The Sentinel

Teams and schedule set for the 2024 Toyota of Danville Classic

Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks

St. Joseph-Ogden's Coy Taylor tries to force a turnover while playing defense on Oakwood's Brody Taflinger in the 2023 Toyota of Danville Classic championship game. SJO beat the Comets, the number one team from Pool A, 74-42.

ST. JOSEPH - Months away, the eight-team lineup for this year's Toyota of Danville Basketball Classic was released earlier this week. The annual early season hoops tournament opens at St. Joseph-Ogden High School on December 2, and the championship games will take place five days later on December 7.

New to the tournament this year, Kankakee Bishop McNamara will join Cissna Park, Oakwood, and Paxton-Buckley-Loda in Pool A.

Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks

Charleston's Mikey Myers and ALAH's Colin Smith go up for a rebound at last year's pool play. The Trojans defeated the Knights, 59-26.

Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond, Charleston, and Watseka return to Pool B with last year's champions St. Joseph-Ogden. The Spartans defeated Oakwood in the title game in the high school's main gym, 74-42.

Once again, spectators and basketball fans can expect 16 exciting, fast-paced games with the return of the 35-second shot clock.

Admission fees for this year's tournament are $5 for adults and $3 for students. Tickets will be available at the ticket booth at the main entrance before each game.

2024
Toyota of Danville Classic Schedule

Pool A:
Cissna Park
Oakwood
PBL
Kankakee Bishop McNamara

Pool B:
Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond
Charleston
St. Joseph-Ogden
Watseka

Monday, 12/2/24:
5:00 PM: Kankakee Bishop McNamara vs. Oakwood
6:30 PM: ALAH vs. St. Joseph-Ogden
8:00 PM: Cissna Park vs. PBL

Tuesday, 12/3/24:
5:00 PM: Charleston vs. ALAH
6:30 PM: Watseka vs. St. Joseph-Ogden
8:00 PM: Oakwood vs. PBL

Wednesday, 12/4/24:
5:00 PM: Watseka vs. Charleston
6:30 PM: PBL vs. Kankakee Bishop McNamara
8:00 PM: Oakwood vs. Cissna Park

Friday, 12/6/24:
5:00 PM: Cissna Park vs. Kankakee Bishop McNamara
6:30 PM: ALAH vs. Watseka
8:00 PM: Charleston vs. St. Joseph-Ogden

Saturday, 12/7/24:
1:00 PM: 7 th Place Game
2:30 PM: 5 th Place Game
4:00 PM: 3 rd Place Game
5:30 PM: 1 st Place Game

American farmers are being robbed blind by corporation profiteers

by Jim Hightower
OtherWords

America’s agriculture policies were written by corporate lobbyists who couldn’t run a watermelon stand

A farmer was asked what he’d do if he won a million-dollar lottery. “Well,” he said, “I guess I’d just keep farming ‘til the money runs out.”

Trying to make a living as a farmer is not for the fainthearted. You have to take out high-interest loans from cold-eyed bankers to put in a crop and buy supplies. Then you’re also at the mercy of everything from bugs to monopolistic middlemen. And here’s a cruel twist: If you defy the odds and produce a great crop, you lose money!

Lynn Danielson/Unsplash

This is happening right now. With unusually-good weather this year, corn and soybean harvests are expected to set records. But this abundance creates a market glut, allowing middlemen to knock down prices paid to farmers. A bushel of Illinois corn, for example, costs farmers $4.30 to produce, but they’re only getting $3.70 for it.

Meanwhile, the cost of such basics as seed, fertilizer, and tractors are skyrocketing. High costs coupled with low crop prices means that farmers’ income is expected to drop by 25 percent this year.

You might call this good crop-bad price phenomenon “ironic.” But it’s deliberate – an inevitable product of America’s perverse agricultural policy that pushes farmers to over produce in order to keep commodity prices low for giant processors and retailers. Little known fact: Our national “farm policy” is not written by farmers but by corporate lobbyists, lawyers, and economists – people who couldn’t run a watermelon stand if we gave them the melons and had the highway patrol flag down the customers for them.

That has got to change. To join an effort to demand a farm bill written by and for farmers, consumers, workers, and our environment, go to: FarmAid.org/Take-Action.