Yard waste pickup resumes Monday in Peru

          Ready to tackle yard work?  In the Peru, yard waste bag pickup begins Monday.  Bags will be picked up on your normal garbage day.  You’ll need to use paper yard waste bags. 

And if you’ve been trimming trees, branch chipping also begins Monday.  It’s $25 per 15 minutes the chipper is at your house.

Suspect in NIU student slaying enters plea

     SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) – A man has entered an Alford plea in the 2010 slaying of a Northern Illinois University student whose burned body was found in a park days after she disappeared.

     William Curl entered the plea today in a DeKalb County courtroom and will serve all of a 37-year prison sentence under the terms of his plea deal.

     The 36-year-old Curl insists that he didn’t kill 18-year-old Antinette “Toni” Keller. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt but is an acknowledgement that prosecutors likely could have secured a conviction at trial.

     Curl’s public defender, Tom McCulloch, says Curl could have been sentenced to life in prison had he been convicted at trial.