Illinois

BEMENT – After two consecutive years of proclaiming “monstrous” corn yields for the area, officials at Topflight Grain are projecting slightly lower yields for 2008.

Teams of crop scouts sampling the corn population at random fields throughout Piatt, Champaign, Macon, Moultrie and Douglas counties between Friday and Tuesday for the 25th annual Topflight Grain Crop Tour found corn yields down a little from last year.

Topflight Grain Merchandiser Derrick Bruhn said the sampling indicates the average area farm will generate 172 bushels of corn per acre, down from 177 bushels an acre a year ago.

The highest corn yields were found in Macon County in areas least affected by this spring’s heavy rains.

Surveys show an average yield of 183 bushels per acre there.

The lowest corn yields were in the Atwood area of Douglas County, which was pelted by heavy flooding, delaying corn planting in many areas.

Kensuke Harashima of Marubani Corporation checks an ear of corn Tuesday in a field near Bement.

(Read the full post about ‘Topflight Grain lowers area’s corn-yield projections for 2008′…)

CHAMPAIGN – A new team plans to reopen the White Horse Inn in the next week or so, hoping to restore the popularity the campus watering hole once enjoyed.

Local real estate agent Tim Hoss Jr. said he’s teaming with Aidas Mattis and Blair Schober to take over the restaurant at Second and Green streets. The building has been vacant since the previous operator closed in November.

The White Horse Inn has been at that site since 1973, and Hoss said longtime patrons can expect things to remain pretty much as they once were.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” he said, adding that the restaurant will continue to have hamburger and taco specials as well as 12 different beers on tap.

Hoss, a part-owner of Twin City Realty who’s well-known on the local golfing circuit, said the restaurant will be open from 11 a.m.

(Read the full post about ‘White Horse Inn set to reopen’…)

CHAMPAIGN – Federal and state regulators have ordered Champaign-based Strategic Capital Bank to stop engaging in what they call “unsafe or unsound banking practices.”

On Aug. 14, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

(Read the full post about ‘Strategic Capital Bank censured over ‘unsafe’ practices’…)

URBANA – Provena Covenant Medical Center will lose its property tax exemption once again.

The 4th District Appellate Court on Wednesday afternoon sided with the Illinois Department of Revenue and local taxing authorities and ruled against the hospital, overturning a circuit court ruling from last summer that restored Covenant’s exemption.

Lisa Lagger, spokeswoman at Covenant’s parent company in Mokena, said Provena officials had just received the lengthy appellate court decision and were withholding comment until they get a chance to digest it.

The ruling was a blow for the Catholic hospital system, which has spent years fighting taxing authorities that stripped the Urbana hospital of its long-held exemption and forced it to begin paying millions of dollars in taxes to local governments.

A Sangamon County circuit court judge in July 2007 ruled against taxing authorities at the state and local level, and found Covenant qualifies for an exemption as both a religious and charitable institution.

(Read the full post about ‘Provena loses tax exemption again in appellate court ruling’…)

CHAMPAIGN – Blockbuster Video has closed its store at 1305 S. Neil St., C, leaving two remaining locations in Champaign-Urbana.

The store closed Sunday after its lease expired, according to Randy Hargrove, spokesman for the Dallas-based chain.

“We were interested in continuing in that location, but we couldn’t reach an agreement with the landlord,” he added.

Blockbuster plans to continue serving Champaign-Urbana from its stores at 1907 W. Springfield Ave., C, and 105 E. University Ave., U, Hargrove said.

(Read the full post about ‘Blockbuster Video closes South Neil store after lease expires’…)

Today, RedState.com’s managing editor Erick Erickson clearly and concisely lays out in Human Events an issue Illinois Review readers are very familiar with, but one with a confusing history — Obama’s actions involving Illinois’ Born Alive Infant Protection Act. 

But Erickson’s piece also inadvertently points out the failure of Illinois to protect our infants was not just Barack Obama’s fault.  Blame should also be put on the powerful Illinois Democratic Party’s Chairman and Illinois House Speaker – Mike Madigan.

And on us — Illinois pro-lifers.

Erickson quotes Obama’s 2002 self-incriminating words on the Illinois Senate floor and then writes,

In other words, a child who is breathing, has a beating heart, or shows voluntary muscle movement and who is fully outside the mother shall be considered a “born alive” child.

(Read the full post about ‘Obama at fault with the BAIPA? Of course, but so is Madigan, and so are pro-lifers’…)

by Mark Rhoads

There once was a time when The Chicago Tribune was generally regarded as the host to a thoughtful and serious editorial page rather than a frivolous and shockingly uninformed one. That time passed some years ago and the loss of common sense on the page accelerated in the last two years. With the exception of about three editorial writers of the old school, most of the writers there are atrophied wannabe journalists who have no context or grounding for their editorial whims. A case in point is yesterday’s gem on the virtues of Joe Biden:

"Biden is a known and respected, if not universally beloved, commodity.

(Read the full post about ‘Tribune Editorial Page Wisdom, RIP’…)

Found this fascinating time lapse photography on the State-Journal Register’s website taken of last Saturday’s crowd gathering to hear Barack Obama announce his choice for vice-president Delaware senator Joe Biden. 

Taken during the hours from 9 am to 5 pm, the SJ-R reports between 25 and 30 thousand persons went through the metal detectors surrounding Illinois’ Old Capitol.

SJ-R’s take on the rally was featured Sunday HERE.

DENVER — In its first "official event" of the 2008 Democratic Convention, Pentecostal preacher and Bishop Charles E. Blake of the Church of God in Christ, took to the pulpit of an Interfaith Gathering and unequivocally denounced abortion, saying God could not be pleased with millions of lives being ended by elective abortion.

President of the pro-life National Clergy Council, Rev. Rob Schenck, who was present at the event, said, "This is an amazing development. Bishop Blake was crystal clear in condemning abortion. There was nothing subtle about it. He identified himself as a pro- life Democrat and blatantly challenged his party’s historic position on abortion.

(Read the full post about ‘Pro-life Democrat preaches against abortion’…)

Don’t ask me where I find this stuff cause I honestly don’t know. Just thank me in the comments;) Seriously, a folk opera of the old South by a band out of the UK, how cool is that? On the song “Southern Boys” it sounds like Joe Strummer meets Charlie Daniels and you know that can’t be bad. The band is called Lee’s Company and the new record is White Mansions.

Buy the new record here.

Southern Boys

Last Dance And The Kentucky Racehorse