Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
An 88-member task force missed a key deadline to deliver a report on how to reduce the state’s high property taxes, all but guaranteeing none of the group’s recommendations will be signed into law this year.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
Proposed legislation in both the Illinois House and Senate would make daylight saving time the year-round standard in Illinois.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
The Illinois Department of Public Health announced a fourth death related to the use of vaping products.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
Having a strong password is the first step to protecting online accounts, the state’s Chief Information Security Officer said.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
Six in ten Illinoisans have thought about becoming ex-Illinoisans in the last year, according to a September poll conducted for the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
State Sen. Martin Sandoval, D-Chicago, stepped down as the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee on Friday as new details emerged showing the broad scope of the federal probe.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Director of Athletics Jerry Kill announced on Monday he is leaving his position at SIU to accept a job on the football coaching staff at Virginia Tech, effective immediately. Kill will serve as special assistant to fourth-year head coach Justin Fuente.
“The opportunity to serve as an administrator at SIU has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career, and it was a difficult decision to leave so many wonderful friends and colleagues at Southern Illinois,” Kill said. “There is an outstanding leadership team in place within Athletics and I’m confident they will continue to build upon the foundation we’ve laid, allowing me to return to my passion, which is coaching football. I’ve tried to get away from football, but I just can’t.”
A three-time national coach-of-the year, Kill is a beloved figure in southern Illinois, where he led the Saluki football program to five-consecutive NCAA playoff appearances from 2003 to 2007. In addition to his many coaching awards, Kill has a long list of civic honors, stemming from his public advocacy for worthy causes, such as the Coach Kill Cancer Fund that he started in southern Illinois while coaching at SIU, and the Epilepsy Chasing Dreams Fund he began while at Minnesota.
“We’re grateful to Jerry for taking on the leadership of Saluki athletics at a critical time, and we respect his decision to return to his passion,” said SIU Chancellor John M. Dunn. He has worked diligently on behalf of the university and the athletics program. In just over a year, he has hired seven head coaches, reorganized the program’s administrative structure and dedicated himself to fundraising efforts. Notably, he was an architect of the 20-year, $10 million agreement with Banterra Bank to rename the SIU Arena the Banterra Center. We are fortunate to have had his energy and enthusiasm focused on SIU and know he will continue to do great things moving forward.
After leaving SIU in 2007, Kill made coaching stops at Northern Illinois and Minnesota, then tried his hand at athletic administration, working as an assistant AD at Kansas State in 2016, before returning to the sidelines as an assistant coach at Rutgers for one year.
Kill returned to SIU in February of 2018 as a special assistant to the chancellor, and two months later took over as AD. During his 16 months on the job, Kill replaced seven of the department’s 11 head coaches. His list of coaching hires includes Bryan Mullins (Men’s Basketball), Grant Williams (Soccer), Rosalind Joseph (Track & Field), Ed Allen (Volleyball), Danielle Kaufman (Women’s Golf), Geoff Hanson (Swimming & Diving) and Lance Rhodes (Baseball).
Kill also restructured the department’s administration, hiring Liz Jarnigan as his Senior Woman Administrator, plus senior-level administrators Jeff Jones (operations), Jimmy Karayiannis (community outreach), Kate Hanson (development), Katie Gerlach (facilities), Hilary Wittenborn (academics) and David Rule (athletic training).
Chancellor John M. Dunn has appointed Liz Jarnigan to replace Kill as athletic director. Jarnigan joined the athletics staff in July 2018 as associate director of athletics, overseeing all aspects of the program’s internal operations.
Jarnigan came to SIU after serving for two years as senior women administrator for the Air Force Academy’s athletics program. Prior to that, she worked for eight years at San Jose State University, starting as the director for student-athlete success before being promoted to senior woman administrator. During her tenure at San Jose State, the department’s overall Academic Progress Rate (APR) rose from 925 to 972. The football team’s APR increased from 888 in 2008 to 975 in 2015. The overall student-athlete GPA reached an all-time high in 2016.
Jarnigan has also served as coordinator of student services and an associate athletic director for student services at the University of Tulsa. Her career in athletics administration began at Briar Cliff College, where she was an assistant athletic director and interim director of athletics. The 1987 graduate cum laude of St. Olaf College was a four-year letter-winner in volleyball. She received her master’s degree in athletic administration from Fort Hays State University in 1988.
At the time of Jarnigan’s hire to SIU, Kill said “this is the most important hire I’ve made in a long time.”
“She has the ability to solve complicated issues,” he added. “She’s much more qualified to be an athletic director than I am.”
A memo Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration reportedly sent to state agency directors last week asks for ideas to save 6.5 percent through efficiencies, elimination of boards and commissions and other ideas. But how to deal with the state’s major cost driver of pensions is absent.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging the state’s Firearm Owner Identification card law that could affect a single person or the entire state.
Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.
(Editor’s Note: This is a story I wrote on September 13, 2001, two days after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Even after all these years this story still gives me “chills.” The AP picked up this story and it hit the national wire. I did probably six radio interviews by telephone from various places around the nation. This story has to rank as one of my all-time favorites simply because of the raw emotion everybody was feeling in those days immediately following the terrorist attacks. — JM)
By Jim Muir
BENTON–There are things that happen in life, even though hard to explain, that can be passed off as coincidence. And then there are other things, regardless of how much a person tries to reason, that simply have no explanation. Such was the case recently in Benton when a simple phone call produced a chain of events that could only be described as eerie.
The odyssey began Thursday when Benton High School athletic director Don Smith contacted Benton businessman David Severin looking for 40 small flags to place at Tabor Field for Friday night’s football game, as a way to honor and remember the terrorist attack in New York earlier this week.
Severin explained to Smith that he also had been trying to locate flags for his store, All Stars n’ Stitches, that’s located on the Benton square. Severin told Smith, in the aftermath of what had taken place in New York City and Washington D.C., everybody was sold out of flags.
Approximately 30 minutes after the phone call Severin received another call, this time from his mother.
“The first thing she asked me was if I knew anybody that might be looking for some flags,” Severin said. “I asked her how many flags she had and she said 40.”
Severin explained that his mother had been going through the personal belongings of his father, the Rev. George Severin, who passed away two months ago, and came upon the flags that had never been unwrapped.
Severin immediately traveled to his mother’s home and what he saw, in his words, gave him “goose bumps.”
“My dad loved to decorate with flags so it wasn’t uncommon that he’d ordered them,” Severin said. “But when I looked at the sales ticket I noticed that he had ordered the flags more than 30 years ago.”
The flags were shipped, Severin said, from New York City on Sept. 11, 1970 – exactly 31 years to the day that New York City was attacked by terrorists.
“Totally unbelievable,” Severin said. “When I saw the date and where the flags were shipped from … I couldn’t believe it – what’s the chances?”
And if that’s not enough for any skeptics in the audience who want to say ‘merely a coincidence’ there’s one final piece to this puzzle. According to the sales ticket the flags were shipped to the house where the Rev. George Severin lived in 1970 – the address is 337 South Main Street in Benton — which happens to be the same house where Don Smith, the person that made the original phone call about the flags, currently lives.
