Featured Archives - Page 133 of 172 - Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News

Carterville Trump supporter says give the man a chance

January 22, 2017 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Wes Henson a long time pastor, who explains his support of Trump even though he was not to warm about him at first. (Byron Hetzler – Southern Illinoisan photo)

CARTERVILLE IL- This was ran in yesterday’s Southern Illinoisan by Molly Parker of two men who decided to vote for Donald Trump and their reasons why. I felt that both men meshed with some of the fabric of how some in Franklin County feels politically. This is from Wes Henson, a Carterville pastor who I have crossed paths with on a few occasions. Yesterday, I linked the one from Charles Mason of Pomona. I encourage you to go back and read both of these articles. sd.

Filed Under: Featured

Jim Muir to receive Distinguished Media Service Award from the IHSA at BIT tonight

January 20, 2017 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Jim Muir with former Christopher Bearcat and later University of Illinois standout, TJ Wheeler before a NJCAA tournament game in Danville for Rend Lake College who were National Champs that year. TJ’s father Tom, has been Muir’s long time color man. (Tom Wheeler photo form the Buckner Garage)

(Click on the link to read the press release from the IHSA on September 8th.) Jim, who has spent over 25 years as voice of the Benton Rangers, will be presented with this award tonight from the Illinois High School Association. After spending twenty years in the coal mines, he changed careers to be a journalist and publicist. He covered news and sports, wrote OpEd pieces, and was an investigative reporter for the Benton Evening News and Southern Illinoisan. He was the publisher of Southern Illinois Sports Connection magazine for five years. The presentation will be before the Benton/Sesser-Valier game at the Benton Invitational Tournament tonight at 6:45. He is a graduate of Sesser-Valier High School and currently lives in Sesser. He is a former long time resident of Benton. He will be stepping down from the booth this year, he was elected as Franklin County Circuit Clerk in November. Benton is currently 14-1 on the season and was sixth in the last AP Class 3A poll. Muir wanted to come back and be “the voice” of this special group. Anything I am about to say is unsolicited, and it is the express opinion of me. Jim is in high regard among all coaches, players, and members of the media that I talk to. He is one of the most humble and gracious individuals I have ever met. This is the second time he has taken a chance on someone who was and still is so poor in the English language, that took his ACT four times to try to get the score to a 25 to be come an Illinois State Scholar and to avoid remedial English at RLC. I wish I could be there, but I will be six miles to the south waiting for the Redbirds and Eldorado Eagles to tip it up in Max Morris gym. It is a well deserved award. I apologize for the huge run on paragraph. It would break the link if I broke this up.

Filed Under: Featured, Slider

Pumped for Trump in Pomona: Man sees new president as the one to get things done

January 20, 2017 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Charles Mason a Trump supporter since the beginning believes he can turn America around. (Byron Hetzler Southern Illinoisan photo)

PONOMA (Molly Parker, Southern Illinoisan. Please Click to read the entire article. Here is an excerpt) Charles S. Mason lives on a winding road in rural Jackson County. The back yard looks out into the woods; an American flag waves out front. He calls himself a “country boy” who loves God, his family, America and the great outdoors — and he wants to see that the rural way of life he enjoys in Southern Illinois is preserved for future generations. He thinks President-Elect Donald Trump is the man to help make that happen……

Filed Under: Featured

Holliday might be moving on, but his impact in St. Louis is long-lasting

January 17, 2017 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

Matt Holliday comparing pythons with a patient in the Bob Costas center of the hospital (Cardinal Glennon photo)

St. LOUIS MO- (Link to the full article on the St. Louis Post Dispatch Webiste.) Last night Cardinal Glennon Children’s hospital donated a whole wing to Matt and Leslie Holiday for their continuous dedication to Cardinal Glennon. Back in November St. Louis Cardinal beat writer Derek Gould wrote a story on Matt and Leslie’s dedication to the hospital…here is an excerpt….“He has done more than any other Cardinal has done for this hospital since Stan Musial,” says Rose Fogarty, Cardinal Glennon’s director of marketing and communications. “They put Cardinal Glennon on the map again in St. Louis. Matt and Leslee brought us into the limelight.”

Filed Under: Featured, Slider

The MLK History Forgot During his last three years on Earth, Martin Luther King went through hell

January 16, 2017 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

In January 1966, Martin Luther King Jr.—founding president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Nobel laureate and the nation’s most prominent civil rights activist—moved his family into a squalid tenement apartment in one of Chicago’s economically barren ghetto neighborhoods. A fixture in American political life since December 1955, when he assumed leadership of the Montgomery Improvement Association—a coalition of churches and organizations that banded together to coordinate a boycott of city buses following Rosa Parks’ arrest just weeks before Christmas—King subsequently appeared to be everywhere the civil rights movement took root. Albany, Georgia; Birmingham; Selma; Atlanta. Even when he wasn’t at the forefront of events, as was the case with the wave of lunch counter sit-ins and Freedom Rides that shook the South in 1960 and 1961, civil rights activists at the grassroots level looked to him for guidance and inspiration. Please click to read the entire piece that was published on politico.com

Filed Under: Featured, Slider

JALC MAKES MOTHER’S DREAM COME TRUE

January 16, 2017 By Jim Muir Leave a Comment

West Frankfort native and recently retired master seargent from the ISP, Scott Isaacs presenting his mother his degree from JALC (Logan Media Services)

CARTERVILLE — Mothers have been known to nag their children from time to time. Maybe it’s to clean their room or take out the trash, and if mothers are persistent long enough, most of the time, they get their way. For 27 years, Bernice Isaacs never let up on her son, Scott. She, too, finally scolded him into action. It didn’t matter that Scott, a Marion resident, started working in management for John and Mary Moreland at McDonalds when he was a teenager. It also wasn’t sufficient that Scott passed the test to become a state trooper, eventually rising to the rank of master sergeant within the Illinois State Police. What Bernice wanted most was for her son to complete his college degree. “I’d say, ‘Mom, I’ve been promoted again,’ and she’d say, ‘yeah, but do you have that degree completed yet?’” Scott said. “She never let it go.” So in his final year with the Illinois State Police, Scott, who retired in December, decided to surprise his mother and give her the greatest birthday present of her life. Please click to read the rest of the story from John A. Logan College’s website.

Filed Under: Featured, Slider