Police Chase Van Through At Least Four Different Towns

A wild weekend in the Illinois Valley included a multi-city police chase.

Ottawa Police tried to stop a van around 6 o’clock for its alleged involvement in a hit and run. The van led police on a chase on Gentleman Road into Marseilles.  According to scanner reports, the van continued on into Seneca.  Stop sticks were deployed in Seneca but the van was able to avoid them.

The driver was eventually stopped and arrested in Dwight. No names have been released.

No mail service on Monday

If you have something to mail out Monday, it will have to wait until Tuesday.  Monday is President’s Day and the post offices will be closed.  Many state and city offices will be also closed, although most garbage pickup routes won’t be affected.

The La Salle City Council will also be meeting Monday at their usual time, 7pm.

Annual dinner raises money for LP High School Foundation

Jeans and sneakers were you could see of the victim under the sheet.  A few feet away a royal court played medieval games while Dorothy and Wicked Witch performed show tunes.  No, this wasn’t a dream; it was a fundraiser for the LP High School Foundation for Educational Enrichment.

100 people played games and dined at their annual Celebrity Waiter Dinner at Senica’s Oak Ridge Saturday night.  More than $7,000 was raised from raffles, donations and a silent auction.

The money is used to purchase classroom items and support school related programs.

Alleged home invasion leaves one man dead and another arrested

While you were sleeping, police and paramedics were rushing to a home south of Earlville for a shooting.  Police believe it was a home invasion turned deadly.

La Salle County Sheriff Tom Templeton says they were called around 3am Sunday.  They believe the homeowner shot one of two men who had went into the home on County Highway 1.

The man that was shot died after being taken to Mendota Community Hospital.  Meanwhile, the second man they think was involved was being stopped by an Ottawa Police officer.

Police haven’t yet given out the names of the men while they continue to investigate.

Man fails to avoid traffic

A pedestrian is dead after authorities say he walked onto an expressway on Chicago’s South Side. Illinois State Police say witnesses have described seeing the man walk onto the Dan Ryan Expressway near 91st street early Saturday without trying to avoid traffic. The man was struck at about 3 a.m. and was dead at the scene. He wasn’t carrying any identification, and police are working to learn his name. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office says he was in his 30s. Master Sgt. Tim Tyler says the driver of the car that struck the man stayed at the scene to tell police what happened. Tyler says the driver was “pretty shook up” and that a chaplain was sent to talk to them.

The lost Chicagoans

Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the U.S. Census Bureau undercounted Chicago’s population in its 2010 figures. The mayor is urging the bureau to review his challenge and says the lower figure would cost the city nearly $3 million in federal funding for low-income households and infrastructure projects. The city did its own analysis using utility account data, certificates of occupancy and field research. Emanuel’s office said it discovered an estimated 2,350 people throughout Chicago may have been left out of the Census Bureau’s count. The city stands to gain as much as $1,200 per year in federal funds over the next 10 years for every person added to the count. That would total $2.8 million annually. The mayor’s office says New York and other cities have filed similar challenges.

MDA competition at Denny’s

Buy an MDA shamrock at Denny’s and send a kid to camp, help their waiters and yourself. Monica Maschek is General Manager at the LaSalle Denny’s. For the second year, the restaurant is vying with other Denny’s between here and lower Wisconsin to sell one and five dollar shamrocks for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Maschek says one thousand paper shamrocks went up in one week, but it wants to top last year’s first place finish of about 28-hundred dollars. The promotion ends March 17th. According to Maschek, it costs MDA eight hundred dollars to send a child to camp. Purchasing a shamrock earns you 20% off on your next visit and Denny’s servers are themselves selling shamrocks for possible prizes. The promotion has gotten the attention of the corporate office who just might expand it nationwide next year.

LS youth wins Bee

A LaSalle Lincoln Junior High eighth grader out-spelled 35 particiants Saturday to win the County Spelling Bee at Ottawa High School. That according to County Regional School Superintendent Jim Carlson. Grant Innis, son of Gretchen and Paul Innis, won two hundred dollars, a Kindle Touch, the Stretch Miller first place traveling plaque from the Peoria Journal Star. Stoyan Georgiev, a Wallace Grade School seventh grader took second place. Stoyan won one hundred dollars, a CD Rom version of the World Book Encyclopedia and the Journal Star’s second place trophy. Carlson said all the students showed great poise and skill through twenty rounds of spelling.