A recent report by the U.S. The Department of Veterans Affairs, cited by the online news site The Center Square, indicated the home’s problems included ventilation problems, ineffective hand sanitizer and a Halloween party staff reportedly attended. Where were Governor’s Pritzker’s mitigation rules?
According to media reports, staff who showed positive virus test results were also allowed to work in the home’s COVID wing. It’s also been reported, it took 12 days before the Illinois Department of Public Health responded to the LaSalle Veterans’ Home outbreak.
Another media report by the Associated Press indicated the outbreak first began in late October when one staff member and a resident tested positive for COVID.
Given past experience with Legionnaire’s Disease, how quickly it spread at the Quincy Veterans Home, and the rapid increase in the number of positive COVID cases statewide, state government should have been on red alert.
In fact, it was known by late May that half of the COVID deaths were in nursing homes. If these congregate living arrangements would have been a priority, the elderly vets at LaSalle Veterans’ Home could have been better protected.
I join my legislative colleagues, Senators Sue Rezin whose district is home to the LaSalle Veterans’ Home and Paul Schimpf a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War, who are calling for additional legislative hearings to get to the bottom of this crisis that threatens the lives of our heroes. Lessons learned could help protect other Illinoisans at nursing homes around the state.
Our veterans deserve better than the failed leadership Pritzker has showed. Real leadership is more than just lecturing people, it is about real results.
Offices around the state have been closed since November 17 in anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 infections.
Locally, the Titon and Rantoul offices will remain open with limited services. The Tilton office, located at 5 Southgate Drive, and the Rantoul office at 421 S. Murray Road will continue to have drive-through license sticker renewals. In addition, the inside office will be open for commercial driver’s license (CDL) applications, and new drivers can also register at the facility.
White has expanded online services for the public, which they can take advantage of by visiting www.cyberdriveillinois.com. Some of these services include:
White said expiration dates of driver’s licenses and ID cards have been extended until June 1 of next year.
Did you know nearly two-thirds of shoppers are looking for curated gift lists online? Yeah, neither did we until we started doing the research on how to create a successful guide for our readers.
The Sentinel Holiday Gift Guide is designed to increase the visibility of your business and products. We want to help as many small businesses that we can ring in some extra sales over the next three weeks. Here's another fact: Gift guides are shown to more than double conversion rates and increase engagement by 76% especially for online retailers.
Like other small business ventures, the pandemic has kicked our virtual news tushy. With over 500 readers a day and plenty of time on our hands, we figure we can lend a helping hand to area small business with lots of free publicity. Sixty-six percent of holiday buyers plan to shop more at locally this holiday season and we want to make it easy for them by shining a light on products and services from area small businesses.
So what is this going to cost to be featured? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. We are looking highlight and share awesome gift ideas to our readers. Hopefully, our guide will keep people buying local and rebuild the local economy.
If you have a product or service you would like featured in the gift guide, simply copy the section below, paste it into a new email message to and advertising@oursentinel.com after you have answered the questions. Owners are welcome to submit as many items as they wish. We will select only one item every seven days to feature.
If you have any questions don't hesitate to email us at advertising@oursentinel.com or call 217.778.2197.
Name of Business:
Contact Name: Contact Phone Number:
Website Address:
Link to featured item on your website:
Description of the product or service:
Choose a category:
Category options: • Gifts under $25 • Gifts Women & Girls Will Love • Gifts for Men & Boys • Food • Gifts for Everyone
• Art & Home Decoration • For Newlyweds • Gifts for Students • Stocking Stuffers
Retail Price: Sale Price:
(Enter Sale Price if the product/service is being offered at discount)
Wednesdays figure from the Illinois Department of Public Health surpassed the high of 191 set back in mid-May. Health officials admitted that the new high could be from delayed reporting of data over the Thanksgiving weekend.
"Today marks a solemn milestone, with 238 lives lost to COVID-19 reported in the last 24 hours," Governor J.B. Pritzker said during his Wednesday coronavirus update. "We'll continue to watch these numbers closely in the coming weeks to have a better picture of our trajectory, but a life lost, reported late, following a holiday, is still a life lost."
As of today the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District is reporting the six villages The Sentinel covers has 97 active case, up three from Wednesday's 94.There are 11 active cases in Ogden, 9 in Philo, 2 in Royal, 5 in Sidney, 45 in St. Joseph and Tolono has 25 reported cases.
On Tuesday, the CUPHD reported 100 cases, a number our area last witnessed on November 15 when the area went from 69 to 110 cases overnight. The rolling average the last seven days of November was 127 cases.
In the past week, The Giving Place provided assistance to 12 families, 25 adults and eight children.
The charitable organization thanked Pastor Catherine Thomas and several volunteers for serving those who sought help during the past week and for their help in cleaning, sorting and stocking racks on Wednesday. They also thanked everyone who generously donated food or money to the ministry to make their work possible.
"We are in need of the following items: canned fruit, (especially pears, fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges, pineapple & applesauce), snack items of all kinds, and peanut butter," wrote Mike Williams in an email.
Normally, The Giving Place does not accepting clothing items, but with cold, winter weather now settling in East Central Illinois, they are now accepting donations of new or gently used, clean winter coats, hats and gloves/mittens. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the organization is not accepting new volunteers at this time.
Rain and drizzle canceled all area baseball games except one. The Urbana Tigers traveled to Westville, hoping for a win. Unfortunately...
