth reporting from IT.
Comment by RNUG Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 12:06 pm
Glad I still have metal car keys for my 2003 Toyota; in the 1980’s you had to use a key on a Tercel to lock it. But hey, now they don’t put keyways on some passenger doors anymore; it’s “too expensive” and “you have a remote”. Yeah, with a key-like device that extends or folds out; whoda thunk it?
Big Corporate Media could care less about small-town journalism, either it makes money or it’s shut down and a write-off taken. And the printing and delivery/distribution costs works against them as well.
Comment by thisjustinagain Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 1:39 pm
@JCT, speaking of Rogers Park and Loyola, headed back to the burbs via the lake shore today and there’s a ton of Sophia King signs on the route. wow.
Comment by Amalia Friday, Feb 17, 23 @ 3:32 pm