Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk-Line: Charlene Bielema, Sauk Valley News

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Talk-Line: Charlene Bielema, Sauk Valley News · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are featuring in this half hour our good friends
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: from Shaw Local News. The managing editor the Dixon Telegraph
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and Sterling Gazette is live with us at the microphones
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to bring us our most recent update. Our dear friend
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Charlene Bilama joins us in this half hour here at Waxing.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Good morning man, Nice to see you. Nice to see
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: we didn't see Charlene last week. She was busy, well
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in part because of the weather. It's stunk last week.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Charlie had had you know, your track with Morrison. I'm
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: sure was a experience anyway, Yes, of the weather last week,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: but you stuck around Morrison in Whiteside County. And that's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: one of the stories that we are going to hit
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: first off with Charlington. She's got a plethora, a plethora
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of information today to deliver from Shaw Local News. So
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: let's get right to it again with that Whiteside County
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  Speaker 1: trial right right.
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  Speaker 2: We had a two day actually turned into a three
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  Speaker 2: day trial last week. It was for a Sterling case
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  Speaker 2: happening two years ago. Leandrew Adams actually the defendant in
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: that case, and he was found guilty of a sex crime,
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  Speaker 2: a sex charge predatory of criminal sexual assault of a
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  Speaker 2: minor and in two days, you know, they think, oh
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  Speaker 2: that that kind kind of went fast. We had basically
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  Speaker 2: just one and a half days of testimony the victim,
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  Speaker 2: as well as state criminologists forensic scientists who were giving
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  Speaker 2: DNA results from that. For me, that trial was interesting.
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  Speaker 2: I've covered courts for a long time. A jury selection
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  Speaker 2: we always kind of think in our head, hey, half
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  Speaker 2: a day for jury selection. In this case, it took
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  Speaker 2: a day to get to twelve members of a jury
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  Speaker 2: and three alternates.
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  Speaker 3: It was a sex assault case.
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  Speaker 2: And what opened my eyes in that particular case was
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  Speaker 2: when they questioned jurors and they bring them up in visually.
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  Speaker 3: They will ask.
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  Speaker 2: Them, they being the attorneys, and one by one they'll
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  Speaker 2: be asked questions about any facet of that case that
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  Speaker 2: could possibly cloud their ability to make a decision. And
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  Speaker 2: one of the questions that they asked was, do you
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  Speaker 2: or a family member have any but you know, in
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  Speaker 2: your orbit.
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  Speaker 3: Have any knowledge of sexual assault?
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  Speaker 2: Were you a victim of it? Do you have a
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  Speaker 2: family member that was a victim of it? And it
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  Speaker 2: was surprising to me how many people answered yes, Women
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  Speaker 2: themselves who were being questioned to become jurors. There was
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  Speaker 2: one particular woman who was older. She had been a
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  Speaker 2: victim of it, so had her two sisters, so had
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  Speaker 2: her granddaughter. And you think about it really shines a
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  Speaker 2: light on the depth of that problem. Some of them
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  Speaker 2: were prosecuted cases, some of them had not been prosecuted,
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  Speaker 2: and there were over multiple generations. You're talking about people
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  Speaker 2: that maybe this happened within a couple of years, but
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  Speaker 2: others that was far back in their history. They did
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  Speaker 2: get a jury seated that afternoon and then broke for
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: the day, and then the verdict came back. It would
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: be Thursday night at six o'clock. They kept the jury
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  Speaker 2: and they came back with guilty on that charge. There
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  Speaker 2: were four others that they couldn't they didn't find him
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  Speaker 2: guilty on those, but it was actually the attempted attempted
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  Speaker 2: criminal predatory sexual assault.
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  Speaker 3: So they found him guilty guilty.
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  Speaker 1: Verdict was rendered d And it's it's interesting to note
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  Speaker 1: that that because I talked with Mike rock our Ogle
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  Speaker 1: County State's attorney, just a couple of days ago, and
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  Speaker 1: he in Ogle County revealed the fact that domestic violence
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  Speaker 1: cases and sexual assault cases are up for Ogle County,
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  Speaker 1: and you would think after the pandemic, you know, that's
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  Speaker 1: when you know, things kind of mustered because we were
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  Speaker 1: you know, inside, we were we were all in closed
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  Speaker 1: and this is this kind of lent to it. But
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  Speaker 1: after the pandemic, we're post pandemic. Now we're still seeing
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  Speaker 1: an uptick in this.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you'll also notice too, like you used to
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  Speaker 2: see maybe domestic assault where it was kind of like, oh,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: you know, was what was that shoving?
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  Speaker 1: What?
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  Speaker 3: You know, what happened there?
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  Speaker 2: But you know, now you see and it's really within
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  Speaker 2: the last few years.
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  Speaker 3: And I don't know if that's because there's.
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  Speaker 2: Some kind of change in how they define that, but
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  Speaker 2: it's strangulation. You see that more and more with it.
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  Speaker 2: You see the escalation. So yeah, that was that's that's
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  Speaker 2: eye opening when you see that those answers come through.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And then of course we have the arrest that was
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  Speaker 2: announced yesterday for the Rock Falls stabbing.
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  Speaker 3: That case.
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  Speaker 2: Originally the they had that day, they had the name
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  Speaker 2: of the person that was arrested for aggravated battery and
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  Speaker 2: then the name of the victim. The state's attorney said,
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  Speaker 2: or the police department said more charges are expected and
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  Speaker 2: I think with the holiday it took a couple of
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  Speaker 2: days to actually get that, but yesterday we saw those
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  Speaker 2: formal charges, two counts of aggravated battery as well as
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  Speaker 2: a first degree murder charge.
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  Speaker 3: Detention hearing will be on Friday.
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  Speaker 2: That we can tell based on like our Facebook activity,
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  Speaker 2: that story seems to have a lot of people because
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: you know, people in their twenties at a Rock Falls residence,
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  Speaker 2: So that trial will be there, that particular case will
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  Speaker 2: be keeping a close eye on as a result of that,
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  Speaker 2: and we know that story was read heavily as an updates,
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  Speaker 2: so we'll be at the detention hearing on.
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  Speaker 1: Friday covering that, covering that news item through Shaw Local News.
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  Speaker 1: Watch for that and watch for reports on that particular
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: incident as it takes shape in the Rock Falls area.
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  Speaker 1: Moving to Dixon, now, yeah, we talk about the budget.
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  Speaker 3: And yeah, there's a lot of Dixon there always is.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, we have budget hearings that are going on
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  Speaker 2: right now where you have different community organizations that have
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  Speaker 2: been making their pitches for contributions that they can seek
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  Speaker 2: from the city. Decisions will come as they're shaping the
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  Speaker 2: budget on that. We like to be there to hear
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  Speaker 2: what's being asked for. The Dixon, of course, is one
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  Speaker 2: of the groups that's asking for money. And one of
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  Speaker 2: the great things kind of beating in the news businesses,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: you get to have this look at things as they're
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: evolving and developing, and in that case it's been the
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  Speaker 2: Dixon Theater being renovated.
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  Speaker 3: There was a tour that came up yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: Tom Wadsworth, who's our local historian writer, was given a
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  Speaker 2: tour by Mike Vanier, one of the councilmen who's also
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  Speaker 2: on the board for that. Darren Mangler was there and
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  Speaker 2: some of the actual employees of the theater and we
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  Speaker 2: were able to get a look at and photos of
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  Speaker 2: wonderful the changes that have happened there in the weeks
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  Speaker 2: running up to their opening, which will be more to Spamilton,
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  Speaker 2: and it looks like they have a great season lined
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  Speaker 2: up just we've had stories about it. The Scene, which
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  Speaker 2: is one of our fastests of our newspaper chain writing
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  Speaker 2: about entertainment across northern Illinois, has written about it.
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  Speaker 1: That's going to be exciting, good, yeah, yeah, great, And
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  Speaker 1: obviously we'll be a board, you know for a lot
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  Speaker 1: of this entertainment coming our way with the improvements at
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  Speaker 1: the historic Dixon Theater. That's great though that we hear
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  Speaker 1: about that because it was in need again of further
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  Speaker 1: repair and further improvement. But it sounds like we're shaping
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  Speaker 1: up for a great year as.
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  Speaker 3: Far as safety.
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  Speaker 2: H yeah, some of that also was safety that needed
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  Speaker 2: to be done too. Health, So yeah, yeah, credit Darren.
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  Speaker 2: It's always great to talk to Darren Mangler because he's
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  Speaker 2: always so excited about what's happening at the Dixon. It's
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  Speaker 2: it's contagious good.
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  Speaker 1: Well, hey, that that that that lends credence to you know, excitement,
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  Speaker 1: you know brewing in the community as far as you
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  Speaker 1: know going's on and happenings, and so you can follow
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  Speaker 1: it there. As Charlie mentioned through their portions in Shaw
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  Speaker 1: Local Media, you also wanted to talk about, well are
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: we going to move to Sterling?
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  Speaker 2: Now we could talk about Sterling. I wanted to point
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  Speaker 2: out that Brandon Clark has been doing some stories really
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  Speaker 2: digging into Sterling High School and the Sterling School District
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  Speaker 2: and programs that they're offering. Is a great feature in
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  Speaker 2: Today about an internship program in which high school students
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  Speaker 2: are able to go out and kind of you know,
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  Speaker 2: I kind of call it world of work, where you
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  Speaker 2: can take a look at what do I want to
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  Speaker 2: do when I graduate? What education do I need? But
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: taking a step back and saying is that really what
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  Speaker 2: I think it is? And so they get introduced to
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  Speaker 2: what that is, which in the end can save you
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  Speaker 2: money if you decide you don't like it before you
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  Speaker 2: sign up for that pathway of study and going to college.
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  Speaker 2: But it can also introduce you to new ideas that
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  Speaker 2: maybe you never thought of. So a great program that
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  Speaker 2: he's writing about today. He's also that's why he's not
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  Speaker 2: here today. He's out doing several interviews, kind of taking
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  Speaker 2: a look ahead. And this is where our national news
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  Speaker 2: and our state news it always has a local impact.
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  Speaker 2: And because of that, he's talking to local law enforcement
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  Speaker 2: leaders about Koreina's law they're removing you have guns from
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  Speaker 2: domestic violence situations and finding out what their take is
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  Speaker 2: on that. Of course, we've got pritzkerws. The governor's budget
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  Speaker 2: is coming out later today. There's always a lot of
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  Speaker 2: information that's packed in there. You can't get to it
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: on the next day, but you can look at it
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  Speaker 2: and say, how does this affect policy? How does this
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  Speaker 2: affect budget for us? For Shaw, it's cell phones the
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: classroom exactly. We've done a big package on that when
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  Speaker 2: school started this last year. You know, how did districts
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  Speaker 2: feel about it.
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  Speaker 1: Looks like it looks like state is going to push
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: through something having to do with it.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: It does based on what he wants on that, which
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  Speaker 2: I believe from what I saw in the headlines this
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: morning as a cell phone ban.
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  Speaker 3: We'll see what that is.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, right, so that again being covered through
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  Speaker 1: Shaw Local News. You mentioned some protests.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: There was a protest over the weekend. Now we know
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: that there were going to be national protests on President's Day,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: kind of the not my President Day across the United States,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: grassroots kind of thing. But we also had gotten a
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: tip about a week and a half ago that there
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: were going to be people protesting on the bridge between
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  Speaker 2: Rock Falls and Sterling, one of the bridges I think
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: it was First Avenue in which they were protesting the
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: administration's immigration policies. And we always are like, well, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's a national how do we cover something national?
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  Speaker 3: How can we slice it down to the local. And
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  Speaker 3: what we found when.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Peyton Felix attended that protest. It was about thirty people
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  Speaker 2: and they were supporting their allies of our local Hispanic population,
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  Speaker 2: of which we know we have quite a population in
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: roth Fell Sterling and people who have been born here,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: lived here, and how they were just showing that we
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: stand by.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 2: It's interesting because those stories tend to generate a ton
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  Speaker 2: of traffic on our Facebook page, and of course it's
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: what you would expect. It's kind of that back and
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: forth and if this then then that you know, where
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: should people go support people? We look at it as
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: that it's it's something local happening in our community. And
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: if you're driving by saying why are people standing on
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: the bridge, that's why we're there. We're getting photos and
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  Speaker 2: marketing what's happening there.
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  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you.
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  Speaker 1: Don't see it every day and again and again. Even
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: if it's a national story that that that you know
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that they're they're looking at, there's still local interests. There
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: is still you know local obviously you know local people
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you know wanted to take to the stage and.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: You have a watter that where.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: You're looking at it, you say, especially now with so
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: much discussion of what's happening federally with funding freezes. That's
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: something that we've got to continue to follow. And every
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: day there's something that pops up. So it's hard to
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: chase all of that because and even the people in
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: charge are sure completely what the answers are yet, So
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: every day there's kind of like a developing story. How
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: can we slice that down and look at what how
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: are we handling it locally well?
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  Speaker 1: And so that took place over this past weekend station
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Okay in Rock Falls and I should say the Sterling
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Rock Falls area on the bridges in the Stirling Rock
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Falls area. Some protesting going on over immigration issues here
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: locally in our Sock Valley area, domestic violence. We talked
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: about domestic.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Did we talked about the domestic violence part, and then
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: as far as like Korea's law which.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Would also fall into that as well.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, we really need to take a closer look on what,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: you know, what is the law now? You always take
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: it from what is the law now to what are
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: these changes possibly going to be and what is the
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: impact on our community. That's what he's working on right now,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: and for me, it's always interesting too when it comes
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: to the court angle. As I mentioned, with jury selection,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: another thing that showed up in the courts has been
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the lawsuit that had been filed by a solar development
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: company in California that were suing the Whiteside County Board
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: over whether the board had acted appropriately when it twice
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: denied a special use permit. The idea is is that
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: solar development company wants to build a solar farm near Morrison,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: and twice county officials have taken a look at that
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  Speaker 2: special use application, send it to the county board, which said,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: you know, we're not going to allow that. The problem
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: is is that in twenty twenty three the governor had
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: signed legislation that said you cannot have laws that are
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: tighter and more restrictive at the county level than at
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: the state level. So whatever the state basically says is okay,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: is okay. And Pretoria the name of the solar company,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: they were saying, we've met those, we've met those. You
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: can't tell us no Whiteside County. So the lawsuit was, Hey,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: give us a special use permit, and you know, maybe
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: we'd like some kind of financial relief for the delay
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: that you've given us, because now you've set us back
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: and costs are more expensive.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and so last night, the.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: County board took some action after listening to their hired
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: council that said, yeah, you better settle with this, and
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: so they are on their way to signing an order
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: having a judge sign it, which basically says, yeah, you
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: got to give them that special use permit. So we're
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: working on that store now. It's always big, Yeah, absolutely,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: because it sets the stage for how La County reactskes
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: you exactly, and take a look how many solar farms.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: I look at the permits every week, the building permits.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: There's always some kind of egg lease agreement going on. Yes,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And I think maybe the story is also where are
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: they all at? What are listed, what's in the pipeline,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: what's coming?
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, solar farms, wind fill, windmill farms. All of that
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of funnels in and then and it
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: looks like the state has kind of can you control
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: it long exactly?
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: That was the question one of the board members asked
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: last night. And it was kind of like the lawyer said,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: not really like now local control this.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this could take you know, this could take some
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: direction you know in certain areas that that may end
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: up as you.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Mentioned, funding freeze. Finally, the funding freeze on that. The
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: question is if the funding doesn't come through that's federal
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: for a solar development, then what happens if they can't
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: complete the project? And who is responsible for taking down
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: what has already been built?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Exactly? So see all this, yeah, exactly, you know this
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and and and again could could spell you know in
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: in you know, you know, fences being drawn and you know,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: you know, you know in the sand you know, and
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: welcome to Wednesday, exactly right, exactly, well, and there you go.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I told you. Charlene was with
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: us with a plethora of information this morning. Unfortunately, our
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: time is a little short right now, but again I
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: think we've covered on most of the bases. Here at
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: AM fourteen sixteen FM ninety five one is Shaw Local
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: News takes the center stage and again brings us all
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: of the news and information, catch it online, catch it
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: all over with Shaw Local News, so you can catch
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of it right here on AM fourteen sixteen
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: FM ninety five.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Hope has to be breaking a lot of these stories
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: today and then tomorrow I think will be quite the
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: pre edition.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: We have a lot of things in the pipeline that
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: I didn't even get to you.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Here and we will be visiting well and obviously with
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: updates coming our way right here on AM fourteen sixteen
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: FM ninety five one. Good to have you boys. Managing
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: editor of the Dixon Telegraph in Sterling Gazette, Charlene Bielmouth
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: with us this morning here at wix In