The Sentinel: Community News

Champaign-Urbana comes together for Hands-Off! rally

Champaign Hands-Off! Mobilization — **CHAMPAIGN** - Over a thousand people gathered at West Park for the Hands-Off! Mobilization rally on Saturday at noon. Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of Americans participated in a national day of action to protest policies implemented since Donald Trump began his second term as President. Critics highlight Trump's frequent use of executive orders, bypassing legislative process, which they argue has harmed the country's reputation, economy, and exacerbated societal divisions. The two-hour rally featured several guest speakers who shared their thoughts on the state of the country since Trump has taken office. Conservative estimates put the attendance significantly above last Saturday's rain-soaked Rally for Democracy organized by Champaign-Urbana Resistance Effort (CURE) in Urbana. See more photos here ...

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Man claiming to work for the public health district does not, according to CUPHD

CHAMPAIGN – There is a man going door-to-door in Champaign County, identifying himself as an employee of the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD). The CUPHD issued a press release today urging residents approached at home by anyone claiming to be a health inspector or working for the public health district to call 9-1-1 and report them to the local authorities.

Press Release ~

Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD) is alerting residents about a male individual falsely claiming to represent public health while going door-to-door in Champaign County. Both CUPHD and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) have confirmed that they do not have any staff currently conducting door-to-door visits.

Residents are urged to stay cautious. If someone unexpectedly comes to your door claiming to be from public health, do not let them in and immediately call 9-1-1 to report the incident.

Public health officials want to ensure the safety of the community and remind residents that official health representatives will always provide proper identification and will not conduct unannounced home visits.

For any concerns or to verify public health outreach efforts, please contact CUPHD at 217-352-7961 or visit www.c-uphd.org.

Snow humor on Facebook community page frost some, delight others

TOLONO - On Friday, one individual or an ad-hoc group of anonymous posters authored a series of over 70 amusing weather/school-related posts in the Tolono Wire, a private Facebook group with over six thousand members for residents to share community information. The series started at 10:48 AM, and Facebook shows the last one posted at 7:39 PM.

What started as a dig at the school district for not canceling school due to a light snow event drew the ire of some and laughs from other members of the page.

A couple of post attracted the attention of WCIA meterologist joined the fun with a few humorous posts of his own.

A post tagging #wica at 1:22 asked, "Where is Jacob Dickey when you need him!?" Barely an hour later, Dickey was in front of the high school taking a selfie he posted to his Facebook page.

Here's a peek at the top 35 posts, in chronological order, with the most interactions (likes/love).

What some people thought

While the majority of posters were entertained, a handful Tolono residents did not appreciate the humor. Here are 20 comments out of hundreds users posted the anonyomous messages on Friday.

T.P. wrote: "THANK YOU! All these people on here saying we’re soft and this is why we don’t learn anything…while not knowing the difference between there and their. 😭Some people are so stiff. Please take it down a notch. You forget that you were us once!"

M.G. wrote: "I don't know which I find more hilarious; all these posts, or all the adults with no sense of humor, getting their panties in a bunch lol!! Come on folks you only live once! Laugh a little geez!! 🤣 🤣 🤣"

J.S. wrote: "If I could possibly help to lower anyone’s blood pressure over the “anonymous get out early posts”. The majority of them are coming from students who are disappointed after they were notified that they are not letting school out early. The posts are making me chuckle a little. Specifically the one “these sweet children shouldn’t be in school , the roads are dangerous”😂😂 I have also noticed quite a few more students asking to join, I would anticipate more anonymous posts coming soon 😂"

T.G. wrote: "How do we know that the kids just asked to go outside and do it? Like everyone is jumping to conclusions"

C.L. wrote: "Sounds like someone is posting just to create drama."

B.R. wrote: "We couldn't do this back in my generation because anonymous posts weren't a thing! Gatley would have had us in his office in 2 seconds 😂"

J.S. wrote: "It's school kids. They are just having a bit of fun"

M.B. wrote: "I am having a stressful day and this is making my day better 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣"

J.D. wrote: "Aren't the students supposed to have their phones put away during the day (with lots of sarcasm)"

A.A. wrote: "Have you seen the grammar?!? It’s definitely not the teachers 🤣🤣"

S.S. wrote: "Whose dad is this? This movie came out 21 years ago! Also I love this movie!"

J.S. wrote: "I loved all these post !! Clean fun shenanigans hurt NOONE !!"

S.B. wrote: "Not funny at all" and on another post, "I totally agree STOP"

K.E. wrote: "And best post of the day award goes to.... 🤣🏆"

T.H. wrote: "I’m from Teutopolis. In my town, school was never cancelled if there was a basketball game to be played that night. (That’s how winners win…if you want to beat T-Town, you have to stay in school.)"

F.L. wrote: "I’m not even from yall area but these threads are absolutely entertaining 🤣🤣"

T.H. wrote: "I think they need to remove everyone that’s not from Tolono !"

T.C. wrote: "I'ma just say it... These posts have made me laugh all day today!! Thanks for the laughs and smiles!! Now enjoy the weekend peeps and know we raised some humorous children in this town IDC who says different"

A.M. wrote: "Harmless fun and we have all played a prank or two on our lives. It was cleaver and funny. Knowbody got hurt."

C.H. wrote: "Boomers be boomering"

L.M. wrote: "The kids were having a bit of fun. Yes during school hours but oh well. It is much better then them being bad and fighting. It was hilarious!!!!!"

Op-Ed |
Where did all our local newspapers go?

Photo: Zo Willibrord/Pexels

from Jim Hightower

I no longer receive my local newspaper, the Austin-American Statesman.

Oh, the paper still comes, but it’s just paper, minus the news part — news that our community once counted on to keep up with local government doings, corporate shenanigans, citizen actions, and other critical features of our city’s democratic life.

What happened? Wall Street profiteers swept in a few years ago to conglomeratize, homogenize, and financialize the Statesman.

Jim Hightower

It’s now a money cog in the Gannett/USA Today chain of some 200 major dailies that the syndicate seized. Indeed, Gannett itself is wholly owned by SoftBank, a Japanese hedge fund. Those distant bankers are not interested in local news, but in slashing news staffs to fatten their profits. In Austin alone, Softbank has cut two-thirds of the paper’s journalists since taking over — and coverage of local stories has also plunged by two-thirds.

Interestingly, the Statesman recently ran a front-page piece about a local union protest by flight attendants demanding fair wages. On that same day, the paper also reported that Uber and Lyft drivers were striking in Austin.

But at the same time, the Statesman journalists were picketing right in front of the paper’s office, protesting the greed of SoftBank/Gannett and the demise of local news. Curiously, Statesman editors did not consider this local news about our newspaper to be news, so they cravenly kept this important information from the people.

Austin was not alone in this news blackout by the chain’s managers. Journalists at a dozen other Gannett papers — from Akron, Ohio to South Bend, Indiana — were picketing, yet, none of those papers ran a peep about their journalists’ defense of local news. Nor did Gannett’s flagship paper, USA Today, mention this nationwide union rebellion by its own journalists.

To support journalists and real journalism, go to newsguild.org.

About the author ~

OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.