(SPRINGFIELD) The State Central Committee of the Illinois Republican Party has elected Kathy Slavi as the next chair. The former U.S. Senate candidate lost her 2022 challenge to current Senator Tammy Duckworth, but beat out two Cook County men, Northern Illinois State Representative John Cabello and former Cook County GOP Chair Aaron Del Mar. Current chair of the party, Don Tracy, said he wanted out of the job by July 19th, the day after the Republican National Convention ends. In his resignation letter, Tracy cited discomfort with state central committee members wanting to fight fellow Republicans.
(SPRINGFIELD) Researchers from the Institute of Government & Public Affairs at the University of Illinois report that just over 19% of Illinois workers said they worked primarily from home in 2021, far more than 5.5% two years earlier in 2019. The research shows northeastern Illinois counties and McLean County had the greatest percentage increases in working from home. One of the smallest increases was in Macon County.
(SPRINGFIELD) Springfield, Illinois coffee shop owner and pilot, Juliana Turchetti, is dead after her plane crashed while fighting wildfires in Montana. The 45 year old native of Brazil moved to the U.S. in 2017 at the age of 28, pursuing jobs in Nevada, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Texas before eventually landing in Havana, Illinois to fly agricultural planes. Turchetti died while collecting water from a reservoir after her plane crashed into the water. Her plane was under contract by the Idaho Department of Lands to aid in firefighting efforts.
(CHAMPAIGN) After nearly two years on the run, a legendary central Illinois emu has been captured and returned home. It was in July of 2022 that the emu was part of a mob of birds and cows that escaped from their pen after someone intentionally opened the gates at a Champaign County farm. Over the past two years, the emu has been seen at various sites while all the other animals were eventually caught and returned to their original home. The emu was captured near Henning, Illinois, after food and water was set inside a pen.