Visitation for Patricia A. Walters, 61, of Rogersville, Mo., formerly of Bourbonnais, will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at the Bourbonnais Chapel of the Schreffler Funeral Homes. She died Wednesday.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police say a man is in critical condition after the deadly toxin ricin was found in his Las Vegas motel room. (more…)
• It’s been a long time since Donovan was abuzz about basketball.
But with the boys’ varsity team shooting for history on Saturday night in the Somonauk Class 1A Sectional championship, that’s the topic of conversation along U.S. Route 52, the highway that passes through town. “Old, young, that’s the subject,” said Pam Eilts, the Donovan postmaster. “It’s not the weather anymore. It’s the boys’ basketball team.”
• A Kankakee man Thursday returned to find thick black smoke billowing out of his house on Bourbonnais Street — and about a dozen city firefighters battling a blaze that appears to have started in an attic area. Fanned by brisk winds, the fire, which began about 2:15 p.m., took about a half out to bring under control, but not before it had spread throughout the attic. Firefighters were seen hacking holes in the structure for ventilation, and breaking windows in order to get at flames that had rekindled in hot spots.
• A busload of inmates and a U.S. Marshal arriving from Kankakee were briefly held hostage in Chicago early Thursday by a fellow inmate wielding what looked like a “shank” or homemade knife, federal and local law enforcement officials said.
• Luke Menard, the “American Idol” contestant whose parents are from Kankakee County, is now among the top 16 contestants. He lived to sing again, after four others were eliminated during Thursday night’s episode.
• How the community feels about St. George Community Consolidated School District 258 becoming part of another school district is a question district officials would like answered. The St. George school board on Thursday agreed hearing public sentiment on the idea will come first in considering proposals outlined in a joint consolidation study.
• Kankakee County has long sought any advantage it may have in its quest to attract commercial and industrial development. However, the region has failed to fully promote the asset it has with the Greater Kankakee Airport and its 6,000-foot-long runway and what that means in the corporate world. That is all about to change.
• Kankakee County government ended 2007 in the red, but the budget deficit was far less than originally feared. Kankakee County Finance Director Steve McCarty told members of the Kankakee County Board Finance Committee on Thursday that the county spent about $175,000 more than it took in last year.
Mildred Wilhelmina Emma Kingery, 90, of Grant Park, died Wednesday (Feb. 27, 2008).
Rita N. Regnier, 83, of Kankakee, died Wednesday (Feb. 27, 2008).
Ruth E. Grey, 65, of Kankakee, died Wednesday (Feb. 27, 2008).
Mary Margaret Pearson Michalowski, 72, of Braidwood, died Wednesday (Feb. 27, 2008).
David Walters, 89, of Bradley, died Thursday (Feb. 28, 2008).
A recent graduate of the University of Illinois was in critical condition with meningitis on Thursday, a week after a student at the school was hospitalized with the disease. (more…)
CNN: Mannequins, broken glass and debris littered the street Thursday after a midday explosion at a small strip mall that injured several people, collapsed roofs and left mounds of rubble in a Chicago, Illinois, suburb.
