Teachers in south suburban Bourbonnais will go on strike Thursday after a final bargaining session between District 53 officials and the Bourbonnais Education.
Missed some agricultural news this week? Here are seven stories to catch you up.
1. A new form of African swine fever is circulating in China and it s been linked to illicit vaccines. More than 1,000 sows have been infected on farms owned by New Hope Liuhe, China s fourth-largest pork producer. These strains don t kill hogs, instead, it s a chronic condition. When ASF first hit, China had half the pigs in the world and lost 40% of them to African swine fever. – Reuters, Farm Futures
2. Thought the WOTUS ordeal was over? It s not. Republican members of the Senate are backing the Trump administration s Navigable Waters Protection rule, which replaced the Obama-era Waters of the U.S. rule. Over the past four decades, all three branches of the executive government have struggled with how to interpret the meaning of WOTUS. – Farm Futures
In the days before digital timepieces, watch repair was a highly skilled job. Working with tiny gears and springs required good eyesight, steady hands and meticulous attention to detail.
Amazingly, at age 80, when he retired after 67 years in the jewelry business, Kankakee watchmaker Arthur Valade still possessed all those qualities. He began working at age 13, when he was hired in 1886 by A.H. Pike, owner of a jewelry store on Court Street in downtown Kankakee.
âWhen I started work, there were no electric lights, no street cars, no paved streets,â he told a Kankakee Daily Journal reporter interviewing him in 1946 for an article on his 60th anniversary in the jewelry business. âAbout all there was on Court Street in addition to stores was mud and board walks.â
On the warm Thursday afternoon of Sept. 10, 1959, the earth shuddered as a giant toppled to the ground on Kankakeeâs southwest side.
The giant â an 80-foot-tall tree believed to be the largest American elm in Illinois â was located at Eighth Avenue and Water Street, in Gov. Small Memorial Park, just southeast of the Dr. A.L. Small Historic Home. It had been growing there for several decades by the time the pioneer physician began building his home in 1855.
âThe tree is believed to be about 135 years old,â noted an article in the Kankakee Daily Journal on Sept. 11, 1959. âIt reached nearly 80 feet into the sky. It measured 22 feet, 9 inches in circumference at a point 3 feet off the ground where it was cut. Its circumference at ground level was nearly 36 feet. Diameter of the tree was 6 feet.â