chantonews

(Springfield, IL)  --  U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency State Executive Director William Graff recently announced that Brown, Fulton, Kankakee, Knox, Mercer, Pike, and Schuyler Counties are now authorized for emergency haying and grazing use of Conservation Reserve Program acres for fiscal year 2018. Adams, Hancock, McDonough, and Warren Counties were authorized on August 2, 2018. Henderson County was authorized on August 9, 2018. FSA's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. Currently, Adams, Brown, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Kankakee, Knox, McDonough, Mercer, Pike, Schuyler, and Warren Counties have received emergency haying and grazing approval. The emergency grazing period for these counties will begin on the date of authorization and end September 30, 2018. The emergency haying authorization for these counties will begin on the date of authorization and end on August 31, 2018.  Eligible practices for emergency haying and grazing are CP1, C...

(Quincy, IL)  --  West-central Illinois' congressman says there are issues where he disagrees with President Trump, and there are issues where they are on the same page.  Republican Congressman Darin LaHood hosted a town hall in Quincy Wednesday night where he talked about trade, tariffs, immigration, and health care.  LaHood told the crowd that you gotta be able to defend what you believe in.

(Undated)  --  For all the water in the Mississippi River, Illinois' western edge is seeing the worst of the state's drought.  The latest drought report from the USDA and the National Weather Service, shows that the strip of western Illinois from north of the Quad Cities to just north of the Metro East is the driest in the state.  There are a handful of other areas, including in southern and central Illinois that are abnormally dry.

(Undated)  --  Governor Bruce Rauner has signed a law creating a new scholarship program for college student in Fulton County as well as through out Illinois.  "AIM High" is a $25-million effort to help keep the best and the brightest here in Illinois says Illinois State Board of High Education President Al Bowman. The $25-million from the state will be matched by Illinois Public Universities. The Governor also signed a law setting up a task force to help colleges better gauge the career interests of high schoolers.

(Canton, IL)  --  ​Orientations for almost 200 new students and for 81 nursing students were held August 14 and 15 in both Canton and Macomb. Students were provided with information about financial aid, tutoring and other services available in the Learning Resource Centers, disability support services, college policies, and more. Tours were given on both campuses, and Jessica Donku and Thomas Harris were the winners of the $100 Visa gift cards. Nursing students, who were required to attend a two-day orientation, also participated in several break-out sessions where topics included time management, study skills, and lab skills requirements. In addition, all nursing students were required to be fingerprinted.

(Undated)  --  Two groups are celebrating a milestone in a project that teaches people how to do hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation.  Danielle DeVito, a paramedic and American Heart Association volunteer, says 100-thousand people have now been trained on a nationwide network of 30 hands-only CPR kiosks across the country.  Here's why that's important. She says that if you find a person lifeless and unresponsive, you should call 911, then put two hands in the center of the chest and start hard and fast compression.  The Anthem Foundation has been working with the American Heart Association on the kiosk project.

(Washington, DC)  --  The USDA is offering food safety tips for tailgate parties and back-to-school lunches.  They start with thorough handwashing and include using two sets of utensils and cutting boards for meat and raw vegetables, cooking meat to the right temperature using a thermometer and refrigerating food after two hours.  The agency also suggests packing your child's perishable lunch with two frozen water bottles, or frozen fruits and veggies, because most schools don't offer refrigeration.  The CDC estimates that food-borne illness sends 128-thousand people to the hospital each year and causes three-thousand deaths.