Serious themes combined with rock music make up the next musical at Stage 212

You don’t have to be a starving artist in Greenwich Village to understand love, loss and not being able to pay your landlord. Those are a few of the challenges faced by a group of friends in the Tony Award winning musical, “Rent”.

Daniel Haun is the director of the production that runs next month at Stage 212 in La Salle.  He says it’s a rock musical that deals with a lot of heavy topics such as poverty and HIV but those issues are addressed in the music.

Haun says the cast includes many talented veteran local actors that are getting to portray characters that they’ve never portrayed on stage before.

Rent runs August 7-10. Tickets are $20 each and are expected to sellout.

Learn more about it by listening to an interview available at the WLPO AM and FM news page.

Uproar Festival has Peru officials talking about crowd control

Thousands of people are expected to attend the Uproar Festival in Peru and city officials are getting ready for the crowd.  The Peru Finance and Public Safety Committees talked Wednesday about the next “Concert for a Cause”. The police and fire chiefs say they have a safety plan in place to manage a large crowd.

The committees also talked about concerns over the Suicide Girls burlesque show.  Concert organizers with Lou’s La Grotto say they’re promoting the show as adult-oriented and letting people know that when they buy tickets.

The Uproar Festival is Saturday, August 16th at the Illinois Valley Regional Airport. Buckcherry, Seether, and Godsmack are the headliners.

Declines continue in local unemployment rates

Local unemployment rates continue to show improvement. La Salle County’s June unemployment rate was 8.7%, 2.5 points lower than last June.

La Salle County wasn’t alone. Bureau County unemployment improved from 8.9% last June to 7.4% this June. Putnam County experienced a 2.8% decline with June’s rate at 7.5%.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security says in the Ottawa-Streator area‘s June unemployment rate was 8.4%. The last time it was that low or lower was in 2008.

Teenage boys accused of damaging several vehicles in Spring Valley

Ready for your kids to go back to school yet? Four teenage boys in Spring Valley are accused of spending some of their summer damaging other people’s property.

Last week, Spring Valley officers got several complaints about mirrors and doors of vehicles being damaged. The vandalism was spread out across town.

Two 14-year-olds, a 15-year-old and 16-year old all from Spring Valley have been arrested for criminal damage to property along with violating curfew.  The teens were released to their parents.

Busy road between Ottawa and Marseilles will be under construction

If you take Canal Road between Ottawa and Marseilles, you may want to think about an alternate route.

Starting on Monday, the road along the Illinois River will be closed starting just east of the ADM railroad tracks. Crews are replacing a culvert.

There will be no detour. The closure could last up to a week.

Accused double-murderer shows up in Lee County Court

Escorted by three armed guards, accused murderer Terence Doddy made his first court appearance in Lee County Wednesday.

The 36-year-old from Rockford was arraigned on murder charges. He’s accused of strangling to death 44-year-old Tonya Bargman of Monticello at the southbound Interstate 39 rest stop near Paw Paw. Doddy allegedly stole Bargman’s car and was eventually arrested earlier this month driving the stolen car.

Doddy was appointed a public defender in Lee County. He’s also facing a murder charge in Winnebago County for allegedly killing a co-worker.

Medical marijuana growing operation moves forward in Peru

One hurdle has been cleared to bring a medical marijuana cultivation center to Peru.

The Peru Planning Commission Wednesday night unanimously approved a special use permit for AgriCare to turn an old trucking terminal north of Interstate 80 into a medical marijuana cultivation center. The company says if eventually approved for a state license, their project would create 100 construction jobs along with 35 jobs at the growing facility during the first year and potentially grow to have a workforce of around 100.

AgriCare COO Dan Emmons says they will go above and beyond state regulations for security and any marijuana moving in and out will be delivered by armored trucks. Workers and visitors to the cultivation center would go through several security checkpoints.

If demand grows for medical marijuana, AgriCare plans to more than double the size of the cultivation center. Emmons says if the expansion happens, their monthly electric bill could be $200,000.

Another company called Med Farm also plans to ask for a special use permit for land that isn’t far from the trucking terminal. The state will eventually pick only one cultivation center for the Illinois Valley.