Krutsinger MVP in Bishop Mac's tournament win over host Spartans

Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks

ST. JOSEPH - Bishop McNamara's Karter Krutsinger is denied an easy path to the paint by St. Joseph-Ogden's Ryker Lockhart during their Toyota of Danville championship game on Saturday. Krutsinger, who finished the game with 25 points, led the Fightin' Irish to a back-to-back tournament title after defeating the Spartans 62-49. B-Mac improved to 6-0 while SJO suffered their first loss of the season, dropping to 3-1. More stories and articles coming later this week from this year's tournament. Krutsinger was named as this year's All-Tournament Team MVP while Lockhart earned a spot on the All-tournament Team.

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Tags: St. Joseph-Ogden basketball tournament, TODC basketball tournament, Kankakee Bishop Mac, high school basketball tournament, SJO basketball tournament

The Sentinel On This Day | December 8

As December arrives with festive lights and winter’s chill, we revisit the stories that defined our community — from holiday traditions and year‑end reflections to local sports highlights, civic milestones, and spirited debates. Explore archived posts published on this day in December across Champaign County and beyond, curated by The Sentinel.

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Sentinel Article Archive for December 8

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Illinois rural co-ops still tied to major polluter

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Co-ops still heavily depend on coal and other fossil fuels for the majority of their power. Twenty-five of them in Illinois still have an ownership share in the Prairie State Coal Plant.

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Photo: İsmail Hamza Polat/Unsplash

Illinois has about 25 rural electric cooperatives that provide power to more than 300,000 rural homes, farms, and businesses in the state.

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by Judith Ruiz-Branch
Public News Service

CHICAGO - A new scorecard shows rural electric cooperatives in Illinois are making improvements but experts said the majority of them are still helping to power the Prairie State Coal Plant, one of the top greenhouse gas polluters in the country.

The 2025 Illinois Rural Electric Scorecard from nonprofit Prairie Rivers Network grades eight Midwest state power cooperatives on 16 performance metrics.

Anthony Henson, rural energy organizer for the network, said there have been significant improvements since last year’s inaugural scorecard, with 20 cooperatives increasing their overall score. Henson explained co-ops originally formed to bring electricity to rural areas and are owned by the people they serve. He stressed the goal of the scorecard is to empower people with information about their co-ops.

"In the spirit of democratic participation in which these institutions were first created, we find that if member owners become more active inside their co-ops, the co-ops become responsive when making changes, whether it's transparency or operations," Henson outlined.

Hensen noted co-ops still heavily depend on coal and other fossil fuels for the majority of their power, adding the hope is the co-op scorecard, along with energy planning provisions and other legislation, will empower member-owners to help push their co-op toward a clean energy future.

However, nearly all the 25 co-ops in Illinois still have an ownership share in the Prairie State Coal Plant. Henson pointed out the first scorecard helped build momentum for the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act passed this fall, which created new standards for municipal and rural electric cooperatives.

"That is important because municipal and rural electric cooperatives have always been left out of the standards of these laws, and that has changed this year," Henson underscored. "We are now requiring co-ops in Illinois to do strategic resource planning."

It includes posting agenda minutes and election procedures online starting in 2026, conducting transparent long-term energy planning with public participation and making rooftop solar more accessible to ensure compliance with Illinois' goal of 40% renewable energy by 2030.

"Rural electric cooperatives are tasked with keeping the lights on in rural communities," Henson emphasized. "They do a very good job in being responsive to the needs of their member owners. And we expect them to continue providing clean and reliable electricity over the course of the next century."