Page 2 - Under Rocks News Today

What's an "Illinois Enthusiast?" Behold county expert and Under Rocks fan John Kokoris. He shares his love for his home state and schools the Under Rocks crew on county seals. Check out his seal rankings on Twitter — @johnjkoko.Send your ideas for future episodes to rocks@niu.edu!

Susan is an award-winning reporter/writer at her favorite radio station. She's also WNIJ's Perspectives editor, Under Rocks contributor, and local host of All Things Considered.

DeKalb is known for a lot of things: corn, its university, Cindy Crawford… But one of the hidden gems of the city is the little golden pillow of fried dough known as The Beer Nugget. We explore its origins and try to answer the question, "why aren't these EVERYWHERE?"

Farms across Illinois are serving up their own little slice of horror this time of year — corn mazes. Haunted corn mazes. The Under Rocks teams asks "Why is corn so scary? And how do I get outta here?!?"

Jared Ortega Imagine walking in the woods and coming across six large men struggling to transport a coffin on their shoulders, heads bowed in concentration, arms taut under their burden. It might take you a moment to realize you’re looking at a sculpture: Six life-sized somber mourners and a casket. Credit Jared Ortega This is “The Funeral Procession,” or “The Seven Muses,” and sadly, it is not on public property. But don’t worry, the Under Rocks team isn’t shy about asking for ...

Dan Libman learns it takes modern technology to enjoy an ancient sport. Ice fishing is a revered winter sport in the Midwest – as soon as the ice is thick enough, tiny huts start popping up on lakes across the region. But the sight of ice shanties is less common in Illinois than it is in some neighboring states, where ice may freeze thicker and lakes are more plentiful. Rule #1 of ice fishing: Don’t reveal the site of your favorite fishing spot. Under penalty of being laughed at, don’t ev...

Excerpt from interview with Ashley Sarver One of Studio GWAs projects was to transform an old theater in Rochelle into a home for the Kennay familys business: a distillery with a welcoming public space. Dan gets the story of the restoration from Doris Kennay, owner and operator of Kennay Farms Distilling. Look around you. These types of rehabs, repurposes, and restorations are everywhere, maybe even your own neighborhood. Thats what Jason Cregier did, and found Old School Pizza in Malta. And it...

Thank you for being here with us. >> you wrote a very interesting op-ed piece on cnn saying dont let syrias children die. tell us about the conditions they are facing now. >> really dire. within syria theres more than four million people living in rubble, hiding in caves, under rocks, sheltering anywhere they can. there in lebanon it was still wenter and winter of unprecedented cold. many of the people had come during more climate weather so they were without coats. children with no shoes. stand...

boehners plan has now checked harry reeds. today those same bean counters are saying, yep, reeds numbers are wrong as well. but they also say that when its all said and done, reeds deficit cutting trumps boehners by, listen to this, more a trillion dollars. reeds plan, ten years, $2.2 trillion in net debt reduction. meantime boehners plan $850 billion. again, six days until default. so what about the white house here? no debt meetings, not today, at least not publicly on the presidents...