Riverbender 🕸

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart has announced it ended its mask mandate for fully vaccinated employees and will end its daily health screenings and paid COVID-19 leave. The company said fully vaccinated employees will not be required to wear masks at any Walmart or Sam’s Club facility effective immediately unless required by a state or local mandate or ordinance. The company describes fully vaccinated as having the full two-dose regimen of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The company said unvaccinated employees will be required to continue wearing masks until further notice.

Continue Reading

OTTOWA - Clutter is all around us. It’s the clothes scattered throughout the kids’ bedrooms, stacks of paperwork piled high on our desks at work, even fast food wrappers strewn around in the backseat of the car. While society may lead us to believe that we need more “stuff” to make us happy, in reality it’s making us more anxious, frazzled and often times depressed. “I look at clutter in two different ways," says Loni Nolte, a behavioral medicine provider for OSF HealthCare. "I look at the clutter we carry around in our heads, when our thoughts are racing and overwhelming to us. I also look at it as the physical component when we have stuff hanging around needlessly, overtaking our functional space – a counter where we need to cook, a sink where we need to be able to use water and worst case people storing stuff in their ovens, which is pretty scary to think about. When we get busier or we have emotional attachments that aren’t feeling

Continue Reading

PEORIA - The latest surge in COVID-19 cases is easing across Illinois and other parts of the Midwest, but the arguments around wearing masks to curb the spread of the virus rage on. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced February 9 the state’s indoor mask mandate in most public places will be lifted at the end of the month, but will remain in place for schools for the time being. Some school districts across the state have taken the matter into their own hands, filing a lawsuit saying local boards of education should have the say on whether to require kids and staff to mask while at school. A judge in central Illinois issued a temporary restraining order in favor of those districts Feb. 4, striking a major blow against masking and COVID-19 vaccination requirements in schools. The Pritzker administration has since filed for an appeal. Among the arguments made by those who filed the lawsuit are claims that requiring masks does nothing to curb the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Continue Reading

Our Love Story: The Couple: Justin and Taylor from Brighton Date Met/Started Dating: October 8, 2011 Briefly Describe First Date: Dinner and Runescape until 4 am. Date Married: November 8, 2015 Name Something You Enjoy Doing Together: Spending time with our kids, xbox, and movie nights. Share Advice For A Happy Relationship: If he can't out DPS you, he’s not the one.

Continue Reading

Our Love Story: The Couple: Michael & Haley from Wood River Date Met/Started Dating: January 1, 2015 Briefly Describe First Date: We went to Pizza Hut in California. Date Married: September 17, 2016 Name Something You Enjoy Doing Together: We love going fishing and spending time with our fur babies. Share Advice For A Happy Relationship: Never stop believing in one another it’s never just the partner's job you have to work together. When times get tough lean on one another and pray together.

Continue Reading

Our Love Story: The Couple: Taylor & Erica from Jerseyville Date Met/Started Dating: April 20, 2014 Briefly Describe First Date: After 3 months of spending every day together, he finally took me on a date to Applebees followed by a trip to the movies. Date Married: March 5, 2019 Name Something You Enjoy Doing Together: Cruising backroads, making the wildest plans for our future, planning our dream home all while raising 3 beautiful, brilliant humans. (2, 4, & 6 years old) Share Advice For A Happy Relationship: Marry your best friend.

Continue Reading

URBANA – A properly constructed and maintained water well can provide many years of trouble-free service, but over time, wells can deteriorate or become damaged, allowing surface contaminants to enter the water in the well. In addition, groundwater can become contaminated. Safe drinking water is crucial. Public water systems must monitor water’s safety at least monthly. For private well owners, testing falls on the homeowner. University of Illinois Extension's Doug Gucker recommends annual inspections and testing. "Spring is the best time to test your well’s water," Gucker says. Illinois receives its largest amounts of rainfall from April through June. During periods of higher rainfall, surface water may pick up contaminants, such as bacteria, nitrates, or pesticides. "If the upper part of your well has any cracks or leaks, this contaminated water could find its way into your well," says Gucker. "Additionally, you should test the well’s water after the wel

Continue Reading

COLLINSVILLE - With spring approaching, that means planting season is right around the corner. Learn more about gardening and how to prepare your garden during our Weekend Gardener virtual event, held on Saturday, March 5, 2022. The topics discussed will include Extending Your Harvest, Container Gardening with Fruit, Thinking Beyond Flower Color in the Garden, and IPollinate Project. Learn about different techniques to help extend the gardening season into colder months, the pros and cons of container gardening, which fruit species are best suited to container gardening, and general management practices. Presentations will begin at 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, and noon. You may participate in all or selected individual sessions. The registration deadline is February 28, 2022. To register, head to go.illinois.edu/WeekendGardener . For more details, please contact the Extension office at 619-344-4230. If you need disability accommodations to participate in this program, please call the

Continue Reading

GILLESPIE - Libraries are a community’s source of information and all libraries take this job and develop it in various directions. Libraries use books, encyclopedias, magazines, the internet as sources of information. Some libraries have an “in-depth” collection of genealogical and historical materials. These libraries are blessed with a larger budget and space to house these materials. The Gillespie Public Library has a limited amount of these materials yet is often contacted to see if there is information about persons buried in the Gillespie City Cemetery. Until recently, the library could unfortunately not provide much help to these people, some of whom had traveled quite some distance. The Gillespie City Cemetery was established around the same time the city was, around 1853. Records of who was buried there, and where, were not kept accurately by any one source. Sometime in the ’90s the local genealogical group attempted to remedy this and started a list

Continue Reading

Over the last 96 years, the escapades of Al Capone, Chicago's legendary gangster and mob boss, became inescapably entangled with the legends and lore of Route 66. After all, Capone rose to fame – or infamy – during the mid-1920s, and U.S. Highway 66 was born as part of the federal numbered highway system in 1926. But more importantly, Chicago was the designated original eastern terminus (at Jackson Boulevard and South Michigan Avenue) of Route 66, and the City of Chicago was Capone's adopted home city. Sitings of Capone and his associates were commonplace along the length of Illinois' highways, especially between Chicago and St. Louis, during the Prohibition years (1920-1933). Illegal booze manufactured in carefully-hidden stills ruled the underworld and made deadly enemies of rival gangs. The SMC Cartage Company garage at 2122 Clark Street in Chicago stood three miles north of Route 66, but the horrific event that took place there on Valentine's Day in 1929 became part o

Continue Reading

COLLINSVILLE – An Illinois State Police (ISP) District 11 Trooper arrested Juan Martin Mercado, a 30-year old male from Peoria, who was wanted for questioning for Predatory Criminal Sexual Abuse involving a 14-year-old female and was also a suspect in a parental abduction of a five-year-old female. On February 12, 2022, ISP District 11 communications received a call from the Peoria Police Department about trying to locate a GMC Yukon that was driven by Mercado. At approximately 3:02 a.m., a District 11 Trooper observed a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle in question and conducted a traffic stop on Interstate 70 near Packers Avenue in St. Clair County. The driver, Juan Martin Mercado was taken into custody without incident and the five-year-old female was taken into protective custody. Mercado was transported to District 11 headquarters and custody was turned over to the Peoria Police Department. The juvenile is in the process of being reunited with her loved ones.

Continue Reading

GREENVILLE - Illinois State Police provided more details late Friday about a Thursday night area homicide and an ongoing investigation. At 7:24 p.m. on Thursday, February 10, 2022, Illinois State Police (ISP) District 11 and ISP Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Zone 8 agents were responding to the 600 block of East South Street in Greenville, IL where a 37-year-old female from Greenville was found deceased after a reported shooting. ISP said it was later learned that moments before the homicide, a red Dodge Challenger, was believed to be involved in a separate shooting and fled the scene. A 33-year-old male that was in the area when the fatal shooting occurred went to the residence of an acquaintance in the 500 block of East Main Street in Greenville, IL. At approximately 9:06 p.m. Thursday, a vehicle matching the description of the red Dodge Challenger was seen in Wood River. The vehicle failed to stop for the Wood River Police Department and a pursuit involving multiple agencie

Continue Reading

Our Love Story: The Couple: Codie & Brittany from Godfrey Date Met/Started Dating: March 13, 2009 Briefly Describe First Date: Dinner and a movie Date Married: August 29, 2020 Name Something You Enjoy Doing Together: Getting on the Motorcycle and taking long rides around the Riverbend and Piasa area, trips to Florida. Share Advice For A Happy Relationship: Be open with each other, communicate and love one another unconditionally.

Continue Reading

KEWANEE - Pregnancy can be a magical experience for moms and dads-to-be. It can also be a scary time as you prepare to bring a new life into the world. Taking care of yourself during a pregnancy plays a crucial role in the overall health and well-being of your newborn. The first question many women might have when they find out they are pregnant is: Where do I start? “I generally like to start with trying to make sure they are eating a healthy, well-balanced diet – so trying to aim to get five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every day. While all of us should be doing that at baseline, it’s extremely important in a pregnancy as well to help supply the baby with the nutrients that are needed as well as mom. And try to make sure that we are hydrated – so drinking plenty of water every day. Most women are going to end up needing increased intake of water during the pregnancy because it is much easier for them to get dehydrated,” says Dr. Haley Ralph,

Continue Reading

PEORIA - As we continue to weather this winter season, and as outdoor activities are few and far between, health care professionals want to remind you to keep moving, despite the season. According to a large-scale s tudy published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), inactivity can be worse for you than smoking, diabetes or having heart disease. Researchers studied more than 122,000 patients who underwent treadmill training over a 23 year span. The data showed that those who lived sedentary lifestyles had an exponentially higher risk of death than their more active peers. Dr. Darrel Gumm is an interventional cardiologist for OSF HealthCare Cardiovascular Institute. “I think it’s a real wakeup call,” said Dr. Gumm of the study. He continued, “We shouldn’t be so shocked that exercise is good, because we’ve been saying that for a long time. But now when we compare it to doing nothing. Those people who don’t do anything

Continue Reading

Our Love Story: The Couple: Michael Holmes Sr and D’ana Taylor from Godfrey Date Met/Started Dating: October 19, 2018 Briefly Describe First Date: He asked to take me out to church, and I said yes but church didn’t happen. Instead we ended up at the old Riverbend and Alton football game. Name Something You Enjoy Doing Together: We both love cooking shows and cooking, listening to R&B music and watching our favorite tv shows together. Share Advice For A Happy Relationship: Teamwork play a major part in our relationship know matter what we always have each other back.

Continue Reading

Our Love Story: The Couple: Tom and Joann Jennings from Grafton Date Met/Started Dating: June 7, 2014 Briefly Describe First Date: We went to Regal beagle as friends. Ended up talking for 4 hours and started dating the next week. Date Married: March 14, 2015 Name Something You Enjoy Doing Together: We love eating out, massages, going to movies, and being home with our fur babies. Share Advice For A Happy Relationship: Be honest always, forgive when needed, have fun and communicate well.

Continue Reading

Our Love Story: The Couple: Ryan and Amie (We call each other babe.) from Alton Date Met/Started Dating: September 7, 2011 Briefly Describe First Date: We had dinner, a casual hang out getting to know each other. Date Married: May 31, 2014 Name Something You Enjoy Doing Together: We like to go out on occasion for a nice dinner but staying home is best, helping each other cook dinner, and settling down for a good tv show or movie we both like. Share Advice For A Happy Relationship: Always keep dating each other, even after marriage. Dating never stops, make time for each other.

Continue Reading

MT. OLIVE - Mt. Olive High School was built in 1924 and torn down on March 13, 1993. During that time, the vice president of the New York Stock Exchange, a starting running back in the Rose Bowl, many authors, Hall of Fame members, etc all passed through those hallowed halls. Old high schools in the area all looked alike - a rectangular building made of red brick. All had a very small gym. The teams sat on the stage because there was no room on the floor for team benches. When entering a game from the bench, you either jumped off of the stage or swung out with one hand on the supports for the basket. All of these brick-and-mortar buildings held numerous memories of mostly good times. We all had to go to high school until at least age 16, or in the modern times, until you got your driver’s license. The less interested students would quit at that point. High school wasn’t for everyone. You can all remember your own stories of what happened during those very important four

Continue Reading

Illinois Agriculture Boomed During World War I: Record-Setting Crops in Both 1917 and 1918 By Tom Emery During mobilization for World War I, a popular slogan was “food will win the war.” Illinois farmers took it to heart. In both years of American participation in the war, Illinois agriculture broke records for yield and crop value. The success was part of a comprehensive organization of statewide resources, and farming was near the top of the list. The U.S. declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, and five months later, a statewide plan for Illinois food production and conservation was implemented. The plan was under the State Council of Defense, a fifteen-member collection of state leaders that served as a “clearinghouse” for public and private agencies. The SCD was appointed by Gov. Frank Lowden and chaired by Samuel Insull, the energetic president of Commonwealth Edison in northern Illinois. Each county in Illinois had its own committee for food production

Continue Reading