SJO & Unity basketball streaming schedule tonight on NFHS

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Games on hold

Update: At 1:16 PM, the St. Joseph-Ogden athletic department announced all games for tonight have been canceled due to weather conditions. New date TBA. At 1:42 PM, Unity games were also been postponed. JV and varsity contests will be played at Prairie Central on February 25.

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Catch the Unity boys basketball team or both the boys and girls St. Joseph-Ogden basketball squads in action tonight via the NFHS streaming services.

SJO senior Payton Vallee looks for an open teammate in SJO's home game against Monticello last year on January 20, 2021. Vallee and this year's undefeated Spartans are on the road tonight against Central Catholic tonight. Fans can enjoy the game from the warmth of their homes via a streaming services.

The Rockets varsity squad (0-4), in search of their first win of the season, take on Prairie Central tonight. In the team's best performance this season, Blake Kimball and Brady Porter led Unity with 21 and 20 points respectively in Unity's 10-point loss to Pontiac on Friday. The pair along with Damian Knoll and Dillon Rutledge are set to come away with a hard-fought win tonight.

Meanwhile, the undefeated St. Joseph-Ogden girls basketball team, 2-0 in Illini Prairie Conference play and 3-0 overall, travel to Bloomington to take on Central Catholic. The road game was originally scheduled for last night, but Mother Nature had other ideas forcing the Illini Prairie Conference game to be rescheduled for tonight. The Lady Saints are 4-2 after posting wins over Pontiac, Prairie Central and Normal University. The team's two losses were at the hands of larger programs, Redbirds of Metamora and Galesburg's Silver Streaks.

While the SJO girls squad plays to keep their perfect season record intact, the Spartan varsity squad looks to pick up win number 2 after a late start to the 2021 season due to COVID-19 protocols that had to be observed during the first week of play. All eyes will be on Ty Pence who led all scorers in the season opener against Rantoul with an impressive double-double. The sophomore D-I prospect drained 24 points and snag 20 rebounds in the victory.

SJO fans shouldn't let BCC's 2-4 record fool them. The Saints losses have come against Class 3A Normal Community, Moline, Rock Island and Morton leading up to tonight's IPC game in St. Joseph.

Here are the links to each of tonight's streams. If you are not already a subscriber, follow this link sign up for a monthly or annual subscription. Monthly passes are just $10.99 each or save 47% and purchase an annual subscription at $69.99.

Sentinel area sports tonight

SJO Boys Junior Varsity Basketball vs Central Catholic | 5:25 PM Central

Unity Boys Sophomore Basketball @ Prairie Central | 5:30 PM Central

SJO Girls Junior Varsity Basketball @ Central Catholic | 5:25 PM Central

SJO Girls Varsity Basketball @ Central Catholic | 6:55 PM Central

SJO Boys Varsity Basketball vs Central Catholic | 6:57 PM Central

Unity Boys Varsity Basketball @ Prairie Central | 7:00 PM Central

Citizen-Initiative proposal could give more power to special interest groups

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by Lily Bohlke
Public News Service

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Republican lawmakers will propose a series of constitutional amendments they say would give residents a more direct voice in Illinois government, but which critics counter could give more political power to special interests.

The three resolutions would open up the use of citizen initiatives, allow residents to hold referendums on legislation and expand the existing governor recall process to apply to all public officials.

Alisa Kaplan, executive director of Reform for Illinois, said regulating campaign spending on ballot questions is nearly impossible, so the amendments could give wealthy special interests an outsized impact.

"It's hard to find that balance between empowering citizens and preventing special interests from hijacking the process," Kaplan acknowledged. "But we think it's a worthwhile discussion to be having right now."

She pointed to the example of an initiative in California in which companies such as Lyft, Uber and DoorDash spent $200 million to effectively overturn a state law requiring those companies to classify workers as employees rather than independent contractors.

Kaplan pointed out other efforts in various states have brought about important change.

Michigan established an independent commission for redistricting by a ballot question in 2018. That same year, New Mexico voters passed an initiative to create an independent state ethics commission to keep lawmakers in check.

"We really are missing out in Illinois on the opportunity to use citizen initiatives to enact meaningful reforms," Kaplan contended. "That's particularly true of areas where politicians might be particularly invested in the status quo and unwilling to act themselves."

She noted the legislative inspector general's office in Illinois has often been seen as ineffective in providing oversight over lawmakers. She hopes democracy reform, without the influence of big money, will help in the future.

Guest Commentary | We need to all stop biting each other

by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

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Democrats have proven once again that they can find fault in President Donald Trump.

Faults and flaws were found in him before the election. Many years before politics there were never any rave reviews about him being perfect.

During the recent impeachment trial, Democrats and Republicans hammered home their perspectives and interpretation of Trump's speech given on January 6th to those who came to Washington to protest. Once again, Americans either agreed or disagreed with the outcome of the impeachment trial.

Surely most Americans will agree there is no such thing as a perfect President.

Was John F. Kennedy perfect? Was Richard Nixon perfect? Bush Sr. or Jr? Obama? Go back through history and you can't find a perfect person sitting in the oval office. President Joe Biden is no exception.

You may remember what the Bible says, "All have sinned." Another verse says, "No one is righteous. No not one." There will never be a perfect President. Some will be better than others. Some will be much better and some will be much worse.

There are no perfect politicians.

Almost any politician will disappoint you...

Do you think Nancy Pelosi is perfect? I don't. Is Mitch McConnell perfect. He is not, nor are any of the other members of the House or the Senate. Some are better than others. Some try harder, work harder, try to live disciplined lives more than others. Some try to work harder for their districts better than others. Some are good moral people and excellent parents. Some may not be so great. Almost any politician will disappoint you, eventually. It's bound to happen; they are imperfect people.

We have to come to grips with the fact that perfect people are not to be found.

I thought my mom was pretty perfect but I'm very prejudiced when it comes to my mother. My heart would never allow me to see anything wrong with her. Love is like that. Love often sees no wrongs. Sometimes we are like this toward a child, grandchildren, a spouse, our minister, or priest. There are people that we often hold in such regard that even if they are doing something wrong and we know it's wrong, our hearts have a hard time seeing that it's wrong. Too often love is blind.

Americans want someone to love and respect. We want to be loved. We like holding people in high regard.

The people we direct it to enjoy the feeling when we make them feel special. It's all good to some extent. Truthfully though whoever you are enamored with will eventually disappoint you if you look and listen long enough. Human beings, all of us are capable, and often say the wrong thing.

Use the wrong language. Get angry. Say hurtful things. Do things that are often regretted. We make mistakes in words we use and things we do. All of us.

As 2021 moves forward, so must we.

Joe Biden is President of the United States. It is likely Donald Trump will run again. In the meantime, we need to all stop biting each other and get this country healthy, back to work, back in the restaurants, churches and kids back in school.

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Dr. Glenn Mollette is a syndicated American columnist and author of American Issues, Every American Has An Opinion and ten other books. He is read in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization.

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This article is the sole opinions of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Sentinel. We welcome comments and views from our readers.

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