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Jersey County sheriff hopes hunters and farmers can help in missing persons case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

JERSEY COUNTY, Ill. – Ten months ago, Paige Bell’s mom went missing."It's been rough, because she's always there for her kids," Bell said.A family photo sits on Bell's dashboard as a constant reminder of who she's missing."I take it with me everywhere I go," she said.Paige's mother, Kaila Votale, went missing on Jan. 8 in Dow, Illinois, in south Jersey County."She doesn't want people to feel down or sad, so if she could make you smile, she would," Bell said.Bell and her family are still searching for closure.“Being in a family of someone who has been missing for so long, it's hard, and it hurts,” she said. “It feels like you're alone even when you're not." Monthly $500 payments coming soon for some St. Louis families The Jersey County Sheriff’s Office exhausted all of its resources when Kaila first went missing searching on foot and in the sky using infrared technology. But with no new recent leads, Sheriff Nicholas Manns is hoping fall may provide new clues in their search."This ...

Amnesty program nets pounds of drugs headed to St. Charles County Jail

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – Seven pounds of drug contraband were kept out of the St. Charles County Jail just in the last three months, according to the jail director.Corrections Director Dan Keen introduced the initiative with a metal container called the Amnesty Box.“This is a no-questions-asked (initiative),” he said. “This is your opportunity to drop any drugs or contraband that you have on you at this time.”Keen showed a box containing dozens of pills and drug containers. He said the most recent drops came in the past week.His jail also has a TSA-grade body scanner, which he said won’t catch everything. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News SIGN UP NOW “They can stick the fentanyl up under their toenail, and when they get in, they dig it out and then the...

Platt Park event space wants a liquor license but neighbors are pushing back

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

Last Wednesday, local attorney Doug Norberg walked along the 1900 block of South Broadway, where he and his business partner own half of the east side of the block.“There is a lot of new development around here,” he said, pointing to apartment projects.Norberg stopped in front of 1912 S. Broadway, a century-old theater that he and Paul Yaft, the business partner, bought for $1.6 million in 2018 and renovated during the pandemic.“We love it. Is it a really scary property because of how expensive it is? Yes,” he said. “It was expensive to buy and expensive to renovate. We had some really dark days.”But the challenges didn’t end when the renovations did. Last year, Norberg and Yaft leased the Jewel Theater to a local company called Latin Entertainment Group, which operated it as the Elite Event Center and threw Latin music parties there in August and September.Neighbors complained about noise, trash and reports of violence that they blamed on the parties. They also took issue with a qu...

Fossil hunting? This White Sands find suggests dried up lakes are a good place to look.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

The Denver-based U.S. Geological Survey scientists who this month confirmed the oldest known human footprints in the Americas at White Sands National Park say their findings open the door for fossil hunting at hundreds of ancient basins around the country, including the Great Salt Lake.The findings based on repeated testing, using multiple dating methods, place humans in North America thousands of years earlier than previously thought, a scientific paradigm shift.“This is going to open a whole new avenue in the field of archaeology,” said USGS research geologist Kathleen Springer, co-lead author of a paper published in the journal Science.  “We were working in White Sands around one dried-up lake. Well, there’s hundreds of those around the United States.”A colleague recently found a footprint in Utah near the Great Salt Lake, which has yet to be dated, Springer said. “Maybe more and more older sites will be found.”The footprint confirmation is reverberating among archaeologists who ...

Still waiting for an invite to Casa Bonita? Some diners have been more than once.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

More than four months after reopening, Lakewood’s famed Casa Bonita remains in its soft opening phase – or “beta testing,” as it touts on the restaurant website. The only way to visit is to sign up for its email list and get selected via a random lottery for a chance to buy tickets.While many fans await a coveted invite to see what “South Park” creators-turned-restaurant owners Matt Stone and Trey Parker have done with the famous property, some lucky locals have already dined there more than once.Boulder resident Alex Sierra, for example, went twice in July. The first time, he was invited to join a friend who was selected in the lottery. (Each lottery recipient can book a table for up to eight guests.) About a week later, Sierra received an email notification that he was a lucky lottery winner.“I was fine with waiting for whenever I got my invite, but some of my friends really wanted to go,” said Sierra, who moved to Colorado in 1999 and frequently visited to Casa Bonita before it s...

Kiszla: Avs’ quest to regain championship mojo begins with defenseman Cale Makar

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

Truth be known, the Avs’ defense of their glorious NHL championship in 2022 ended at the victory parade.After taking long and glorious gulps from the Stanley Cup, the Avalanche could never shake the hangover.Gabe Landeskog, the best captain any hockey team could want, came up with a lame knee that stubbornly refused to heal.Nazem Kadri took a well-deserved payday in free agency and took his mess-around-and-find-out attitude with him to Calgary.Rather than getting down to the difficult task of building a dynasty, coach Jared Bednar was stuck endlessly trying to patch cracks in his lineup.Although the Avs never surrendered to the grind, they also never regained that championship mojo, and after making a late run to win the Central Division, it felt like this team was already out of gas before the playoffs even began.“We were kind of like a loaded gun. I felt like we weren’t ready to fire all year. We were always just reloading,” Cale Makar told me Monday, reminiscing about the failure...

How Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon can carve his own path to legendary NHL legacy

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

Nathan MacKinnon has spent most of his life living in the shadow of one of the best hockey players of all time.When he was younger, the obvious comparison was Sidney Crosby. MacKinnon grew up in the same town, and Crosby was one of his idols. The stories about MacKinnon’s rise to amateur hockey stardom are as mythical in Nova Scotia as Crosby’s.There’s the one about how he would challenge coaches, not teammates, to shooting competitions at 11 years old. Then there was the day when Hockey Canada didn’t invite a 16-year-old MacKinnon to its world junior championships tryout camp. He responded the next game by scoring five goals in five different ways against Quebec, with coach Patrick Roy watching from behind the Ramparts bench.“The way I try to describe him is to tell anybody who has coached youth sports to take the best athlete they’ve ever seen at a certain age and then you combine that with the fiercest competitor you’ve ever met at any age. That’s what you got there with Nate,” s...

Broncos Roundtable: Does Sean Payton win another game before the bye week?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

Parker Gabriel, Broncos reporter: Alright, guys, short week, so let’s keep this tidy. Nathaniel Hackett strolled into Empower Field with pockets full of Walton buyout money and strolled out with a win and a game ball. The Broncos are 1-4 and have three games to go before their bye week: At Kansas City on Thursday night, vs. Green Bay on Oct. 22 and Kansas City at home Oct. 29. So, simple question: Do they get a win? I’m going to say yes and take the easy route with the Packers. That team has young talent and Jordan Love has shown flashes, but he’s struggled the past two weeks. They’ll be coming off their bye week, but Denver at least gets a couple extra days of prep. The Packers’ defense has struggled despite a bevy of first-round picks and the young core offensively is far from a finished product. So, let’s say 2-6 at the bye with a 17-game skid to Kansas City.Ryan McFadden, Broncos reporter:  You would think the answer is yes. It’s hard to envis...

Myers: Hamas attack tore Israel’s veneer of invincibility

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

Fifty years ago, almost to the day in 1973, Egyptian and Syrian forces invaded Israel in a surprise attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur. Not only were many Israelis unprepared because they were in synagogue or otherwise marking the solemn fast day, but Israeli intelligence agencies had failed to take seriously the threat of an attack by Egypt, Israel’s largest neighbor and foe.The prevailing “concept” (known in Hebrew as the “konceptzia”) was that Arab armies would not undertake a war that they were not certain to win. This turned out to be a colossal mistake, as Egyptian and Syrian forces overwhelmed Israeli defenses for three days, inflicting heavy losses on the army and leading many to believe that Israel’s end had come.And now in 2023, a major enemy of Israel, Hamas, launched a stunning attack on a day marked by the convergence of the Jewish sabbath and the holiday of Simchat Torah (one of the most celebratory days in the Jewish calendar). Unlike in 1973, th...

The top 10 most expensive home sales in Hayward, reported the week of Sep. 25

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:55:16 GMT

A house that sold for $2.8 million tops the list of the most expensive residential real estate sales in Hayward in the past week.In total, 10 residential real estate sales were recorded in the area during the past week, with an average price of $1.4 million, $575 per square foot.The prices in the list below concern real estate sales where the title was recorded during the week of Sep. 25 even if the property may have been sold earlier.10. $900,000, single-family residence in the 16900 block of Meekland Ave.The 1,199 square-foot single-family residence in the 16900 block of Meekland Ave. in Hayward has been sold. The transfer of ownership was settled in August and the total purchase price was $900,000, $751 per square foot. The house was built in 1948. The house features two bedrooms and one bathrooms.Meekland Avenue9. $950,000, single-family house in the 3300 block of East Ave.The sale of the single family residence in the 3300 block of East Ave. in Hayward has been finalized. The p...