Bigger plans for Schimpf?
State Sen. Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) confirmed on his official campaign social media pages Monday night that he is considering a run for Illinois governor.
That...
Liefer ‘hit the ground running’
After about a month on the job, Lucas Liefer’s prediction that his experience as assistant state’s attorney would help him in his new...
Columbia receives clean audit
The first meeting of the Columbia City Council in 2021 consisted of a review of city finances and accounting from the previous year.
Jim Schmersahl...
Census success, bottoms buyout topics for Monroe County Board
The Monroe County Board learned that its residents were tops in Illinois for self-responding to the 2020 U.S. Census during Monday’s regular meeting at...
New laws in 2021
The Illinois General Assembly had an abbreviated year because of the pandemic.
The Legislature suspended its session because of COVID on March 16, only returning...
Judge Hitzemann begins term
After serving as Monroe County State’s Attorney for four years, Chris Hitzemann is just over three weeks into his first term as the county’s...
Columbia talks property, trail futures
The rumor mill has been churning in Columbia of late as demolition of three houses in the 1000 block of South Main Street, opposite...
Jail expansion plans discussed
A $14 million Monroe County Jail expansion was chief among items related to the sheriff’s department discussed at Monday’s meeting of the Monroe County...
April election candidates file
The 2021 municipal election will see some contested races in Columbia and a new city council member in Waterloo, at least based on initial...
Over $700M cut from state budget
Gov. JB Pritzker announced last Tuesday that he has ordered $711.2 million dollars be cut from this year’s budget as a “first step” in...
COVID crisis continues
Monroe County has now had 2,867 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began after reporting 238 since Dec. 15. It reported 261 the previous week.
There...
COVID deaths continue as Monroe County awaits vaccine
Monroe County’s death toll from the novel coronavirus is up to 55 following 10 more local deaths in recent days.
The uptick in deaths comes...