Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
It’s even harder for poor children to succeed than it was 50 years ago because the gap has widened between haves and have-nots, a Harvard University professor told Quad-City-area civic leaders on Wednesday. Robert D. Putnam, author of “Our Kids: The
Harvard Professor Robert Puntnam (Photo Provided to the Quad City Times)
Joe Topinka, son of late Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, has filed a
The late State Treasurer and Comptroller Judy Barr-Topinka
118th district State Representative Brandon Phelps initial sponsor of the Lock-box amendment
it. Now, both proponents and opponents are wondering if the so-called Safe Roads Amendment to the Illinois Constitution — also referred to as the “lockbox” amendment — could carry with it some unintended consequences. The amendment essentially says that transportation-related taxes and fees should only be used for transportation-related purposes. “I guess time will tell once we get into this,” said Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, principal House sponsor of the constitutional amendment. “I have said that if there is anything we have to clean up or something that fell through the cracks or what have you, I would be willing to sponsor a trailer bill to clean it up.”
Click to read the story by Doug Finke of the Springfield Journal-Register
Some of the high dollar scratch off ticket games are not paying off.
Monica Brachman at the gates of the World Shooting Complex in Sparta. (Southern Illinoisan Photo)
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to visit Clinton on Wednesday to sign a bill overhauling Illinois’ energy policy and creating $235 million in annual ratepayer subsidies that allows 
Exelon Corp.’s nuclear power plants there and near the Quad Cities to stay open. The governor’s office did not respond immediately Monday to a request for confirmation, and as of Monday afternoon, the bill hadn’t been sent to his desk. Energy giant Exelon said it would close the unprofitable Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants, which together employ about 1,500 full-time workers and generate millions in property tax revenue for schools and local governments, if the General Assembly didn’t approve subsidies during the fall veto session. Please follow the story from Dan Pertella of the Bloomington Pantagraph.
As the story goes, Admiral Bill Halsey was ranking the determining factors that contributed to the Allied Forces prevailing in World War II. He rattled off submarines, radar and planes. But he surprised listeners with his final answer — the bulldozer. The freshly merged 
company known as Caterpillar Inc. moved its headquarters to Peoria a little more than a decade before the United State officially entered World War II. Caterpillar operated only two plants at the time, one in East Peoria and the other in San Leandro, Calif., with the East Peoria plant dominating tractor production. Please read the link out of the Peoria Journal-Star.
