Coon Causes Peru Outage

A raccoon caused a citywide power outage Saturday morning in Peru.

Power went out around 4:15am and was back on about 20 minutes later.  Peru electric officials say a raccoon apparently walked up to the top of the substation along Water Street and triggered the outage.

The outage involved Peru’s electrical setup and not Ameren’s.

Heroin Arrest In Peru

Two homeless guys were arrested for drugs Friday afternoon in Peru.

Peru Police say they were patrolling the area of 7^th and Peru Street when they saw two men walking who were wanted on warrants in La Salle County for driving while suspended.  One of the men, Jesse Ceretto was also arrested for felony possession of heroin after being accused of having of having four small tins containing heroin.  The other guy, Christopher Bates was picked up for having a small amount of cannabis and a cannabis pipe.

Both were taken to the La Salle County Jail.

Marseilles Man Accused Of Taking Advantage Of The Elderly

Deputies in Kendall County want to talk to a man from Marseilles about an expensive home improvement job.

Deputies say they’re investigating a financial exploitation of an elderly person complaint by an 88 year old man in Yorkville.  The elderly man apparently paid William Partridge of Marseilles two thousand dollars to seal his blacktop driveway.

The driveway is 80 by 23 feet.

Two Dead In Rock Falls Shooting

ROCK FALLS, Ill. (AP) – Officials in Rock Falls say a man and  a woman are dead following a shooting that caused a temporary lockdown of three schools. The condition of a second woman who was shot and wounded isn’t known.

Police closed off several blocks near Dillon Elementary School after shots were fired near the school Friday morning. Police converged on an apartment building where the suspected shooter, a man in his 50s, had fled. The elementary school, a middle school and a high school were locked down for several hours, with police stationed at the
schools.

Later, police found the suspected shooter inside an apartment dead from an apparent gunshot wound. Police say a woman’s body was found in the same apartment.

Blagojevich Retrial Takes Extended Break

CHICAGO (AP) – Officials at U.S. District Court in Chicago say the corruption retrial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich won’t restart until Wednesday.

Clerk of Court Michael Dobbins released a brief statement Friday afternoon saying there’d be no trial proceedings either Monday or Tuesday. Since testimony got under way at the start of this month, jurors have heard evidence Monday through Thursday – with Fridays off.

Judge James Zagel has said he’ll meet attorneys Monday to begin discussing instructions that’ll eventually be given to jurors when they withdraw to deliberate. That meeting’s still expected to take place. Dobbins’ statement
didn’t say why there’d be no testimony early in the week.

The prosecution rested this week. And the defense is expected to start calling witnesses when the retrial resumes Wednesday morning.