Strong finish for SJO — Spartans take 4th at Illini Prairie tourney with 343 strokes. Pruemer leads SJO with 11th-place finish 11 over par.
PONTIAC - St. Joseph-Ogden turned in a steady team performance to finish fourth at the 2025 Illini Prairie Conference Golf Tournament on Monday at Wolf Creek Golf Course. The Spartans posted a team score of 343, just behind third-place Bloomington Central Catholic at 332 and runner-up Monticello at 327. Prairie Central captured the conference championship with a team total of 322 strokes.
Saints' Vaughn Oakey led the field with an even-par 72, claiming the individual title. Sages’s Max Henrard and Prairie Central’s Easton Friedman tied for second with rounds of 73. St. Thomas More’s Wyatt Kirby carded a 75 to finish fourth overall.
SJO was paced by senior Asher Pruemer, who fired an 83 to finish in a four-way tie for 10th place, dropping to 11th thanks to a tie-breaker. Teammate Trevor Ames followed with an 84, while Garrett Loschen and Devan Swisher each shot 88. Graham Ray (94) and Nathan Daly (103) rounded out the Spartan lineup.
Team Leaderboard (Top 5)
1. Prairie Central 322
2. Monticello 327
3. Bloomington Central Catholic 332
4. St. Joseph-Ogden 343
5. St. Thomas More 348
Top 10 Individual Finishers
1. Vaughn Oakey, Bloomington Central Catholic 72
2. Max Henrard, Monticello 73
2. Easton Friedman, Prairie Central 73
4. Wyatt Kirby, St. Thomas More 75
5. Cayden Masching, Pontiac 77
6. Tyler Clarkson, St. Thomas More 79
7. Kaleb Hendrix, Monticello 81
8. Keller Schrock, Illinois Valley Central 82
8. Tucker Stoller, Prairie Central 82
10. Spencer Stockwill, Rantoul 83
11. Asher Pruemer, St. Joseph-Ogden 83
St. Joseph-Ogden Scores
Asher Pruemer 83
Trevor Ames 84
Garrett Loschen 88
Devan Swisher 88
Graham Ray 94
Nathan Daly 103
Team Total: 343 (4th place)
Illini Prairie Conference golf results, St. Joseph-Ogden golf tournament finish, Prairie Central golf team 2025, Wolf Creek Pontiac golf IHSA, Illinois high school golf conference championship
Illinois Supreme Court suspends Tom DeVore’s law license for 60 days over ethics violations tied to his romantic and professional relationship with a client.
SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois Supreme Court has ordered former Illinois attorney general Republican nominee Tom DeVore’s law license suspended for 60 days, following a yearslong public feud involving his client-turned-girlfriend and the state’s attorney discipline board.
The court’s order affirms a recommendation this spring by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, which found “clear and convincing evidence” that DeVore’s actions related to Riley Craig had broken several Illinois Supreme Court ethics rules.
Photo: Capitol News Illinois/Jerry Norwicki
Former Republican Illinois attorney general candidate Thomas DeVore is pictured at the Illinois State Fair in 2022.
Craig, a Springfield salon owner, was one of the hundreds of clients DeVore represented in dozens of lawsuits after gaining notoriety for representing then-state Rep. Darren Bailey in an April 2020 lawsuit challenging Gov. JB Pritzker’s COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. Two years later, DeVore joined Bailey on an unsuccessful statewide GOP ticket to unseat Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
DeVore, a lawyer from rural Greenville in the Metro East, began a romantic relationship with Craig after filing a pandemic-related lawsuit on her behalf in May 2020, according to ARDC documents. Though Craig’s litigation against the Pritzker administration was unsuccessful, their relationship continued for nearly three years.
In mounting a defense to the ARDC’s case, DeVore claimed that his work as Riley’s attorney in her effort to get her salon reopened had ended by the time their romantic involvement began in late May or June 2020. The ARDC disputed DeVore’s timeline, pointing to continued attorney behavior in that case.
But beyond that, DeVore went on to represent Riley in three other legal matters — including her divorce — that summer. That “demonstrated an unbroken continuation of his attorney-client relationship” with Craig, the ARDC ruled.
... consensual sexual activity between an attorney and a client constitutes an impermissible conflict of interest...
The disciplinary panel began looking into DeVore’s behavior in 2021, and during that initial investigation, Craig said she was not a client when their sexual relationship began. She repeated that claim on social media while DeVore was running for attorney general in 2022.
But in May 2023, a few months after Craig and DeVore broke up, Craig “threatened to change her story” to the disciplinary panel so that DeVore would “lose his law license,” according to the ARDC report.
The disciplinary panel also pointed out that “even consensual sexual activity between an attorney and a client constitutes an impermissible conflict of interest because the attorney’s emotional involvement with the client creates a significant risk that the attorney’s independent professional judgment will be impaired.”
DeVore also got involved in Craig’s business venture to launch a hair product business, for which the pair took out $600,000 in loans in 2021. But in doing so, the ARDC found DeVore failed to provide “required safeguards” for Craig.
... email also called Craig a “petulant child” ..."
The business was failing in the spring of 2023 when Craig made her threat to expose DeVore, according to ARDC documents. Following that May 2023 meeting, Craig filed her own complaint with the ARDC and filed for personal bankruptcy to avoid responsibility for the company’s debt.
But the day after Craig filed for bankruptcy, DeVore sent an email to both Craig and a vendor that the company owed $30,000, which alerted the vendor to Craig’s filing — and the fact the vendor could still come after the company for its debt. The email also called Craig a “petulant child” and apologized for her “nasty character,” according to the ARDC report.
The disciplinary panel also found the email violated state ethics rules for attorneys.
DeVore declined to comment on the court’s order to Capitol News Illinois. His law license will be suspended for 60 days beginning Oct. 10.
But the attorney has been staying busy. Earlier this year, he formed a political action committee dubbed “Tom DeVore’s RINO Removal,” referring to the acronym for “Republicans in Name Only.” DeVore has been recruiting candidates to face GOP state legislators in primary races, including House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savana.
He’s also filed several lawsuits against fellow Republicans in the last year, including one accusing McCombie of censoring him by deleting his comments and barring him from posting on her Facebook page. On Monday, a federal judge granted McCombie’s motion to dismiss the suit.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Dear Editor,
Let’s talk about this fun-police-mandated word “allowed.” Allowed by whom? By the same paragons of virtue crowd that burned women alive for being “too smart”? By the ones who outlawed women from reading, voting, and owning property because it threatened, bruised, and fractured their fragile egos? The same people who still panic and experience a total neurological meltdown when a woman dares to sit at the head of a boardroom table? Oh, yes—thank you, mighty overlords, for your generous crumbs of liberty.
But here’s the delightful irony: women were ruling empires from golden thrones and commanding vast armies while men were still drawing stick figures in caves. Women birthed nations—literally—while men wrote laws deciding if those same women could even own their own bodies. Women ran revolutions, resisted oppression, and rebuilt entire societies while men stood around acting like referees of existence, blowing their whistle: “Okay, fine, you’re allowed now. Don’t get too cocky.”
Too cocky? Sweetheart, women don’t need cocky—they’ve got capable. And capable terrifies you. Let’s correct the narrative, shall we? Women have been running kingdoms, civilizations, households, revolutions, and movements long before anyone scribbled the word “allowed” onto their lips. Cleopatra didn’t wait for a consent slip or a committee’s approval. Joan of Arc didn’t ask if it was “okay” to lead an army. Rosa Parks didn’t sit on that bus thinking, “Gee, I hope the men let me do this.”
Hatshepsut declared herself Pharaoh and ruled Egypt with unparalleled prosperity. Boudicca led a massive rebellion against the Roman Empire. Tomoe Gozen was a legendary samurai warrior, respected for her skill and ferocity long before any man dared to diminish her glory.
Artemisia I of Caria, the brilliant naval commander who fought for Xerxes at Salamis, whose strategic advice was so valued by the Persian king that he reportedly said, “My men have become women, and my women, men.”
Yet somehow, today, in the year where we pretend to be “progressive,” the phrase “women are allowed” still gets thrown around like a consolation prize. Allowed to work. Allowed to inherit. Allowed to drive. Allowed to speak. Do you hear the ridiculousness? It’s like saying, “You’re allowed to eat, but only if we feel generous.”
The next time “allowed” is uttered, remember: women decide. They don’t negotiate for power. They take it.
Yumna Zahid Ali Karachi, Pakistan
Yumna Zahid Ali is a writer and educator who spends her free time reading, analyzing literature, and exploring cultural and intellectual debates. When she’s not writing for global audiences, she enjoys reflecting on societal issues and using her voice to challenge inequities, especially those affecting women. She also loves diving into history, believing that remembering the past is an act of defiance and a way to hold power accountable.
TAGS: Women empowerment, feminism, gender equality, social commentary, Yumna Zahid Ali
