Hey readers, we're almost at the end of volume 14 (meaning our 14th year of publication) and about to go into volume 15...one more issue to go, then we're into our 15th year. Can you believe that? And below would be the reason why...because we're big on telling you what all the other media in the area DOESN'T, and with the appropriate analysis of what it means to YOU. Which is why we're bringing to THIS ISSUE'S PRINT HEADLINES, so you can see what's in the February 2017 edition.
Print headlines are a way to check out what's in the current edition, as well as an easy way to link straight to the article if you have an online membership to the e-Edition. Print headlines are presented as they appear in the paper - Front Page, Back Page (our second front page), pages 2 and 3, Features if any (presented on pages 12 and 13), Egypt, Heartland, Central and Op-Ed. They are presented here dateline first (the location where the material in the article took place), headline (with e-Edition hotlink) and a brief synopsis in our own patented snarky Disclosure style. And now, without further ado, here's THIS ISSUE'S PRINT HEADLINES!
FRONT PAGE
Lisa G. Rodgers
GALLATIN CO. - Kidnapping charged after keeping child from alleged abuser: There is a dangerous trend going on in downstate Illinois judicial circuits, and that trend is returning children to a dangerous environment after a concerned relative has successfully removed them from one. There are serious developments about to take place in this nightmare scenario; however, they're coming a little too late for a Gallatin County woman, who's actually been charged with kidnapping her grandson. Be watching this website and these pages carefully as this matter develops. There IS hope; it's just that the authorities have had to been handed enough rope to hang themselves with.
CLAY CO. - Arrest made in vile internet messaging/imposter case: As we said when the press release on this one hit early on: this is likely one of the strangest circumstances we've ever seen. And that's saying a lot. However, things may not be as they appear....so this will be one to watch. As a side note, those of you who contacted us about receiving messages from "Zac Leaf" over the past couple of years or so - around 20 of you - will get an infusion of confidence, as you will ascertain that we kept your identities private.
RICHLAND CO. - DQ, owner/managers, sued: The civil litigation is taking off in Richland County. We don't know why, unless it's because criminal complaints are not being taken seriously by authorities. Because the last couple we've had on the front page could very easily have been charged as such.
WABASH/EDWARDS/WHITE COs. - Water commission being tried again: It's not like folks in these three counties didn't already pay for all the "studies" being done back in 1999-2000. They did. WE did, all of us taxpayers, because a lot of it was being funded by grants. Which some people still refer to as "free money." But now, we're all paying for it again. Why they couldn't just increase the costs adjusted for inflation and give us all a break is beyond me...but here we go again. Is it all because of "somebody" wanting a regional water distribution, using our good southern Illinois aquifers? Probably. And when that happens, we'll tell you. For now, there's this.
BACK PAGE
Monte Newlin
HUTSONVILLE - Credit card use disallowed by supreme court; under investigation: The article we placed here as written by the Edgar County Watchdogs (which apparently people are clueless about, thinking WE wrote it) prompted deeper coverage of this matter with a regional superintendent up in the Heartland area. And we're pretty sure people are STILL griping over this issue, which, by their comments on this guy's Facebook page, they have limited understanding of.
MICHAEL GRIMWOOD
WHITE CO. - Sex offender charged again: Regular readers will recall that this guy's case in 2009 is the reason why we got after former White County Circuit Clerk Ellen Pettijohn for keeping public documents from us. It took us a year...but we won; we now get to view alleged sex offender files. It took this guy a little longer...but he is alleged to have offended again.
RIETTA MILLER
SALINE CO. - Miller gets felonies reduced; then gets indicted by feds: Rietta Miller runs hot and cold; she's either your best friend or your worst enemy, sometimes in the same 24-hour period. It kinda looks like she does this to HERSELF, as well...and she's deep in it now.
LITIGANTS SOUGHT: This is a public service announcement that appears in this issue twice, because it's important. Read it and take action if you can.
PAGE 2
EDWARDS CO. - Pavement sealing wars: Business alleged wrongdoing with former partner/employee: Moral of the story probably is...don't trust members of your own family when it comes to business matters. Personally, we're surprised at the behavior of dude in this instance; we've known these people for a long time. You just never know.
Gerald Foster
RICHLAND CO. - Foster catches first OV of 2017 for violating junk ordinance: Gerald Foster is in the headlines again...only this time, for something a lot less serious than a DUI/death.
PAGE 3
Darin Brandt
CORRECTION/AMPLIFICATION: Let it not be said that if we make a mistake in an article, we don't fix it. We do. It just needs to be brought to our attention...nicely, of course.
MARION CO. - School board member latest in a long line of accused sex offenders: There's something seriously wrong in Marion County. We just keep reporting about these guys who are old enough to know better getting hemmed up on sex assault charges. Pretty horrific stuff here.
FEATURE (PAGE 12)
Martha Perkins, above left, mother of Williamson County Commissioner Ron Ellis; and Jeff Robinson, above right, tax assessor.
MARION - Williamson Commissioner and Plat Officer busted for violating subdivision ordinance: Yep. Ron Ellis is at it again, using his position in office to ensure that certain things get done in the county. The only thing he ISN'T using his office for is to bring about his mother's death...but don't put anything past him.
EGYPT
HARDIN CO. - Man claims ex would rather blow her brains out than see her children: The parenting report for the month out of Hardin.
KIM Y. SMITH
POPE CO. - Former village treasurer wants outpatient treatment for alleged amnesia issue: Kim Smith is caught in a big Catch-22 she probably didn't anticipate when she pulled her "Ah gawt am-NEE-shuh!" thing back in August. Read this article to see what it is she may have messed up on.
SALINE CO. - Farmhand found with rolling drug operation, including drugs and cash: Dude from Kentucky brings his alleged bad habits to Saline County, where they don't put up with it.
SALINE CO. - Saline/Gallatin Cos. sex predator charged with skipping out of town: At least someone's tracking him.
SALINE CO. - Former state's attorney's brother says he was picking up a 'script for sis when he shoplifted: We're starting to feel sorry for these kids' momma...she's a nice gal. The kids are off the chain, however. It happens.
SALINE CO. - Couple busted for cruising in stolen ride: Auto theft is...just dumb, actually.
Casey Walters
HAMILTON CO. - Equality husband gets probation for spousal abuse: At least somebody charged and convicted him of it...unlike SOME prosecutors in SOME southern Illinois counties....
SALINE CO. - Eldorado parolee found with weed, pills, pseudoephed, meth: The only thing she was missing was a bit of coke and some smack.
SALINE CO. - Georgia couple charged with passing numerous forged 'scripts to get codeine: If you want to read the saga of the south for this issue, this is the one. Good grief...the lengths these people go to are absolutely mind-boggling.
Illinois Youth Center, aka kiddie prison
SALINE CO. - Another violent attack reported at Kiddie Prison: Well. Those kids are there for a reason; violence being among that.
HARDIN CO. - Rosiclare woman afraid to block ex on Facebook: What is it about Fecesbook that people just can't stay off it....? Seriously...if you're being harassed online, um....get off of online. Ignore that idiot. Report that idiot and fuggedaboudit.
HARDIN CO. - Alleged E'town vehicle chase and threat lead to stalking no-contact order: There weren't a lot of criminal charges filed in Hardin this month, so we went with OPs and wow...I'm thinking we probably need to always write up the OPs!!
SALINE CO. - Convicted felon fresh from prison gets her arm, nose broken: And wait til you see how THIS happened.
SALINE CO. - Superintendent files civil complaint against man accused of arson: Back in October when we were on vacation (and so we kinda missed it when it happened....sorry....), someone allegedly set fire to Harrisburg Schools Superintendent Mike Gauch's house. That criminal case is dragging through the court system. So Gauch has also filed a civil against the dude.
HARDIN CO. - Having third party contact, OP-protected person, lands man in jail: Again with the OPs in Hardin, which are actually quite entertaining.
HERRIN - Concerns over charges of threatening public official; will it be dropped? A little tip we received about a well-known woman in Herrin turned into a fairly decent article. See what it's alleged she has done by clicking the link.
SALINE CO. - Shoplifted chicken tenders and gravy lands Sloan Street man behind bars: You can't make this stuff up...it would appear that dude just walks into Walmart when he's hungry, walks out with food, and, occasionally, gets caught. So next time you're griping because your pre-prepared food is so high...blame this guy.
HEARTLAND
Troy Cannon, many feel, besides being an alleged stalker and cornpone Casanova, is extremely unstable, and they hold his social networking activity up as proof.
MARION CO. - Bizarre county coroner prompts concerns among citizens; many asking for resignation: Since we produced this article, the effort to try to get Marion County Moroner Troy Cannon to get out of office has intensified. We might even have a follow up for the next issue. But in the meantime, here's what we discovered about this nut...and if you weren't aware of these things, you're going to be that much more disturbed by his existence in office.
Dakota W. Boyd
JASPER CO. - $10k cash bond set in Newton felon violence case: The crimes against persons report, Jasper co.
James Raymond Coulter
JASPER CO. - Ste. Marie sex offender convicted of not registering: Showing that at least if you've screwed up badly enough to get on the sex offender registry...REGISTER.
JASPER CO. - Newton DUI drugs driver and elderly buddy busted over pills: Substance abuse makes strange bedfellows.
JASPER CO. - One Newton man sentenced, another charged: Some of the lower-level offenses logged in Jasper this past month.
SALEM - Former SA defends accused Salem shooter: A LOT of people in and around Marion County are pretty upset over the fact that Matt Wilzbach gets out of office and immediately begins representing those he was fighting against previously.
JASPER CO. - Richland convicted meth felon charged with having pills in Jasper: A lil crossover to liven up your reading.
CENTRAL
HAMILTON CO. - McLeansboro man accused of keeping girlfriend captive, terrorizing her: This, my dear readers, is one of the most atrocious stories I've ever transferred from the pages of a court document to a print document. And you know what's hideous about it? It's probably happening to a lot more people, just this way, than anyone can even imagine. That's dude, there at the right.
CLAY CO. - Flora man sentenced after struggling with police: And not just any police...it was a state trooper.
RICHLAND CO. - Noble man accused of South Camp sexual assault: Annnnnnnnd....he just got out of IDOC. Whatta charmer.
CLAY CO. - Edgewood, Flora men both charged with drug conspiracy: While this is bad enough, at least it doesn't involve anyone from The Ridge....
Charles Robert Mainer, of Flora
CLAY CO. - $10K cash bond set for Flora doper charged with multiple OP violations: What's with these people who feel the need to threaten to cut off appendages...??
HAMILTON CO. - Norris City men facing weapons, drug charges: This one guy wasn't messing around...it was a 357 Magnum.
RICHLAND CO. - Snap-On robbery: Feds impressed with Richland County's work on case: We wanted this for the early January paper, but couldn't cut through the crap to get it to you. We were able to gather enough info to bring it this month, though. Absolutely amazing work by the boys at the sheriff's department in Richland.
Mark S. Garner, of Lawrenceville
LAWRENCE CO. - Suspected Lawrenceville drug dealer, child molester cheats drug test: This DESPITE the rules being stated on the whiteboard in the basement there in the courthouse...
Harry K. Boudreau, of West Salem
EDWARDS CO. - Twice-suspected West Salem child batterer now busted for holding methamphetamine: As it turns out, a lot of child batterers do meth, and a lot of methheads batter children. Whodathunkit.
HAMILTON CO. - Fireball whiskey, Amsterdam vodka and beef n cheese sticks land woman behind bars: She apparently isn't as handy with this kind of thing as that guy down in Saline County is.
Randy G. Baker, mud-roller
RICHLAND CO. - Elderly man found lying in mud at the side of the road: This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed home. This little piggy was allegedly driving drunk and got out and went rolling in the mud...and we have an article about it. Grinning mugshot and all.
RICHLAND CO. - Another Casey charged: Sex abuse against 15-year-old alleged: We've learned that SOME people will pimp out their young daughters for dope. We're not at ALL saying that this is the case in this instance. But hey, if that shoe fits....lace that sucker up and WEAR IT.
X-TRA: LAWRENCE CO. - Hot checks and a Japanese changer focus of general crim report: No, seriously....that's not a typo. It's a Japan Cash Machine Sega Changer, you know, for changing bills.
X-TRA: RICHLAND CO. - Olney man busted with multiple stolen firearms: How all the best crims get their start.
X-TRA: LAWRENCE CO. - Violent Lawrenceville man beats his way back into the headlines: Because there's nothing else to do in Lawrenceville except do dope and get in trouble, apparently.
X-TRA: RICHLAND CO. - Confusing ordinance violations in Olney might be why problems remain: And look who is back in our pages...? Yep. Another Thacker.
OP-ED
COLUMNS
SURLY & UNCOOPERATIVE (Jack): Voter fraud? We proved it right here...!
ICY (Ang): Let's tend to the problems at HOME first, k?
GUEST COLUMN (Kale): Collectivism vs. individualism to avoid racism
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE: Letters to the editor