WGFA NEWS for Monday, February 22, 2010 >
WX > Rain and snow thru mid-morning, then flurries after noon. High near 36. Nw wind 10-15. Accumulations less than a half-inch.
- Boys Illinois Regional B-Ball tonite on WGFA, coverage of the I-West Regional at Gilman, Watseka Regional and G-S-W Regional -
> No injuries reported this morning, but a school bus in Pontiac apparently tipped over on a frontage road near the I-55 and Route 23 Interchange. Passing motorists say it appears only one person was on board at the time of the crash. Pontiac Police are investigating.
> A 23-year-old Kankakee mother is facing a murder charge following the death of her infant daughter. Gregoria Perez was arrested after the death of one-year-old Alma Perez. The baby was found unresponsive by emergency persponnel Friday at an apartment on South Chicago Avenue in Kankakee.
> A Kankakee family was left homeless Saturday. It was a kitchen fire in the 900 block of Wilson Drive near Kennedy Drive. No injuries were reported. Extensive damage was reported. The cause was under investigation.
> The National Weather Service reports a winter storm expected to drop six inches of snow on a good part of central-Illinois won’t materialize after all. The heavier bands of snowfall were re-directed northwest toward the Quad Cities, according to meteorologist Dan Kelly with the National Weather Service in Lincoln. A mixture of rain and snow is expected Monday. Accumulation is expected to maybe an inch.
> As local school districts struggle with funding woes caused by slow state payments, State Representative Bill Black says some help is on the way. The Danville legislator says the Governor’s Office and the State Board of Education have notified him that the State of Illinois has received approximately $1-billion dollars in federal stimulus funds for Elementary and Secondary Education.
Black says the funds were budgeted into the FY10 budget plan, and will be used by the State Board of Education to make the February 20th General State Aid payment, followed by the March 10th and March 20th payments.
Representative Black says the federal funds will provide some cash flow relief to the state’s General Revenue Fund, and will therefore allow for the reduction of the current backlog of the state’s unpaid bills.
Danville District 118 School Superintendent Mark Denman remains concerned about next year, though. He notes some federal stimulus funds have been plugged in to help with state aid payments this year, but those funds will apparently not be available next year. So Denman says the situation could get worse next year unless lawmakers approve some new source of revenues. And even if that occurs, Denman wonders how long it would take before those new revenues actually begin flowing to local school districts.
> A public hearing to address poverty is scheduled tonight in Danville. The hearing is at 6 pm at the David Palmer Arena. Area residents can give opinions on what the state should be doing about poverty. The Illinois Commission on the Elimination of Poverty is holding the event. Commission member Dwight Lucas of Danville says the panel has been looking at a variety of things including how people are disconnected from the workforce, chronically homeless individuals, school readiness and job placement and access to food among others.
Lucas explained what is going to be happening during the hearing….
Lucas is the Chief Executive Officer of the East Central Ilinois Community Action Agency. State Senator Michael Frerichs sponsored the bill to create the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty. When the bill passed in 2008, Vermilion County’s poverty rate was 18-percent, which was six percent higher than the statewide average.
