State Briefs 3/12/08
Ed Begley Jr. to speak at Earth Day Awards Luncheon
ROCKFORD - Actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. will be the keynote speaker for the Earth Day Awards Luncheon on April 11, for Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful.
The 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. event will be at Giovanni's. Awards will be presented to a local corporation, individual and youth for their contributions to a clean environment.
Begley received six Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the TV series "St. Elsewhere" and has been in numerous feature films, television shows and theater projects.
Known for turning up at Hollywood events on his bicycle, Begley lives in a solar-powered home near Los Angeles.
He co-stars in the HGTV series "Living with Ed," which looks at day-to-day challenges of living green. He has written "Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life" and serves on the boards of a number of environmental organizations.
Tickets are $50. Registration is due April 2. For details, call 815-637-1343 or go online to knib.org.
Rockford Register Star
Knox College students recreate Lincoln-Douglas debate
GALESBURG - Louisa Abbot walked a short distance to Knox College's Old Main to see Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate in 1858, and she was one of the lucky ones.
"Louisa Abbot," a composite character played by Knox College junior Sara Patterson, would have been a student at Knox Academy when the two state politicians rolled into town as part of their campaigns for state senate. More than 10,000 people, some traveling great distances, turned out for the event nearly 150 years ago.
The debate site was re-created Tuesday morning in the Ford Center for the Fine Arts by 15 Knox history students as a final project for assistant professor of history Catherine Denial's "Museums, Monuments and Memory" course, an upper-division history class designed to give students a more hands-on taste of chronicling the past.
Each student researched a person or type of person who would have been at the debates and prepared a profile which helped them to re-create the feel of the debates. Some portrayed real people, such as "Matilda Lanphere," played by sophomore Margaret Spiegel of Kewanee. Matilda was the wife of George Lanphere, the first Knox County judge.
The show-stealer of the exhibit was a 30-foot-wide, seven-foot-tall model of the window in Old Main, where Lincoln had to exit the building because the door was blocked by the debate platform. The model gave attendees the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the president.
The exhibit will make a return twice in the fall -- once on Oct. 11 for the Lincoln Colloquium to celebrate the sesquicentennial, and again on Nov. 1 for the college's homecoming weekend.
Galesburg Register-Mail
Woman, boyfriend charged with producing child pornography
GALESBURG -- A Galesburg woman is being held without bond in Wisconsin on child pornography charges after investigators say she and her boyfriend assaulted and took sexually explicit photos of the woman's two young daughters.
Carrie A. Wheaton, 30, and Roger M. Smith, 37, of Hollandale, Wis., were each charged in U.S. District Court in Wisconsin with two counts of engaging in sexual conduct with a child to produce child pornography.
The case started in November 2007 when a Missouri investigator posing as a 13-year-old girl in an Internet chat room received an unsolicited message from an adult male, later identified as Smith.
The undercover investigator viewed Smith's naked body via his Web camera. Investigator's traced the location of the computer to Smith's home about 35 miles southwest of Madison and a search warrant was executed.
According to an affidavit from U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, police found a digital camera and two memory cards with 24 images of children engaged in sexually explicit activity. The photos were dated Feb. 2, 2008, and Nov. 10 and 13, 2007.
Wheaton said Smith sent some of the sexually explicit images of the girls in August 2007 to someone in a chat room.
During an interview with police, Wheaton admitted she took pictures of Smith while he sexually assaulted her two young daughters, both under the age of 6, in her home in Galesburg and Smith's home in Hollandale. Smith also took pictures of Wheaton while she sexually assaulted the girls. Wheaton said she gave her daughters cough syrup before the assaults.
Smith also admitted his involvement in the sexual assaults.
Smith and Wheaton are being held without bail in Dane County. Both waived their rights to a preliminary hearing. A grand jury will hear the charges Wednesday.
If indicted and convicted of engaging in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography, Wheaton and Smith could face 15 to 30 years in prison for each count and a fine of up to $250,000.
Galesburg Register-Mail
Mine subsidence will force closure of assisted-living building
SPRINGFIELD - Part of Lewis Memorial Christian Village will have to close because of mine subsidence, The State Journal-Register has learned.
Residents of Lewis Memorial's "congregate building" will have to move out of the building by June 1, Lewis Memorial residents were told at a meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Residents in the complex's independent living apartments and the facility's associated nursing home apparently will not be affected.
People who live in the three-story congregate building are not able to live totally on their own -- for instance, they can have meals prepared for them -- but are not infirm enough to be in the nursing home. A Lewis Memorial resident this afternoon estimated about 40 people live in the congregate building.
Nursing home officials said they were preparing a statement this afternoon.
The newspaper reported in August that the 19-acre complex had had subsidence problems since early 2007.
Subsidence usually occurs when old coal mine shafts collapse deep underground. The plan in August was to stabilize the ground through a process known as "grouting."
Lewis Memorial opened in 1977. Its campus includes 34 garden homes, 47 senior apartments, four garden apartments and a 155-bed health-care center, as well as a Reclaim Rehabilitation wing.
State Journal-Register