Congressman Adam Kinzinger Officially Backing New Candidate for Presidential Race

Do you typically take voting advice from social media? Does the opinion of your elected representatives influence your vote?

If so, you’ll be interested to hear Congressman Adam Kinzinger is backing a new candidate for the country’s highest office. The 16^th District U-S Representative made the announcement via Facebook and Twitter Wednesday, saying “Marco Rubio is the candidate in this race who best shares my vision to Renew America.”

Kinzinger had been looking for a new candidate to give his support to after his first choice, Jeb Bush, withdrew from the race earlier in the week.

Accused pipe bomb maker in Ottawa is indicted

Allegedly messing around with pipe bombs and other illegal explosives has an Ottawa man stuck behind bars.

A La Salle County Grand Jury Tuesday indicted 44-year-old Richard Knott for unlawful use of a weapon. He was arrested last Tuesday at his home in Ottawa after a visit from the Ottawa P.D., U.S. Marshalls, state police, the Kane County Bomb Squad and the ATF.

Knott allegedly was found with a pipe bomb and had other explosives inside his house. A bomb squad safely removed them from his home. A relative’s house in Troy Grove was also searched. Investigators don’t think he had ill intentions with the explosives.

Knott is now in the La Salle County Jail needing $25,000 to bond out. He’s due back in court March 3rd.

Ottawa overtakes Streator in sending most children to the county detention home

For the first time in almost a decade, the city sending the most children to the LaSalle County Detention Home was not Streator.

Ottawa sent 34 kids to the detention home in 2015, up from 27 the year before. Streator had sent the most in each of the past 8 years, but only 20 admissions were from Streator in 2015, down from 35. Other cities with more than ten offenders admitted last year were LaSalle with 15, Mendota with 11, and Marseilles with 10.

The overall trend is downward, though, with fewer kids being sent to the detention home in each of the last 4 years. There were 124 admissions in 2015, the lowest amount in more than 6 years.

Crash near Oglesby sends young children to the hospital

Distracted driving doesn’t always involve a cell phone. You can just as easily get distracted with kids in the back seat.

Sarah Henry of La Salle says she was westbound on Route 71 in Oglesby Tuesday morning when she looked in the back seat at one of her young passengers, causing her to lose control of her car. She slammed into the guardrails on both sides of the road.

Henry and her 1 and 2-year-old passengers were taken to Illinois Valley Community Hospital in Peru.

Major winter storm expected to spare the Illinois Valley

It looks like the Illinois Valley will dodge the latest snow storm.

Wednesday’s snow prediction from Ottawa and places west is maybe an inch of white stuff. Drive a couple hours to the south and east towards Interstate 57 and there could be blizzard like conditions with 6 inches or more snow.

Grundy County is under a Winter Weather Advisory while Livingston County is on the far western edge of a Winter Storm Warning.

Streator man crawls away from rollover crash

A Streator man is lucky to be alive after rolling his car several times.

Deputies in La Salle County say 27-year-old Charles Siefert was on Route 23 Tuesday night west of Serena when he ended up in a ditch and overturned his car several times. Siefert was thrown from the car but, miraculously, he was able to crawl back and hunker down in the front seat until police and paramedics showed up.

He was taken to OSF St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa. Siefert was ticketed for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

State Representative candidate feels misled by local Tea Party

Is this a case of dirty politics or just miscommunication? Republican State Representative candidate Jerry Long says he was the victim of a “blindside and scheme” put together by local Tea Party leader Art Havenhill.

After a day of knocking on doors campaigning, Long says he went to Pitstick’s in Ottawa last night for an informal Tea Party gathering where he thought he was going to take a few questions and make a short speech. Long says he knew after seeing opponent Jacob Bramel of Marseilles in a suit and tie that it wasn’t an informal gathering after all.

Long says he doesn’t regret appearing in casual attire because “that’s who I am”. It is worth noting that Bramel in the past has had the Tea Party motto and logo as his Facebook profile picture.