Woman falls nearly 40 feet at Starved Rock State Park

Having alcohol and going off the marked trails are mistakes that a Waukegan woman hopefully learns from.

Conservation Police Sgt. Hank Frazier says 42-year-old Lilija Janiulene was in a restricted area Sunday afternoon with alcohol in her system when she slipped and fell about 40 feet near French Canyon at Starved Rock State Park. She fell onto storm debris which Frazier says kept her from falling another 30 feet.

The good news is Janiulene has already been from OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria. She was flown there after Sunday’s fall.

Janiulene was ticketed for being in a restricted area.

More records set at Skydive Chicago

Thirty-nine women skydivers from around the country have set a state record in Ottawa.

The women jumped from two planes Saturday afternoon to build a cross-shaped belly formation over Skydive Chicago. The skydivers topped the previous record of 35 women set in August 2013. The national record is 182 women.

On Sunday, 32 women from the same skydiving team set a state women’s two-point sequential record, meaning they built two pre-designed formations during one skydive.

Millions gambled last month in the Illinois Valley

What do Ottawa, Streator and Aurora have in common? They all had $1.4 million put into video gambling machines last month.

Of the $1.4 million gambled in Ottawa and Streator, just over a $1 million came back out of the machines to winners. Other Illinois Valley towns in the “millionaires club” are Peru and Morris at $1.1 million and La Salle at just over a million gambled at machines. Springfield had the most money put into gaming machines in July at $9.1 million.

Between Bureau, La Salle and Putnam Counties, only two cities don’t allow video gaming and they are Grand Ridge and New Bedford. Cedar Point limits video gaming to places with Class A liquor licenses.

Empty house burns in Streator

Questions need to be answered on how an abandoned house caught fire on the west side of Streator.

The fire call came before 5 in the morning Saturday near the intersection of West Bridge Street and South 3rd Avenue. When firefighters from Streator, Reading and Grand Ridge all got to the house, flames were coming out of the roof which eventually collapsed.

The state fire marshal’s office was called to help find a cause of the fire.