HERE’s TODAY’S WGFA NEWS STORIES for Tuesday, January 6, 2009 >
CIGNA lay-offs announced… Democrats select Halvorson replacement… Halvorson, Schock join Congress Today….. Flood Warning extended in Indiana…. Man shot near Hoopeston landfill…. Pontiac Prison case on hold…..
Illiana Weather—Snow likely today, 1-3 inches possible, high near 33.
–Watseka Holiday B-Ball Tourney concluded –
* The economy takes another hit. Philadelphia-based Cigna announced it will cut 4 percent of its workforce worldwide; 1,000 of the cuts will be in the United States, said Chris Curran, Cigna spokesman. Cigna, which provides a variety of insurance plans to corporate clients, employs about 640 people in Bourbonnais. It’s total workforce is about 28,000 people. It has 180 locations in the U.S. A spokesman for Cigna Corp. said Monday he did not know how plans to lay off 1,100 people and close facilities will affect the company’s Bourbonnais location. The Daily-Journal reports the company is still working through the process, analyzing what facilities and what positions are involved.
The company should know what facilities and positions will be eliminated by Feb. 5 when officers discuss 4th quarter earnings in a conference call with investors and analysts. The job reductions will be completed within six months. Severance packages and outplacement services will be available to those affected by the cuts.
* A special commitee of Democratic Party officials from Cook, Iroquois, Kankakee and Will counties Monday selected Toi Hutchinson to serve as state senator for the 40th legislative district seat vacated by Congresswoman-elect Debbie Halvorson. The former Olympia Fields Village Clerk Hutchinson was sworn in immediately following the meeting in Kankakee. Halvorson officially resigned as of 10 a.m. Monday. Hutchinson, who currently works as a Springfield lobbyist, is Halvorson’s former chief of staff, a law school student and the mother of three. Democratic party officials cited her experience working in Springfield as the reason for her selection among three candidates party officials considered for the job.
* It won’t be long after the new Congress and its two new central Illinois members are sworn in today that they’ll have to begin confronting the country’s serious economic strife. Democrat Debbie Halvorson of Crete and Republican Aaron Schock of Peoria will begin their first terms in Congress This (Tuesday) morning, two months after prevailing on Election Day.
* The Flood Warning continues for the Kankakee River at Shelby.
* Until Monday January 12…or until the warning is cancelled.
* At 745 PM Monday the stage was 10.4 feet.
* Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast.
* Flood stage is 9.0 feet.
* Forecast…the river will continue to fall to below flood stage by
early Monday morning.
* Impact…at 10.0 feet…flooding affects County and local roads.
Wildwood Estates and Sumava Resorts begin to experience some
flooding.
* The Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the shooting of a 28-year-old man Monday morning. Sheriff Pat Hartshorn said the man was shot multiple times shortly before 9:57 a.m. near the Hoopeston landfill, southeast of Hoopeston. The man’s name and hometown were not immediately available.
* Legal action in Johnson County considering the legality of transferring inmates out of Pontiac Correctional Center has been put on hold. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and the state earlier agreed that a hearing in the southern Illinois county set for Monday was unneeded because a similar lawsuit regarding the state’s plan to close Pontiac is winding its way through the Livingston County court system. AFSCME, which represents prison guards and other Illinois Department of Corrections employees, is leading the fight to stop Gov. Rod Blagojevich from carrying out plans to close Pontiac and open the mostly unused maximum-security prison in Thomson. For now, the Livingston County case is on hold as AFSCME and the state work to find an independent arbitrator to hear the union’s grievances regarding the closure.
