Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
A federal judge is rejecting a legal bid by gun-rights advocates who wanted people to be able to immediately carry firearms in Illinois under the state’s new concealed carry law.
Benton police reported a pair of arrests during the weekend:
On July 26, 2013 Benton Police arrested Ashley Tirey, age 32, of West Frankfort for driving while license suspended. Tirey was also cited for operating an uninsured vehicle and was transported to the Franklin County Jail for further processing.
On July 27, 2013 Benton Police were dispatched to the 700 block of Frisco Street in reference to a domestic disturbance. Through investigation, police arrested Phillip D. Balota, age 38, of Benton for battery. Balota was charged and transported to the Franklin County Jail for further processing.
MURPHYSBORO – State Rep. Mike Bost is making the rounds today in three Southern Illinois communities, making it official that he will run for the 12th congressional district on the Republican ticket in 2014.
Here’s the link to the story in the Southern Illinoisan.
Thomas L. Vaughn, 68, of Benton, appeared in Franklin County Court on Wednesday and entered a not guilty plea to charges that he sexually assaulted a child.
Thomas Vaughn
Vaughn is facing charges that he “groomed” and then later sexually assaulted the child that is under the age of 13. Vaughn allegedly “seduced, lured and enticed” the child through online social networking between the dates of May 28 and June 26 and then committed predatory criminal sexual assault of the child on June 26, according to information filed by the Franklin County State’s Attorney. In addition Vaughn is also facing a charge of possession of child pornography.
Vaughn’s next court date is set for Sept. 18 with a final pretrial hearing slated for Oct. 31 and a jury trial scheduled for Nov. 5. Vaughn remains in jail on $500,000 bond.
BENTON – A court hearing for 32-year-old Michael A. Depler, of Valier, — scheduled for Wednesday — was pushed back for two weeks on a continuance motion filed by defense attorney Jordan Campanella.
Michael Depler
Depler was arrested following a fatal ATV accident last month in Franklin County that resulted in fatal injuries to Eco C. Edmonds, 26, of Mulkeytown.
Last week a Franklin County Grand Jury handed down a seven-count indictment charging Depler with aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to stop after having an accident involving personal injury, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of cannabis, improper operation of an all-terrain vehicle on a roadway, driving while license suspended and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
Following the continuance Depler is now slated to appear in Franklin County Court for an arraignment hearing on August 7 at 1:30 p.m.
The beauty of American higher education is the coupling of thought and action: Thinking people putting ideas to work make a university strong. It’s the foundation of a free society to boot. But is it a disappearing reality?
“You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It’s very real. It’s very strong.”
Bono
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By Walter V. Wendler
Hank Williams twanged Clarence Williams’ (no kin) ballad “My Bucket’s got A Hole in It” in 1949. We have two holes in our higher education bucket in 2013 and they need plugging.
Brain drain, not a flush but a slow leak, of students into Canada to places like McGill University in Montréal is gaining momentum. Speculation on causes of the migration proliferates. Six percent of the McGill’s students are U.S. citizens, and the number is growing. In an April 24th NBC report, Rehema Ellis and Jeff Black argue the primary reason for students departing the U.S. for Canada is cost.
McGill University is an excellent institution. Comparison with U.S. institutions is difficult. This much is clear: costs are 25 cents on the dollar. The decisions are value judgments: Is a domestic degree worth four times what you would pay for its Canadian counterpart? It’s a family decision.
The growing number of students in default on college loans, north of 15%, increasingly pinpoints cost as the central variable in the education equation. The days of the idea that, “No matter what it costs it’s worth it.” are numbered. Or evaporated, like a few of the 5,439 cubic miles of water in the Great Lakes, currently at their lowest level since 1918, according to a National Geographic study.
I know it’s a trickle, a few vapors. And nobody sees it happen. But it does.
The number of students studying at Canadian institutions has increased by 50% over the last decade. The deep discounts compared to competitors south of the 49th parallel are magnetic: Tens of thousands of dollars per year is real money to real people.
Our universities are built on the Western European model, reinvented and I believe perfected, 150 years ago, ignited by U.S. ingenuity driven by pragmatism at the pinnacle of the Industrial Revolution.
Our northern neighbors use a similar model. Merit-based admission, test scores, class rank, grades, good faculty and facilities as well as reasonable approaches to “other-than-academic” amenities are the benchmarks.
Thoughtful American students are being siphoned off.
The open intellectual market should be the stone on which U.S. institutions whet their edge to meet the demands and needs of students, culture, and country, by helping people generate razor sharp insight and exceptional intellectual capability.
A second leaking of intellect is reported in a July 16, New York Times column. Richard Perez-Pena reveals the increasingly common occurrence of cyber attacks at U.S. universities. With greater frequency, intellectual property departs our borders over the Internet via stolen patents. Citizens of nations less concerned about the value of intellectual property — knowledge and insight expressed in action — than we have historically been in America wantonly steal what’s not theirs.
This electronic larceny is directed towards the backbone of our republic — ideas — the cold steel of opportunity fired by opportunity.
These two leaks, one over the lakes, the other over the network, yield a costly impact on American economic vitality.
The trickle is starting. A torrent may follow.
American pride’s seed is the “idea.” We develop the patents for the VCR or the microwave and, if Japan, Taiwan, Korea, or Vietnam can produce the device at a lower cost, the U.S. still benefits… as long as our nation values the intellect and the property produced by it. When we allow either to leave, we lose.
Our universities face significant challenges. We better get smart about controlling costs and quality. Likewise, the intellectual kettles in the kitchens of our nation should be carefully tended. The leaking bucket undermines American contributions to the democracy of ideas.
The nurture and protection of our insight and wisdom in every manifestation create a stronger nation and a better world.
INA, Ill. – A limited number of seats remain for a conference on the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” organized by several agencies and held Tuesday, July 30, at Rend Lake College in Ina.
The event is being organized by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) in partnership with Southeastern Illinois College (SIC), Illinois Eastern Community Colleges (IECC) and Rend Lake College. It will feature a variety of speakers, from State Representative John Bradley to local government officials and business people.
Attendance is limited to 300 people, and those interested in attending the conference should RSVP no later than Monday, July 22. Open spaces will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis. Though the conference is geared toward local elected officials and economic developers, public attendance is welcome as long as registration is completed.
The conference is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. in the RLC Theater in Ina, with a lunch provided by RLC and break-out sessions held in the afternoon.
The following is the tentative schedule of events for the conference:
8 a.m. Registration
8:30 a.m. Welcome by RLC President Terry Wilkerson and DCEO Director Adam Pollett
8:45 a.m. Illinois State Representative John Bradley
9 a.m. Mary Morissey-Kochanny, Office of the Attorney General
9 a.m. Mitchell Cohen, Illinois Department of Natural Resources
9:30 a.m. Robert Bauer, U.S. Geological Survey
10 a.m. Break
10:15 a.m. Industry Perspectives by Brad Richards, Illinois Oil & Gas Association and Tom Stewart, Ohio Oil & Gas Association
11 a.m. Economic Development Impacts by Mary Ellen Bechtel, Jefferson County Development Corp
11:30 a.m. Impacts to Local Governments & Communities: Roads, Infrastructure, Housing, Education by Adam Feig, U of I Extension; Brian Ray, White County Engineer; Grayville Mayor Joe Bisch; Dan Sulsberger, Flora Economic Development; Brad Miller, Hamilton County Board; and Bob Oglesby, Saline County Board.
12:45 p.m. Break-out sessions and lunch. Break-out sessions include: Municipal, County and Economic Development
2:15 p.m. Wrap-up by David Yepsen, Paul Simon Public Policy Institute
2:45 p.m. Adjourn
For more information about the Fracking Conference, contact Kim Watson at 618-993-7630. To register, contact Deb Wilcut at Debbie.wilcut@illinois.gov or at 618-993-7230.
Traffic charges have been filed against a Franklin County farmer following a fatal accident last week that claimed the life of a McLeansboro man.
Steven S. Browning, of Benton, was operating a tractor shortly after 9 p.m. on July 10 that was pulling a bean drill on Route 14 east of Benton when he was struck by an oncoming vehicle being driven by Lavern J. Johnson, 50, of McLeansboro. Browning has been charged with operating an over-width vehicle and improper lane usage.
According to the police report Browning was driving the tractor west on Route 14 and the farm machinery took up the entire westbound lane and protruded into the eastbound lane also. Johnson was traveling eastbound and struck the tractor, authorities said.
Johnson was killed on impact from head and chest injuries according to Franklin County Coroner Marty Leffler.
A few minutes after the initial crash a second vehicle, driven by 71-year-old Mary Stich, of Dahlgren, also struck the tractor. Stich had to be extricated from her vehicle by first responders from Ewing-Northern Fire Protection District. Stich was airlifted from the scene to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville with critical injuries.
Also injured in the accident was Kurtis T. Hunter, of Johnston City, who had stopped and was outside his vehicle calling 911 when he was struck by the vehicle being driven by Stich, after she collided with the tractor. Hunter was taken to Franklin Hospital with injuries to his legs and was treated and released.
A 68-year-old Franklin County man has been charged with sexual assault and child pornography.
Thomas L. Vaughn, of Benton, is charged with predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, child pornography, and grooming.
Information was filed Monday in Franklin County Circuit Court alleging that Vaughn used Facebook to lure a girl under the age of 13 and then he assaulted her. Authorities also reported they discovered child pornography on Vaughn’s computer.
Vaughn was taken to the Franklin County Jail and is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond. Vaughn is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on July 24.
Students and families should understand what is desired from an education. Socially or politically prescribed solutions for personal aspirations don’t work.
“Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.
— Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy —
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Oregon is breaking the funding mold for higher education. House Bill 3472 passed overwhelmingly and awaits the governor’s signature. With no initial student investment, the plan proposes a maximum guaranteed loan payback of 3% of a borrower’s annual income for 24 years. An uncollateralized no down payment loan with eventual payback fixed to earning capacity.
The plan has been dubbed “Pay it Forward, Pay it Back.” It has a nice ring to it.
The impetus: Soaring costs and a 100% jump of interest rates from 3.4% to 6.8% on federally backed Stafford loans. It’s not surprising that students enrolled at Portland State University in a class entitled “Student Debt: Economics, Policy and Advocacy” helped give the legislative effort legs.
However, it should produce trepidation that will compound like interest on a loan shark’s balloon note.
Some aspects of HB 3472 are unclear. What is crystal clear: The $24,616 in debt carried by the average student graduating from a university in Oregon grieves elected officials. I can promise you it grieves students and their families. I talk to them every day. It grieves leaders who ignore the devastating combination of increasing costs, diminished expectations and falling value of college degrees. Intelligent action is required…grief fixes nothing.
Increasing costs are marked by runaway tuition and fees. Diminished expectations are evidenced in grade inflation, admission granted to unprepared students, and a proliferation of degrees with neither workforce benefit nor preparation for graduate school. On some days it seems the enterprise is falling apart, and proposals like HB 3472 are seductive in the educational leadership vacuum that chokes change by doggedly holding on to the campus status quo: more students, more money.
Universities offer an ever growing number of junk degrees. Tuition dollars are wrung out of students for study of little intrinsic or extrinsic value. With little emotional investment and no financial obligation, student commitment to study is too frequently in the tank.
Institutional and elected leadership pander for support fueled by a twisted view that success in life is tied to a college degree; the Oregon legislation does nothing to retool the calculus of higher education.
I don’t believe every degree must produce an immediate job. Every degree should provide opportunities for continued intellectual and economic growth to its holder. Intellectual and economic growth is determined on a one-at-a-time basis by a student. State run equations don’t work. This commoditization of a university education equates an education to a cell phone, iPod, or food: it’s misguided and undermines the purpose of a university, community college, and trade school, all.
HB 3472 as championed by the 7000 member Oregon Working Families Party is riddled with potholes.
First, the road is indeed paved with good intentions. Of course, nearly $25,000 in debt for a degree with low value of any kind is wrong and impossible to defend before thoughtful families. Making more of these kinds of degrees available to more people on more borrowed money is even more egregious, no matter the payback plan.
Second, a degree guarantees little. Students and families need to be honestly apprised of the power of a specific degree, at a specific time. Performance is neither granted nor guaranteed by a degree. Value is not produced by the state, but by capable individuals. House Bill 3472 reinforces the idea that the degree is a trinket.
Third, it worked in Australia. Really? The jury is still out down under. Indeed debt is lower, but has the value of the degree increased? Is the human condition or economy better or stronger? These are pivotal unanswered questions.
Fourth, value in anything earned decreases when attainment is guaranteed or easy. A university education is a private betterment. Public benefit comes when the knowledge and insight gained are levied by an individual.
Unwary prospectors looking for real gold are confused by Pyrite. Students and families are similarly fooled by specious claims at what lies at the end of the rainbow, and too often it’s not a pot o’ gold, but a bag o’ debt, regardless of how it is paid off.
