A meat-processing plant in Warren County will resume operations after halting operations because of employees testing positive for COVID-19. On April 24th, Smithfield Foods in Monmouth, Illinois announced the plant’s closure after confirming three COVID-19 positive cases. Smithfield Foods’ Monmouth plant currently employs 1,700 and supports 3% of the fresh pork market in the United States. Last […]

A modified version of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Stay-At-Home order will go into effect starting Friday.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, starting May 1, any individual who is over the age of 2 will be required to wear a face mask or covering of some kind when in a public place if they cannot maintain […]

Ever since the U.S. coronavirus outbreak began back in March, people have been antsy to get back out into nature; albeit, safely and socially-distanced. As a result, governors across the nation have been slowly re-opening public places, including state parks. By May 1st, Illinois is expected to resume operations of twenty-five parks that span across […]

The Illinois Department of Human Services declared that the United States Department of Agriculture is funding Illinois’ Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer or P-EBT, a program designed to assist families with children during the pandemic. P-EBT is providing $112 million in food benefits to eligible families with children in school. The IDHS measured the supplementary benefits as $5.70 […]

Bradley University has announced that it has applied for grant funding from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which is part of the CARES Act. If accepted, the money will go directly to students who are struggling financially from the pandemic and campus shutdown. Bradley is one of many universities looking to receive money from […]

Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis led off the daily COVID-19 press conference with a reminder to continue social distancing measures in the city to keep the virus at bay saying, “Please don’t blow this.” Monica Hendrickson, head of the Peoria health department, said that cases in the Tri-County area rose by four, with the Peoria county […]

            The search for Joe Biden’s Vice President continues.

            In an interview with CBS Pittsburgh this past Monday, the presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate said that he would take former First Lady Michelle Obama as his VP in a heartbeat because she is, “brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a really fine woman,” and, […]

In Peoria, citizens who have COVID-like symptoms or have been in contact with a carrier of the novel coronavirus will soon be able to get tested for the disease. On Thursday, April 16, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced that a COVID-19 testing center will be implemented at Heartland Health Services in sometime in the near […]

            Central Illinois now has its very first coronavirus testing lab in Pekin to help test civilians for COVID-19. CEO of Reditus Laboratories Dr. Aaron Rossi started the lab for anatomical and clinical pathology services and to focus on histology, along with molecular biology and testing. By using polymerase chain reactions (PCR) they are able […]