Missouri, Illinois push forward with new solar projects
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Award-winning a cappella ensemble at Niles West High School, getting ready to compete in the ICHSA (International Championship of High School A Cappella Finals this weekend in NYC
From casinos to video gaming machines to sports betting apps on cell phones, access to gambling has expanded significantly in recent years.
While that has led to increased tax revenue across Illinois, it's also accompanied by a growing problem: gambling addiction.
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Three Indian Prairie School District 204 high school seniors from Naperville have been announced as semifinalists for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, according to the published list from the U.S. Department of Education.
Indian Prairie School District 204 students among semifinalists
Waubonsie Valley High School seniors Sai Peddainti and Sriman S. Tipirneni, and Neuqua Valley High School senior Nidhi R. Thirthamattur have all landed on the short list for the honor.
In total there were 21 students from Illinois named as semifinalists, with 625 in total nationwide.
U.S. Presidential Scholars Program honors student excellence
The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program launched in 1964, as a way to honor some of the nation’s most distinguished high school seniors. Candidates are initially chosen in the general component of the program based on academic success and high marks on the SAT or ACT.
The program also has an arts component, honoring those who’ve displayed exceptional talent in the fields of visual, creative, and performing arts, and a career and technical education component, recognizing students who’ve excelled in those areas.
Leadership, as well as involvement in school and the community, are also considerations within the selections.
Final scholar selections announced in May
The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars will choose up to 161 students to be named as 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars, to be announced in early May.
Those chosen will be invited to Washington, D.C. for a National Recognition Program, and will receive a Presidential Scholars Medallion in commemoration of their achievements.
Photo courtesy: U.S. Presidential Scholars Foundation
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CHICAGO (CBS) — A local high school was ranked in the U.S. News list of "2024 Best U.S. High Schools."
Walter Payton College Preparatory High School was listed as the 5th best high school with a 100% graduation rate.
U.S. News also ranked Walter Payton College Prep Illinois's No. 1 high school.
According to U.S. News, "nearly 18,000 schools were ranked on six factors based on their performance on state assessments and how well they prepare students for college."
The No. 2 spot went to a school in Evansville, Indiana. Signature School has a 100% graduation rate and earned a 99.5 in "College Readiness."
The cookie rumble – Crave versus Crumbl – is coming to the Capital City.
A Crave Cookies location is in the works at 3808 Octavus Via, according to a building permit filed with the city last week. The tenant build out is underway for the Utah-based, gourmet cookie chain to reside in a 1,500-square-foot site in the strip mall situated between Walmart and Pizza Ranch on Springfield’s south side.
Franchise owners Josh and Jennifer Ellison said the brand’s only standing bakery selection – a chocolate chip cookie made with Guittard Chocolate Company’s milk chocolate chips – was a deciding factor in opening a store.
“We are both in medicine and were looking to expand our knowledge in the dining scene,” the husband-wife team responded in an email. “Some days can be hard and other days very rewarding in healthcare. Cookies make us happy.
“So, we thought we would offer the community delicious options for cookies.”
Crave Cookies’ pending arrival comes on the heels of fellow Utah-based, gourmet cookie chain Crumbl Cookies opening in Parkway Pointe on Springfield’s west side in February.
The two bakery brands along with a third – Dirty Dough – were recently embroiled in a legal wrangle dubbed the “Utah Cookie Wars.”
Crumbl Cookies filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the other two brands in the U.S. District Court in Utah May 2022, claiming the businesses had copied packaging, recipes and the overall reputation of the TikTok touted cookie company.
Both Crumbl and Crave are known for their decadent takes on the humble bakery item and social media savvy with weekly, mouth-watering reveals of rotating featured cookies.
Crumbl’s weekly half dozen comes in an oblong, pink box. Crave’s are in a similarly shaped black box.
More: Have you tried Crumbl Cookies in Springfield yet? We have you covered
The two bakeries ended their beef with a confidential settlement last summer. Similarly, Crumbl Cookies and Dirty Dough reached a settlement in October.
Springfield shoppers will have to wait until fall to conduct their own side-by-side taste test. The Ellisons said the goal is to open in the third quarter 2024.
The Springfield bakery is on track to be the second site for the cookie chain. Crave Cookies opened its first Illinois store in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park – which served up its inaugural batch Feb. 28.
The brand currently has 26 locations in 11 states stretching from New Jersey to Nevada, according to the company’s website.
Crave Cookies – with the catchphrase “Unleash Your Inner Cookie Monster” – releases five featured cookie flavors of the week on social media every Friday.
Recent selections ranged from the Scotcherookie – a cross of the Rice Krispie treat encased in a peanut butter cookie and drizzled in a butterscotch-chocolate drizzle – to the Chocolate Cream Pie -- a sugar cookie iced with a chocolate cream spread, dusted with Oreo crumbs and topped with fresh whipped cream.
The menu also offers loaded sodas with flavored syrups, creams and fresh purees.
“Our culinary adventure wasn’t just about throwing flour, sugar and butter into a mixing bowl,” the company website reads. “It involved hundreds of trials, a sprinkle of neurosis and a dollop of love.
“The result? Cookies that are gourmet ... yes, but also emotionally rewarding masterpieces.”
Wm. Van’s Cafe has a new home in Vinegar Hill Mall following a two-year hiatus.
The rechristened business, formerly Wm. Van’s Coffee House, returns with its lineup of coffee and teas, as well as a full menu of breakfast and lunch items.
Wm. Van’s Cafe is located in the former footprint of Holy Land Diner in the sprawling building at 107 W. Cook St.
The long awaited opening marks Conn Hospitality Group’s second brand to open in the newly renovated Vinegar Hill Mall. Trish & Mary’s Pub Public House was the first to repopulate the building since Court and Karen Conn acquired the historic structure.
Breakfast selections range from build-a-biscuit breakfast sandwiches to French toast stuffed with strawberries and cream cheese to chorizo and avocado grilled cheese sandwich. Lunch sandwich selections offer an international flavor with options like falafel naan, Cubano and smoked turkey caprese. There also are a variety of salad options and a soup of the day.
More: Springfield coffee shop owner taking to the sky full-time; selling business
Wm. Van’s beverage favorites return with a variety of coffee and tea selections, as well as espresso, smoothies, iced drinks and craft sodas.
The cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Dine in, take out available. The building is handicap accessible.
Wm. Van’s Coffee House closed at 503 S. Seventh St. in April 2022.
The woman behind Mamas Munchies has opened a new diner in New Holland.
Ollie’s Diner & Candy Shoppe, named after the Logan County community’s founding father, Oliver Holland, served its first customers at 103 W. Lincoln St. April 12.
Cassie “Mama Cass” Young said the business blends the scratch-made candy selections people have come to love from her Mason City-based Mamas Munchies with a full service diner.
The diner menu features breakfast selections served all day with choices like biscuits and gravy, pancakes and French toast and build-your-own breakfast sandwiches and breakfast horseshoe.
Lunch features include burgers, sandwiches and salads, as well as a build-your-own horseshoe.
On Sundays a brunch buffet is the sole offering. The buffet price is $18.95 for all-you-can-eat or $9.25 for a single trip.
Hand-dipped candies available in milk, white and dark chocolate are sold in the candy shop.
More than just clothing: New Springfield business offering 'really cool experience'
Operating hours are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.
Dine in and carry out available, as well as delivery within 20 miles. Phone: 217-870-7880.
Mother’s Day specials will be listed in the May 5 edition. Area restaurants interested in joining the list should submit information by April 29.
The A La Carte column highlights restaurant openings, closings, renovations and relocations, as well as personnel changes and business news. Natalie Morris can be reached at 217-737-7254 or by email at natalie.sjr@gmail.com.
The cookie rumble – Crave versus Crumbl – is coming to the Capital City.
A Crave Cookies location is in the works at 3808 Octavus Via, according to a building permit filed with the city last week. The tenant build out is underway for the Utah-based, gourmet cookie chain to reside in a 1,500-square-foot site in the strip mall situated between Walmart and Pizza Ranch on Springfield’s south side.
Franchise owners Josh and Jennifer Ellison said the brand’s only standing bakery selection – a chocolate chip cookie made with Guittard Chocolate Company’s milk chocolate chips – was a deciding factor in opening a store.
“We are both in medicine and were looking to expand our knowledge in the dining scene,” the husband-wife team responded in an email. “Some days can be hard and other days very rewarding in healthcare. Cookies make us happy.
“So, we thought we would offer the community delicious options for cookies.”
Crave Cookies’ pending arrival comes on the heels of fellow Utah-based, gourmet cookie chain Crumbl Cookies opening in Parkway Pointe on Springfield’s west side in February.
The two bakery brands along with a third – Dirty Dough – were recently embroiled in a legal wrangle dubbed the “Utah Cookie Wars.”
Crumbl Cookies filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the other two brands in the U.S. District Court in Utah May 2022, claiming the businesses had copied packaging, recipes and the overall reputation of the TikTok touted cookie company.
Both Crumbl and Crave are known for their decadent takes on the humble bakery item and social media savvy with weekly, mouth-watering reveals of rotating featured cookies.
Crumbl’s weekly half dozen comes in an oblong, pink box. Crave’s are in a similarly shaped black box.
More: Have you tried Crumbl Cookies in Springfield yet? We have you covered
The two bakeries ended their beef with a confidential settlement last summer. Similarly, Crumbl Cookies and Dirty Dough reached a settlement in October.
Springfield shoppers will have to wait until fall to conduct their own side-by-side taste test. The Ellisons said the goal is to open in the third quarter 2024.
The Springfield bakery is on track to be the second site for the cookie chain. Crave Cookies opened its first Illinois store in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park – which served up its inaugural batch Feb. 28.
The brand currently has 26 locations in 11 states stretching from New Jersey to Nevada, according to the company’s website.
Crave Cookies – with the catchphrase “Unleash Your Inner Cookie Monster” – releases five featured cookie flavors of the week on social media every Friday.
Recent selections ranged from the Scotcherookie – a cross of the Rice Krispie treat encased in a peanut butter cookie and drizzled in a butterscotch-chocolate drizzle – to the Chocolate Cream Pie -- a sugar cookie iced with a chocolate cream spread, dusted with Oreo crumbs and topped with fresh whipped cream.
The menu also offers loaded sodas with flavored syrups, creams and fresh purees.
“Our culinary adventure wasn’t just about throwing flour, sugar and butter into a mixing bowl,” the company website reads. “It involved hundreds of trials, a sprinkle of neurosis and a dollop of love.
“The result? Cookies that are gourmet ... yes, but also emotionally rewarding masterpieces.”
Wm. Van’s Cafe has a new home in Vinegar Hill Mall following a two-year hiatus.
The rechristened business, formerly Wm. Van’s Coffee House, returns with its lineup of coffee and teas, as well as a full menu of breakfast and lunch items.
Wm. Van’s Cafe is located in the former footprint of Holy Land Diner in the sprawling building at 107 W. Cook St.
The long awaited opening marks Conn Hospitality Group’s second brand to open in the newly renovated Vinegar Hill Mall. Trish & Mary’s Pub Public House was the first to repopulate the building since Court and Karen Conn acquired the historic structure.
Breakfast selections range from build-a-biscuit breakfast sandwiches to French toast stuffed with strawberries and cream cheese to chorizo and avocado grilled cheese sandwich. Lunch sandwich selections offer an international flavor with options like falafel naan, Cubano and smoked turkey caprese. There also are a variety of salad options and a soup of the day.
More: Springfield coffee shop owner taking to the sky full-time; selling business
Wm. Van’s beverage favorites return with a variety of coffee and tea selections, as well as espresso, smoothies, iced drinks and craft sodas.
The cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Dine in, take out available. The building is handicap accessible.
Wm. Van’s Coffee House closed at 503 S. Seventh St. in April 2022.
The woman behind Mamas Munchies has opened a new diner in New Holland.
Ollie’s Diner & Candy Shoppe, named after the Logan County community’s founding father, Oliver Holland, served its first customers at 103 W. Lincoln St. April 12.
Cassie “Mama Cass” Young said the business blends the scratch-made candy selections people have come to love from her Mason City-based Mamas Munchies with a full service diner.
The diner menu features breakfast selections served all day with choices like biscuits and gravy, pancakes and French toast and build-your-own breakfast sandwiches and breakfast horseshoe.
Lunch features include burgers, sandwiches and salads, as well as a build-your-own horseshoe.
On Sundays a brunch buffet is the sole offering. The buffet price is $18.95 for all-you-can-eat or $9.25 for a single trip.
Hand-dipped candies available in milk, white and dark chocolate are sold in the candy shop.
More than just clothing: New Springfield business offering 'really cool experience'
Operating hours are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.
Dine in and carry out available, as well as delivery within 20 miles. Phone: 217-870-7880.
Mother’s Day specials will be listed in the May 5 edition. Area restaurants interested in joining the list should submit information by April 29.
The A La Carte column highlights restaurant openings, closings, renovations and relocations, as well as personnel changes and business news. Natalie Morris can be reached at 217-737-7254 or by email at natalie.sjr@gmail.com.
Join the Liebman Institute for Science Innovation at McHenry County College for “Time: Behind and Beyond the Clock” from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 26 at MCC, 8900 Route 14 in Crystal Lake.
Led by Masterclock Inc. CEO John Clark and astrophysicist and Masterclock Chief Scientist Dr. Demetrios Matsakis, this seminar will take attendees on a journey through the fascinating history of time, the science behind its measure and the technology of time transfer. The session will also explore the intricate applications of time in its diverse realms, such as aerospace, defense, commercial enterprise, automation and media.
Masterclock, Inc. is a multimillion-dollar international company that builds timing systems synchronized to the Naval Observatory’s satellites, providing precision timing for time-sensitive uses where a nanosecond’s difference can have catastrophic or astronomically expensive consequences.
Registration is required and costs $20 for adults and $15 for children, students and seniors. Children 5 and younger are admitted for free. This session will include libations, a Q&A session with presenters and dessert.
All registration information and more about LISI can be found at mchenry.edu/lisi.
image/jpeg XJ4CMQOSDGRI6OKSE4FW6TKA6Q.jpgA Logan County school district is the latest to introduce heart testing for its students.
Fred Lamkey is the Superintendent of Mt. Pulaski Schools and on the WHOW Morning Show Monday told Regional Radio this is something that has been happening in Logan County schools and Olympia.
According to Lamkey, this is a volunteer test done on youth in the district and provides them with a quick screening for any irregularities.
The initiative is titled 'Who Do You Play For' and he looks forward to it being an ongoing effort in Mt. Pulaski.
image/jpeg Mt_Pulaski_Logo(2).png