A Clinton grocery store owner is working to keep grocery prices down in the middle of some worst inflation he's seen in his career.

Dave Jackson owns the Clinton Save-A-Lot in Clinton and explains the challenge is keeping food prices down while making a profit. He calls the last four years the most challenging he's ever been through.

Coming out of COVID, finding certain items could be challenging, and the specific items that would be low in supply but high in demand would change from week to week or month to month. Jackson says they are, for the most part, getting items in regularly now. 

According to Jackson, he hears often from customers their appreciation of his efforts to keep prices low and indicates they get customers from all over central Illinois that come to Clinton to shop at Save-A-Lot.

As far as inflation, Jackson says some items will return to normal or close to what they were before COVID but other items he says you will not see go back down.

As the fresh produce season rolls in, Save-A-Lot will, and already is, advertising locally grown produce they'll have on its shelves. You can keep up with what they have by stopping into 205 East Washington Street in Clinton or finding them on Facebook. 

Last month, the Neighborhood Care Center of DeWitt and McLean Counties hosted its first-ever gala fundraiser.

The event was a huge hit according to Mandi Ries, communications coordinator for the Neighborhood Care Center, and reports the gala was a huge success and felt they did a good job making it fun and unique for those who paid to come out.

For the Neighborhood Care Center, the dollars raised from last month's event in Heyworth will go right back into its budget to invest in people in the community. Ries says they are steadfast in believing God will provide for their needs financially and otherwise. 

According to Ries, the night had a lot of purposes for them but one of them was to bring the two networks together and demonstrate the reach each center has.

Ries looks forward to having another gala next year, likely back in Heyworth. She says they are already looking at dates for the event and are planning for another April event. 

The Mississippi River impacted by low water levels last summer and fall. Are things improving this spring?

Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford speaking to the RFD Radio Network this week.

Governor JB Pritzker has floated the idea that about a billion dollars is needed to rebuild and replace two prisons - one in suburban Will County and another in Logan County.

There has been worry that the woman’s correctional facility in Logan County would be torn down but not rebuilt in the same area and now a recent IDOC report says it prefers the woman’s prison to be moved to Crest Hill and built next to a new Statesville Correctional facility. Governor JB Pritzker says a long process still needs to play out before any prison closes and jobs and prisoners are moved from one part of the state to another.

Logan currently serves as one of the state’s two prisons from women. Much of its structure dates back 90 years ago.

The American Red Cross is in need of blood during the summer months at least as much if not more than during the rest of the year, according to the head of the agency. 

As a rule, donations fall off between May and August, but there are numbers that indicate they are seeing the lowest number of donors in the last 20 years or so. Red Cross Executive Director Beth Elders says they need more people to donate as often as they can.

She says it’s important that donors make an appointment to give now before heading out for summer activities to help maintain a stable blood supply in the coming months. You can find information about how to donate here: www.RedCross.org

The Bears have a plan to spend $2 billion of their own money on a $3.2 billion stadium to be built on the lakefront in Chicago. 

But it also needs as much as $1.5 billion more in infrastructure spending to address future traffic and other concerns. The NFL team figures the state can extend a Chicago hotel tax for decades to come and find more than a billion dollars in other spending to cover the rest. 

Speaker of the House Chris Welch, a Democrat from suburban Chicago, says he told the team last month, this isn’t a great time to ask lawmakers for billions in handouts.

Bears President Kevin Warren said last week, he wants to see lawmakers in Springfield to approve the funding part of this plan by the end of the current spring session.

The Battle Cross Crusaders program from Clinton will be organizing its 11th World War II veterans Drive By Honor Parade to honor Green Valley US Army WWII veteran Richard Lohnes for his 106th birthday on Sunday, May 5 at 3 pm at the Green Valley Fire Department.

Lohnes served as the Green Valley Fire Chief for 26 years and was a volunteer fireman for 32 years as well.

After the honor parade, everyone is invited back to the firehouse and Lohnes will be presented the Quilt of Valor, and a patriotic mural signed by all participants immediately after the honor parade, among a few other gifts from Battle Cross Crusaders. 

They are also working with Operation Song, a patriotic group of Nashville songwriters to have a free song written to Lohnes service which will be played after the Honor Parade and all parade participants are invited to hear it for the first time with him.

T/S Dick Lohnes served in North Africa, as a member of the 756th Tank Battalion that liberated Casablanca in November 1942.

The 756th, an independent light tank battalion, was assigned to different commands but for most of the war was attached to the 3rd Infantry Division.

From Casablanca, they went into Italy after landing at Salerno and were with the first Allied unit to arrive at Monte Casino, and participated in all phases of the drive on to Rome.

Then followed an amphibious assault on the south coast of France on August 15, 1944.

They pushed north through France along the Rhine Valley, reaching Strasbourg on November 26. The battalion experienced heavy fighting early in '45 in the Colmar Pocket, then crossed the Rhine into southern Germany in a successful seizure of the German Siegfried Line.

Followed by the capture of Nuremberg, Munich, and Hitler's personal retreat The Berchtesgaden.

Lohnes's unit was preparing to go into Salzburg, Austria, when the war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945 (V-E Day).

From Casablanca to Salzburg the 756th had traveled approximately 5,000 miles, and from October '44 to May '45 was almost continuously engaged in combat, except for one ten-day period in Italy when it was relieved after suffering heavy casualties.