Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
Both individuals who escaped from Pulaski County Detention Center are now in police custody.
According to a post on the Union County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page, the second man who escaped from the detention center was captured Thursday afternoon.
Investigators got a tip at about 11 a.m. Thursday that the man was seen walking near the 5000 block of U.S. 51 South in Union County. The Sheriff’s Office said they were searching for a Hispanic man wearing tan pants, no shirt and no shoes.
O’FALLON — Vice President Mike Pence defended President Donald Trump against claims that the president is too soft on Russia, telling a St. Louis crowd Thursday that Russian aggression has been met with “American strength and action.”
Here’s a link to the story in the Southern Illinoisan.
A 12-year-old boy is dead after a Thursday morning crash on Interstate 57 in Union County.
According to a news release from Illinois State Police, the crash happened Thursday morning near milepost 23 on southbound I-57; that’s about 1 mile south of the Dongola Road exit.
A 12-year-old boy was riding in the semi, and he was ejected from the vehicle. He died from his injuries.
I-57 south was closed at milepost 23 for six hours while police investigated the crash and cleaned up the scene. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, the right lane was still closed as cleanup was ongoing, but the left lane had reopened to traffic.
Thursday’s crash comes days after a crash on Monday just two miles north on the same stretch of road snarled traffic for hours. In that crash, a semitrailer hit a guardrail and traveled down an embankment, and when a Union County Sheriff’s deputy stopped to assist, the deputy’s patrol car was hit by another semi.
CARBONDALE — Southern Illinois University Athletics and its multimedia rightsholder, Learfield, have announced a five-year agreement with River Radio, LLC. to return as the official radio home of Saluki football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and select baseball and softball games to its cluster of radio stations in Carbondale.
Beginning this fall, SIU Saluki football and basketball games, in addition to all pre-game and post-game network programming, will be carried live on Southern Illinois’ powerhouse, Today`s Hit Music 101.5 CIL-FM. Saluki women’s basketball games, along with pre-game and post-game programming, will air on Magic 95.1 WUEZ-FM. Saluki baseball games in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and other post-season baseball tournament games will be heard on a River Radio FM station to be designated. River Radio also will provide an FM signal for all Saluki softball games in the NCAA Tournament. In addition, a to-be-determined schedule of regular season baseball and softball games will air via the TuneIn radio App and via Saluki All-Access at www.siusalukis.com.
“River Radio is excited to once again be the radio home for the Salukis and eager for its return to what were once, two long-term Saluki radio flagships, heritage station Todays Hit Music 101.5 CIL-FM & Southern Illinois’ Greatest Hits Magic 95.1. We are looking forward to beginning this new partnership and for the start of the upcoming seasons,” said River Radio GM / Market Manager Steve Falat.
The new agreement includes expanded station content surrounding the Southern Illinois athletic programs, including broadcasting live on 103.5 ESPN from Saluki Row prior to each home Saluki football game, a Saluki segment within the SportsVoice program on Saturday mornings and a one-hour Saluki Talk Show one night per week during the athletic season which will feature former Saluki athletes and coaches, Athletic Director and other Athletic Department personnel.
“River Radio’s plans excite us both over the air and online. It’s a good plan financially, too. I like winning and this plan is a win for Saluki fans and Saluki Athletics,” said Southern Illinois University’s Special Assistant to Chancellor Jerry Kill.
The Saluki Sports Network will also air on KATZ-AM 1600 in St. Louis, MO and WRUL-FM 97.3 in Carmi, Ill. for the upcoming season, while fans can also follow the Salukis via the TuneIn radio app and via Saluki All Access at www.siusalukis.com.
SIU is one of nearly 130 collegiate institutions, conferences and arenas represented by Learfield. Its local entity, Saluki Sports Properties, manages the relationship locally. The company’s rich history includes over four decades of developing trusted, long-term relationships with some of the most revered institutions and associations in the world of college sports. Additionally, it titles the Learfield Directors’ Cup and offers its partners professional concessions and ticket sales; branding, licensing and trademark consulting; digital and social platform expertise; campus-wide business and sponsorship development.
The number of women locked up in Illinois prisons would be cut by as much as half under an ambitious proposal by reform advocates who argue that the corrections system has largely ignored the needs of female inmates, many of whom suffered years of trauma, abuse or poverty before winding up behind bars.
Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Bruce Rauner today signed legislation that expands the Illinois Veterans’ Home at Quincy and cuts the red tape on future construction projects, allowing the administration to move quickly to build a new state-of-the-art facility at the campus.
“We’re building a brand new facility and making sure our veterans have a safe place to call home,” Rauner said. “Building this new facility should not be caught up in the bureaucratic process. Our veterans deserve the best. They have fought to secure our freedom and we’re fighting to make sure they have the care they need for generations to come.”
Rauner signed Senate Bill 3128, allowing the state to use the design-build delivery method to renovate, rehabilitate and rebuild the Illinois Veterans’ Home at Quincy. This method will eliminate redundant steps in the traditional state construction process, shave months off the overall project time and save taxpayer dollars.
One inmate is at large after escaping from Pulaski County Detention Center in Ullin.
Gayla Jones, contract liaison with Pulaski County Detention Center, told The Southern that two inmates escaped on Tuesday but one has been caught.
In 1875, as popular Christian singer-songwriter Ira Sankey sang, he noticed a sad man in his small audience. As they talked later, Sankey discovered they had a unique connection from the recent Civil War.
The sad man, a Confederate soldier, had been on guard duty when he saw a Union soldier walking along unaware he was being observed. The Confederate soldier raised his rifle to shoot, then realized the Union soldier was singing a hymn his mother once sang to him. Remembering his mother’s Christian influence, he lowered his gun. The unsuspecting Union man ceased singing and walked on. Sankey had been the singer. God had protected him.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them (Psalm 34:7).
Indeed, God’s protection comes in many forms, sometimes in surprisingly unexpected ways. While we may not always know how He does it, we know He protects us for our benefit and His glory.
Thought for Today: Our assurance of God’s protection means we need not fear the future.
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WASHINGTON — The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting to get a different result, which is one of the many reasons President Trump’s news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed so insane. Trump is trying to do something that both of his immediate predecessors tried to do: turn over a new leaf with Russia. They both failed, and so will he.
Here’s a link to the editorial at FOX News.
Patricia Ann Akins passed away at her home in Benton, Illinois on July 17, 2017. Pat was born in Peoria, Illinois to Charles E. and Edna (Avery) Johnson. As a young girl, she loved playing semi-pro softball, running fast, and eating Fannie May chocolates. Though almost always the youngest in her circle, she never knew it and always felt like one of the biggest kids (if not the biggest one).
She first saw Arthur E. Akins, her husband of 57 years, driving by in a convertible and wearing his Air Force uniform while stationed in Peoria. After marrying on her parents’ farm, she began her family in Little Rock, Arkansas and lived in Tehran, Iran before settling in Benton. She raised three daughters and cared for her and her husband’s aging parents in the ensuing years.
Few things made her as happy as giving gifts to friends and family and spoiling her grandchildren. (Who says ice cream isn’t for breakfast?) A competitive softball player and bowler for many years, she also enjoyed ceramics, listening to Elvis and Dean Martin, bingo, and playing cards with friends. She spent many years active at the Elks and Boneyard Bocce Ball Club.
She was preceded in death by Arthur and her beloved sister, Vivian Johnson of Laura, Illinois. She is survived by her loving daughters, Charlene Sarver, Angela Brewer, and Joy Akins and her sister-in-law, Shirley (Akins) Jones. She will also be missed by her sons-in-law Ed Sarver, Dan Brewer, and Steve Buttitta. She was over the moon about her surviving six grandchildren, Stephanie (Sarver) Bakmaz, Stacie (Sarver) Summers, Kacie Brewer, Rusty Brewer, Liam Buttitta, and Annan Akins, as well as her five great-grandchildren. She will be loved and missed by them all.
A graveside service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, July 20th at the Masonic and Oddfellows Cemetery in Benton, Illinois. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to the Benton West City Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry.
For more information or to sign the online guest register please visit www.mortonjohnstonfuneralhome.com
