Wednesday News, July 1, 2009 on WGFA >
Illinois lawmakers scramble to meet deadline; social service agencies hurt…. Indiana lawmakers avoid government shutdown…. Ag picture: corn, soybean crops improve….. Watseka, Iroquois County police execute Operation Stimulant Package….
WX > A cool start to a new month. Cloudy with a high near 69 on this first of July. 30% chance of showers. NW wind at 5-15.
* The legislative session wasn’t really over on May 31st, and it’s still not over. Governor Pat Quinn says he’ll veto the makeshift state budget sent to him by state lawmakers, forcing lawmakers to come right back to Springfield for the chance to override the veto. Quinn, however, won’t say when he’ll act. Quinn says the fact that the House didn’t pass a tax hike and the Senate didn’t pass a pension borrowing plan leaves him with no choice but to throw the budget back to lawmakers.
* Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn promises a veto if lawmakers send him a budget that fails to balance and slashes key services. In a hastily arranged Tuesday speech to a joint session of the Illinois House and Senate, Quinn urged lawmakers to put aside their political concerns and do whatever is necessary to produce a sound budget.
The Democratic governor said he is prepared to stay in Springfield all summer to get results. Quinn wants to raise taxes to close the largest budget deficit in Illinois history. But many lawmakers oppose that idea.
* Lawmakers have avoided a government shutdown and passed the state’s next two-year budget. The Indiana Senate voted Tuesday afternoon to pass the spending plan on a 34-16 vote after passage a few hours earlier in the House. Lawmakers had faced a midnight deadline to approve a new budget before a possible government shutdown. The budget plan headed to Governor Mitch Daniels for his signature. It was signed last night.
* A five-month long undercover narcotics investigation has netted a dozen arrests in Iroquois County. Dubbed “Operation Stimulant Package,” the Iroquois County Sheriff’s Office and Watseka Enforcement Team executed the arrests Tuesday. The investigation focused on reducing the flow of drug traffic in area communities. Defendants arrested face charges which include unlawful possession and delivery of cannabis and controlled substances.
* KAMEG reports the arrests of two 17-year-old Bradley youths for the distribution of ecstasy. During an undercover investigation, agents made undercover purchases in the Bradley and Kankakee area during the past month.
* A Limestone couple are winners in the Illinois Lottery’s 35th Anniversary Summer Promotion. Joe & Terry Saylor received a phone call from lottery officials. They’re among six lucky winners in the second-round of the lottery’s 35th Anniversary Promotion. The Saylor’s win $35,000. Illinois lottery players enter the contest by submitting $35 worth of non-winning tickets for a chance to win $35,000. Sixty winners will be chosen.
* Total U.S. crop area is down 1.2 percent from last year, but soybean acres are up 2.3 percent and corn acres are up 1.2 percent according to the Acreage report released today by the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
Overall, farmers planted 320.9 million acres to principal crops in 2009. This is 3.9 million acres less than last year, but 3.9 million acres more than they indicated in the March 2009 Prospective Plantings report. The most significant acreage declines were in North Dakota, down 2.1 million, and Texas, down 570,000 acres.
Despite the overall decline in planted area, farmers sowed a record-high 77.5 million acres to soybeans, up 1.8 million acres from last year and up 1.5 million acres, or almost 2 percent, from March. Compared with 2008, soybean area is up more than 200,000 acres in five states: Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Farmers planted 87 million corn acres in 2009, up 1 million acres from last year. This is the second-largest corn acreage in more than 60 years, behind 2007. Despite wet weather in many growing areas, farmers reported that 97 percent of intended corn acreage was planted by early June, compared with the 10-year average of 98 percent. (courtesy IL Farm Bureau)
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