• Kankakee County is appealing the Illinois State Supreme Court to uphold the Illinois Appellate Court’s decision to block a proposed 263-acre landfill in Otto Township — a decision Town & Country Utilities Inc. petitioned the high court to reverse.
• Warm weather means a flurry of activity in the home of The Amish Cook. Find out more in today’s Life Section.
• As the season was coming to a disappointing end for the Kankakee Community College men’s basketball team, head coach Joe Lightfoot had one message for his Cavaliers. “You’ve got nothing to hang your head about.”
• Area’s Easter Seals telethon raises $65,574 “for the kids.”
• There is hope that U.S. and NATO Coalition forces can bring stability to Afghanistan, Illinois Army National Guard Chaplain Chad McGinnis says, having spent 10 months there through last September.
• Kankakee Community College men’s basketball team survived an overtime game in the Region IV tournament semifinals against Kennedy-King.
• Theresa Lukow’s middle name is “simplify.” She has spent more than 20 years making sense out of some of the most confounding matters facing modern man, medical bills.
• In Outdoors: More work is in store for the Braidwood Dunes and Savanna Nature Preserve, where restoration efforts have been underway for the past three years. Later this month, workers for the Forest Preserve District of Will County will be removing invasive trees and spraying herbicide along 17 acres of the preserve located southeast of Braidwood, off Illinois Route 113.
• On Thursday, the Olivet Nazarene University men’s basketball team lost its chance to bring home a conference tournament championship. If that game is any indication, the Tigers need to pull a sharp 180-degree turn if they also want a chance to bring home a national championship.
• There’s a snap to Zach Polega’s step these days, a confidence and pride beyond that expected of a top-ranked Manteno High School senior. The confidence is well earned; he’s the first Manteno student to be accepted into the United States Military Academy at West Point.
• Food is a huge budget buster. Today’s Life section features some tips for stretching that budget that you may not have already thought of and eating healthy too.
• The Chicago Hope Academy boys’ basketball team appears to have a bright future ahead of it. For Dwight Township High School, however, the future is now.
• It has been 53 days since David Smith, of Manteno, went missing near the Kankakee River at Sumava Resorts in Indiana. Neither his body nor that of his brown Labrador retriever, “Hershey,” have been found, despite ongoing search efforts by state agencies, friends and family.
• Out and About this week takes us to an Olympics ceremony at a school and a talent show at another school. There are also pictures of fans at a Super Sectional basketball game. You may be among this week’s celebrities.
• Four years ago, the Herscher High School boys’ basketball team pulled off what most believed was impossible, an upset of the state’s No. 1-ranked team, Hales Franciscan, in the sectional semifinals. For a quarter on Tuesday night, it seemed possible that the Herscher Tigers would do it again.
• It’s one of the best-read sections of many newspapers: the police blotter. But what happens when someone reads an item, only to see their name or address erroneously listed as the arrested person or his or her address?
• They are cute. They are perky. They take up very little in space, growing well in troughs and containers. They also run in herds through rock gardens and can be addictive to people who garden on balconies or patios, as well as those with enviable space. Find out what they are in today’s Life section.
• The Kankakee High School boys’ basketball team was born to run, and the Kays couldn’t have asked for a better matchup to begin the postseason race.
Kankakee sprinted past host Pontiac 60-49 in Monday’s Class 3A regional tournament opener.
• Nine-year-old Rebecca O’Connor, a fourth-grader at Chebanse Grade School, pays attention in class, even when there’s no grade attached to the lesson being taught. And that knowledge came in handy earlier this week as she saved her grandpa’s life.
• There’s an app for that. Pop culture columnist Colleen Loggins found some humorous ones. Check it out in the Life section.
• U.S. short-track speedskater Katherine Reutter set an Olympic record while winning her heat in the women’s 1,000-meter event at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Wednesday. The quarterfinals are tonight.
• Several teachers in the classrooms of Zion Lutheran School in Chebanse are still using overhead projectors and blackboards. But, that is about to change thanks to nearly $90,000 raised in a benefit for the school.
• When Carol Case learned that members of her family had celiac’s disease (gluten intolerance), she started looking for gluten-free recipes and for stores that sold gluten-free products. Learn more in today’s Life section.
• Descriptions of the performances by Bishop McNamara Catholic High School’s standout guard Derek O’Connor are beginning to be a bit of a broken record. But the Irish players, coaches and fans don’t mind and will happily listen to the tune as long as the record plays.
• A sentencing hearing was set Tuesday for a Crescent City woman accused of hiding a teenage Martinton runaway in her home for six days while the girl’s family searched for her.
• Organizers of Manteno’s March 6 Polar Plunge are bracing for another record year even as plungers prepare for the nerve-numbing cold of Lake Manteno to raise money for Special Olympics.
•Sean Liaromatis was in sixth grade when the Wilmington High School wrestling team won its first dual state tournament. But on Tuesday, the burden of continuing the Wildcat legacy — three consecutive dual state titles, undefeated against Class 1A competition since 2006 — fell on the freshman’s shoulders.
• A Watseka man was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison on a weapons possession charge in connection with a fatal shooting outside of McSki’s Place last spring.
• Friends are part of the foundation of our life journey.
It starts when we are toddlers and goes all the way through to the day we die. Think about that for a while and then read Jeff Bonty’s column in today’s edition.
• The Bishop McNamara Catholic High School girls’ basketball team qualified on Monday for its fifth state tournament in seven years, advancing to the Final Four with a 51-38 victory over Walther Lutheran at the Class 2A Villa Park (Willowbrook) Super-Sectional.
