IEMA says prepare for……an earthquake?

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency is reminding residents of the risk of earthquakes in the Midwest.
 
     IEMA Director Jonathon Monken says it may come as a surprise that there’s a risk of a major earthquake in Illinois. But during the winter of 1811-1812, some of the largest quakes ever recorded in North America rocked the central United States, including parts of southern Illinois.
 
     IEMA has developed interactive tools that identify earthquake hazards in homes and schools. They’re available on the Ready Illinois website at Ready.Illinois.gov.
 
     Monken says residents should remember “Drop, Cover and Hold On” when they feel the ground shaking.
 
     That means drop to the floor, take cover under a sturdy desk or table and hold onto the furniture until shaking stops.

Bacon Festival is backdrop for weddings

Two Iowa couples decided to tie the knot at this weekend’s bacon festival at the state fairgrounds.
 
     The Des Moines Register reports  Tricia Snider and Tom Watson were the first to wed Saturday at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. Craig and April Rouch got married a short while later.
 
     Watson and Snider say they figured the bacon festival was the perfect location to exchange vows because they enjoy bacon together every weekend.
 
     The 47-year-old Watson says his love for his 41-year-old bride is second only to his love for bacon.
 
     The chapel where the couple married had a wall full of windows that looked out over an arena full of vendors selling bacon-filled foods.

Actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman found dead

Law enforcement officials say Philip Seymour Hoffman was found with a syringe in his arm and a drug overdose is suspected as his cause of death.
 
     The two officials spoke Sunday to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about evidence found at the scene.
 
     The officials say glassine envelopes they suspect contained heroin were also found in Hoffman’s New York City apartment. Those items are being tested.
 
     They say Hoffman’s body was discovered by two people: a friend who made the 911 call and his assistant.
 
     He won an Academy Award for best actor in 2006 for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in “Capote.”

Former mayor is hospitalized

Former Mayor Richard Daley has been hospitalized in an intensive care unit after feeling ill upon returning to Chicago from a business trip in Arizona. His spokeswoman Jackie Heard says Daley was feeling disoriented on a Friday evening flight back from a conference he attended as part of his work for the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman.

Heard says Daley walked off the plane and was met by an ambulance that took him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The 71-year-old Daley remained in the hospital’s intensive care unit Saturday for monitoring and evaluation.

Kirk in Peoria for gangs initative

Illinois Senator Mark Kirk and several local officials will be highlighting anti-gang efforts in Peoria on today.
 
     Kirk, Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis and several other officials are gathering at the Peoria Police Department on Sunday morning to detail the city’s “Don’t Shoot” initiative.   City officials say Peoria currently has more than 10 active street gangs, with a total of more than 400 known gang members.
 
     The “Don’t Shoot” project aims to reduce gun and gang violence through a series of programs and citywide community education.
 
     Kirk, a Highland Park Republican, also plans to talk about his recent work on a federal spending bill that includes $18.5 million to combat gang violence across the country.

Local park is in voting contest

If you like Starved Rock Lodge, you can vote for it as part of a magazine contest.

The Lodge is one of four finalists in the “Midwest Meetings” contest to name the favorite lodge for a meeting. Starved Rock Lodge is competing against the Wilderness Resort at Wisconsin Dells, Quail Hollow Resort in Ohio and Landmark Resort in Door County, Wisconsin.

If the lodge wins, they will be featured in the summer edition of “Midwest Meetings”.

Voting starts Monday on the “Midwest Meetings” Facebook page.

Prepare for a new winter storm

Roads across the three county area have scattered slippery spots this morning, according to the IDOT District 3 report this morning. Roads crews are out removing what’s left of an average 5 inch snowfall in the LaSalle Peru area.

Amy Seeley, meterologist with the National Weather Service at Romeoville says our three counties might be dealing with as much as six Inches of snow by late Tuesday. The storm system providing that is still taking shape off the west coast.