Sheriff David Clague retired this month, not only from 15 years as the County Sheriff but also a 5-decade run in law enforcement. Practically all that work came within the confines of Knox County, starting with the Galesburg Police Department. Tom Meredith recently spoke with Sheriff Clague at length about his career on Galesburg's Morning News on WGIL. Galesburg Police Chief Jim Frakes hired Clague in 1974. What's changed in policing over Clague's career? Officers spent a lot more time typing and writing reports in those days when Clague was first a patrol officer. He remembers when lengthy reports were done by hand with six carbon copies. Today most deputies can write reports on a computer in their vehicle. Early on when Clague came into office there was a lot of talk about dead spots in the county, places where radio and phone signals were unreliable. Clague says it was a huge issue that sometimes deputies could call dispatch but not hear a response or vice versa. Tha
It is election day across the country and voters will go to the polls for races on the national, state, and local levels. Democratic Governor JB Pritzker is running for re-election against Republican State Senator Darren Bailey and Libertarian candidate Scott Schluter. Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul is running for re-election against Republican attorney Thomas Devore while Democratic Treasurer Mike Frerichs hopes to beat Republican Representative Tom Demmer and be re-elected and Comptroller Susana Mendoza hopes to win re-election against Republican Shannon Teresi. After today, Illinois will have its first new Secretary of State in 24 years. Jesse White is not seeking another and voters will have to choose between Republican Representative Dan Brady, Democratic mayor Rockford Alexi Giannoulias – a former Treasurer in Illinois, or Libertatiran Jon Stewart. Additionally, voters in Illinois will decide if a proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution would guarantee workers