Champaign County | featured news

Carolyn Savage, 80, of Champaign, is one of five local women who will be honored Saturday by the Champaign County Section of the National Council of Negro Women.

CHAMPAIGN — Described as a kind and selfless giver, Carolyn Savage has never sought the limelight.
Now she's about to be honored by an organization that believes unsung heroines of the community shouldn't go unrecognized.

At a meeting Monday, IDOT encouraged drivers to use alternate routes during construction, which will narrow the bridge from two lanes each way to one lane each way. And instead of two turn lanes onto I-74, there will only be one.

Submit questions to Tom's Mailbag by clicking here

In three weeks, those who remain will be brought into the federal courthouse in Peoria in groups of 20 each morning and afternoon. There, they'll face questioning as a group from U.S. District Judge James Shadid.

New among the 1,664 alumni stories you'll find at uofi150.news-gazette.com: a tribute to a pioneering University of Illinois trustee, from a Chicago attorney and member of the UI Class of 1980.

State police said the 16-year-old female driver and her 18-year-old male passenger were hurt when their car suffered a blown tire at mile marker 190, near the Charleston Avenue exit in Mattoon.

MATTOON — Two youths from Mattoon and Danville were injured in a single-vehicle rollover accident Friday afternoon on Interstate 57 in Mattoon.

Johnathon R. Trammell, 29, previously of Williamsport, Ind., pleaded guilty Monday to predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, a Class X felony. Under truth-in-sentencing laws, he must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence.

DANVILLE — An Indiana man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for molesting a child whose house he was staying at last year.

Police said they discovered 49 rounds of pistol ammunition in the backpack of the student, who was sent to the Youth Detention Center. They noted that the threat was directed at a student at another school.

URBANA — An Urbana High School student was arrested Monday after allegedly making threats involving a gun toward another student at a different school on social media.

Zachary Holt, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to theft. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a second theft charge.

URBANA — A Danville man who admitted stealing power tools from that city's Habitat for Humanity Restore last year has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Zachary Holt, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to theft. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a second theft charge.

Illinois checks in at No. 7

[podcast id="3428"]
Just back from EYBL in Indianapolis, college basketball writer Scott Richey checks in with his adjusted Big Ten power poll after the news of John Beilein's departure from Michigan to the Cavaliers.
1. Michigan State
No other Big Ten team returns a first-team All-American.
2. Maryland

Judge to Thomas Boitnott: 'You were obligated to protect her, and you just let her sit there for hours.'

URBANA — A Champaign County judge on Monday gave a strong rebuke to a repentant St. Joseph man convicted of leaving his infant daughter in a field.