Rich Egger

Plans for a large-scale hog farm in southeast McDonough County are still up in the air.

Shamrock Acres LLC applied for a permit from the Illinois Department of Agriculture nearly 10 months ago.

Last fall's deadline for the department to decide on the permit came and went.  The department decided it needed more information from the owner,  Larry O'Hern

Caterpillar has ruled Illinois  out of plans  to relocate a factory and 1,400 jobs from  Japan.

The  Peoria-based  heavy-equipment maker cited both logistical  problems  and ongoing concerns about the state's business climate.

Caterpillar laid out its decision in an e-mail to leaders in Galesburg and in Peoria County.   Those were among fewer than a dozen Illinois locations trying  to win the new plant.

If people are in need - starving, say, or in a burning home - it’s crazy to check IDs of those trying to help. And if you want to assist the rescue, you aid the rescuers, whether they’re Klan members or Sierra Clubbers. If you want to hurt the rescuers, you attack them - especially in the pocketbook - and ignore the people who need help.

Until leaders at Susan G. Komen reversed course last Friday, they’d planned to ignore women benefiting from Planned Parenthood exams they help underwrite because they’d rather hurt Planned Parenthood.

The Galesburg City Council needed a tie-breaking vote from Mayor Sal Garza to complete the sale of two lots on West First St.

Aldermen deadlocked over whether to sell the adjacent properties at 569 and 593 West First to the neighbors - Edgreal and Oletha Wallace of 597 West First -  or to St Mary's Square Living Center.

The Wallaces bid $200 for the first lot and $1,000 for the second.  St Mary's bid $325 for each with the bid contingent upon receiving both parcels.

The panelists debate whether journalists should be concerned about news makers using social media to circumvent reporters.

The starting point for the discussion is a New York Times piece by David Carr, who wrote about Rupert Murdoch's use of Twitter. Murdoch has only recently started tweeting and has used the platform to sound off on a wide variety of topics.

Some journalists fear news makers will use social media to eliminate the middleman - ie, reporters - and simply distribute their thoughts and information directly to the audience.

Macomb aldermen agreed to take steps designed to prevent an unwanted guest from making itself at home in the community.

The city will not allow campers to bring firewood in to Spring Lake Park unless it in shrink-wrapped bundles and certified by the USDA to be free of the Emerald Ash Borer.

Firewood that is not USDA certified would be confiscated and immediately burned.

City Forester Tim Howe said the EAB lays its eggs in firewood, and campers then help the destructive insect get around.

A proposal in the Illinois legislature  would prevent people with certain types of diabetes from driving  a school bus.

Studies  have shown that people with insulin-controlled  diabetes tend to get  into more crashes than other drivers. If  a person's blood sugar gets too  low, he or she can lose consciousness.

Such people are already barred from driving semi-trailers.

Representative Roger Eddy (R-Hutsonville) wants to take the existing restrictions on getting a  Commercial Drivers' License (CDL) and apply them to school bus drivers.

Opponents of a proposed large-scale hog farm in McDonough County can breathe a sigh of relief - at least for now.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture declined to issue a permit to South Morgan Acres, LLC, which would be built in the northwest part of the county. The state said it required more information about the farm.

In a letter sent to the owners on February 3, the Agriculture Department said:

“Our additional information request is as follows:

This semester's Sustainability Brownbaggers at Western Illinois University will begin by focusing on food-related issued.

Timothy Collins, Assistant Director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at WIU, helped organize the series. He said the first brownbagger is titled “Local Food Possibilities and Issues.”

In The Tri States is a look back at the top stories and features from the Tri States Public Radio news department from the previous month.

In January 2012, Mitt Romney was initially named winner of the Iowa Republican caucuses, then a later count declared Rick Santorum the winner. Reporter Jason Parrott discovered paperwork errors in Lee County led to some of the confusion. The head of the Iowa GOP resigned as a result of the snafu.