Illinois, McHenry County | featured news

BEIJING – World health officials expressed “great concern” Wednesday that a dangerous new virus is starting to spread between people outside of China, a troubling development as China and the world frantically work to contain the outbreak. For a second day, the number of infections grew dramatically.

The new virus has now infected more people in China than were sickened there during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker delivered his first State of the State address Wednesday, talking tough about ending fraud and graft in a state notorious for corruption and urging support for such contentious ideas as halting the time-honored practice of lawmakers leaving the Legislature to immediately become lobbyists.

Speaking a day after former Democratic Sen.

Vanessa Bryant made her first public comment Wednesday since the helicopter crash that killed her husband Kobe Bryant, one of their daughters and seven others, taking to Instagram to thank people for the global outpouring of support since the tragedy.

She also announced the formation of a fund to help support the other families that were affected by the crash.

“Thank you for all the prayers. We definitely need them,” Vanessa Bryant wrote.

An article in Wednesday’s edition contained an error. Only two people died from overdoses upon being released from the Kane County Jail in 2019, but neither received treatment in the Recovery Pod.

The Northwest Herald regrets the error.

Now that the Interstate 90 interchange at Route 23 in Marengo is operational, conversations at the city's annual State of the Community breakfast on Wednesday focused on economic development in the surrounding area.

Marengo City Administrator Joshua Blakemore said the city recently was awarded a $26.9 million grant from a state capital bill for three purposes: the extension of utilities within the interchange area, additional work to the city's wastewater treatment plant to accommodate new growth and remediation efforts to prevent groundwater from flooding

In today’s digital world, many of us spend hours staring at digital screens. While there are health risks for all of us, when it comes to young children, the development of our brains could be at risk.

For parents, it is important to limit our children’s screen time watching videos, playing games and texting friends. John Meulendyke, principal at Immanuel Lutheran School in Crystal Lake, points to research showing a direct correlation between increased motor skills, cognitive skills and brain development.

All seven GOP candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the 14th Congressional District believe in making sure Social Security is solvent for those who now rely on the program or soon will.

But they don't agree on the best way to save it, and one candidate went as far as to call for winding down Social Security and replacing it.

The GOP candidates shared three main ideas last week to ensure Social Security survives for at least the near future.

State Sens.

Read the full text of Illinois Gov.

ELGIN (AP) — Hundreds of people attended a funeral service in Elgin Wednesday for a former U.S. Air Force mechanic who became an “unclaimed veteran” when he died last month.

The service for John James Murphy, 71, was held at Symonds-Madison Funeral Home in Elgin. Murphy died Dec. 18 at a nearby hospital after living in a rehabilitation center since 2017. The funeral home was unable to find any relatives.

"He is ours,” the Rev.

A jury on Wednesday acquitted a former McHenry man of charges that alleged he beat his dog with a garbage can lid in 2017.

After about 2 1/2 hours of deliberation, jurors returned not guilty verdicts for Michael Braun on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and animal cruelty.

Braun has long denied the allegations against him and claimed that several people who disagreed with his family's political views, and the "Trump" flag in their lawn, repeatedly filed false accusations against him.