Fight continues to bring back building trades in Ottawa

What do you think is the best approach for students and their supporters to get building trades back at Ottawa High School? About 30 people including nearly a dozen students shared ideas Wednesday night of how to get the school board to reconsider its controversial decision to cut building trades.

Ottawa High Junior Richard Marco sees two directions to take: Get an overwhelming number of the public to pressure the board to change their vote or look at alternative ways to pay for building trades like fundraisers or donations.
Marco says getting building trades back is just the first step in pushing out the new “Common Core” system where schools are being told to emphasize math, English and language arts for college preparation. But Marco says not everyone wants to go to college which is where building trades become important.

Building trades’ students are hoping to meet again next week. Marco says they’re trying to plan individual meetings with school board members before their meeting on the 28th.

A person injured during crash on North 15th Road

A crash east of Lostant sent one person to St. Mary’s Hospital in Streator. La Salle County Sheriff’s Deputies were called to the one-car crash minutes before 1pm Wednesday.

A person was thrown from the car. It happened on North 15th Road about three miles east of Lostant. Deputies haven’t yet given out the name of the person involved. You’ll hear more when it is made available.

Firefighers use foam to put out oil changing business fire

Black smoke poured from an oil changing shop in La Salle. A fire started inside of Mobil 1 Lube Express minutes before 1pm Wednesday. It’s believed the fire started when the gas tank of a pickup truck exploded. No one was hurt.

Firefighters from La Salle and Peru got to the fire by breaking through the back garage doors of the building. They used foam to put out the burning oil.

Route 6 between Storages Bar and Grill and KFC was closed for a couple hours.

Food pantry in Spring Valley could use help with Easter meals

Easter is around the corner and some people still don’t know if they’ll have a holiday meal.

The Hall Township Food Pantry in Spring Valley is expecting to provide Easter meals for 325 families. Donations both food and monetary are needed to help all the families.

Meals will be handed out Wednesday, April 16th. You need to register by the 15th to get a holiday basket.

Over 300 conceal-carry permits denied because of faulty instructor

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – There’s a major recall of sorts regarding the new concealed-carry law in Illinois.

State Police have disqualified a Bolingbrook firearms instructor and informed at least 327 applicants they will not get a license to carry concealed weapons because of improper training. Investigators say they did interviews and reviewed records to determine the training with the Bolingbrook instructor was not in accordance with state law. Denied applicants will be able to repeat training without paying the $150 application fee.

Troopers have so far invalidated 13 instructors and notified 425 applicants of invalid training.