Home Sales Pick Up In The Illinois Valley

June proved to be a big month for home sales in the listening area.

According to the Illinois Association of REALTORS, 103 homes were sold in La Salle County last month compared to 79 last June.  The median sale price was 95 thousand dollars, three thousand dollars below last June.

In Bureau County, 37 homes were sold compared to 14 sales during June of Last year.  The median sale price was 108 thousand dollars, about 13 thousand below last year’s price.

Putnam County sold four houses last month compared to two the year before.  The median sale price was 150 thousand dollars, 60 thousand less than June 2011.

Handful Of People Hurt In Crash Near Peru

Multiple people were hurt in a crash along Route 251 north of Peru.

Peru and Mendota emergency crews responded to a three car accident near the Route 251 and North 32^nd Road intersection late Friday afternoon.  While on the scene, there was another crash in the same spot.

Five people were taken by ambulance from the scene.

La Salle Purse Snatcher Pleads Guilty

A La Salle man has admitted to knocking down women outside a couple bars and stealing their purses.

39-year old Christopher Coleman pled guilty yesterday to two counts of robbery.  He entered the blind plea with acknowledgement that he is mentally ill.  Coleman will be sentenced in September.  Because he has a prior record, he could get sentenced to over 20 years in prison.

Coleman was arrested in November after La Salle Police say he storm-armed purses away from women who left The Dugout and Jake’s Pour House on back to back weekends.  He had just been released from prison.

Coleman claims he did it to feed a cocaine habit.

Happ Traded To Toronto

For the second time in his young Major League Baseball career, St. Bede graduate J.A. Happ has been traded.

The tall lefty who was born in Spring Valley has been dealt to the Toronto Blue Jays in a ten-player deal.  He’s won seven games so far this year for the Houston Astros.

He went to Houston in July 2010 after being traded by the Philadelphia Phillies.  Happ won a world series with the Phillies in 2008.

Closing Dwight Prison Will Increase Violence?

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Illinois prison guards are stepping up their efforts to keep Gov. Pat Quinn from shutting down two state prisons.

A dozen guards spoke at the state Capitol on Thursday to describe attacks on staff and inmates in the already overcrowded correctional system. They predict even more violence if the prisons are closed. Jake Dalton, a sergeant at the Pontiac prison, says Quinn has lit the fuse on a powder keg. The union for Corrections Department employees says assaults on staff jumped by 46 percent between 2007 and 2011.

Quinn plans to close the “supermax” prison at Tamms and the women’s prison at Dwight. He says inmates there can be transferred safely to other prisons.