COOMMERCIAL-NEWS Learning lessons about life

Danville Commercial News 12/24/2015
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Holiday, Page 5A
Sports, Page 1B
Maybe there is something to Illinois tangles with Missouri in
Rudolph’s red nose after all annual bragging rights game
COMMERCIAL-NEWS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2015
www.commercial-news.com
DANVILLE, ILL
$1.00
Illinois lost
population
for 2015
STAFF REPORT
Illinois now loses one resident
to another state every five minutes, according to a report released
by the U.S. Census this week.
The report found that Illinois’
population decreased more between 2014 and 2015 than any
other state in the nation and the
rate at which residents are crossing the border has escalated.
Illinois was the only state in the
Midwest to have a shrinking population from July 2014 to July
2015, with its overall population
declining by 22,000.
During that time, the states of
Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan,
>> See LOST
// Page 4A
Carol Roehm | Commercial-News
GETTING AHEAD program graduate Vanessa Allen, center, is congratulated by Phoenix program student Dabreante Jackson, left, Allen’s
mother Geneva Washington, second from right, and Kayla Potter, Phoenix program coordinator at Danville Area Community College.
Learning lessons about life
BY CAROL ROEHM
CROEHM@DANCOMNEWS.COM
A dozen students of a new program offered by Danville Area
Community College graduated
Wednesday and hopefully will be
headed toward a better life.
The Getting Ahead program is
geared toward adult learners who
already have had some life experiences. The pilot of the 15-week
course launched in September with
a dozen Danville Housing Authority residents who met for two
hours on Friday mornings in the
Fair Oaks community room.
“The program is about under-
standing how economic class, poverty and experiences play a role in
one’s life and in getting ahead in
life,” said program instructor Carla
Boyd, DACC’s director of career
services.
“Everyone wants us to change,
but change only happens when
your mindset changes,” Boyd said.
The program is far from easy. In
fact, students had to take a critical
— and sometimes uncomfortable —
look at their life and the decisions
and choices they have made that
led them to their current situation.
“It’s a hard examination of their
life,” Boyd said. “The program is
about identifying their barriers and
overcoming them. They look at
their goals, hopes and dreams and
what they have to do to get there.”
During the program, the nine female and three male students each
developed a life plan.
“We had both younger students
and older students in the program,”
Boyd said. “Even the older students
believe they have time to make
some positive changes in their life.
“Every student wants to make a
transition and have a better quality
of life,” she said.
“If you were born into generational poverty, you don’t know
where to turn,” Boyd said. “A lot of
them said they wished they had
this information (from the program) 20 years ago.”
Getting Ahead graduate Vanessa
Allen, who received a special acknowledgement Wednesday for
“stepping out of her comfort zone,”
said she believes that younger people would benefit from the program.
“We learned new ways of thinking,” she said. “I think this class
should be given to young people,
like in eighth grade.
“I want to encourage them like
they encouraged me,” Allen said,
pointing out a couple of young
>> See LESSONS
Mandy Matney graphic
ILLINOIS’ SHRINKING
POPULATION 2015: Illinois was
the only state in the Midwest to
have a shrinking population
from July 2014 to July 2015,
according to the U.S. Census.
1 day
... until Christmas in the
Calendar Kids countdown
// Page 4A
Covington shop attracts wide range of customers
BY SARAH COWGILL
NEWSROOM@DANCOMNEWS.COM
COVINGTON, Ind. — Tucked away
in the old Legend Building on Third
Street, just off the square, a small
shop is buzzing with business. The
Weaver’s Daughter in Covington is
attracting quite a following in the
home décor community and customers are coming in from as far away
as Ohio.
“We opened the doors right at Apple Festival time,” Teresa Harmless
said, “and we almost sold out of inventory that very weekend.”
Harmless is the proud owner of
the shop. She and her three children
operate and create most of the
unique items they sell. Shelves are
stocked with candle melts, goat-milk
soaps and rustic ambiance. An entire
wall with built-in cubbyhole shelving
houses every type and color of yarn
and walls are covered with primitive
paintings and custom knitted children’s clothing.
“We can guarantee that your knit-
wood pallets, holds a rack of original
greeting cards designed and crafted
by Matthew Harmless, pastor of
Edgewood Baptist Church in Danville, who joking said, “Well, it’s just
the best store in the world.”
All kidding aside, several customers agree. The shop is warm and
welcoming with mingling scents of
grandma’s kitchen and places foreign. Big Band music fills the space
with nostalgia and there is always a
Harmless woman knitting in the
corner. Customers have become new
friends and old friends have brought
new customers.
Norma Dulin travels from DanSarah Cowgill | Commercial-News ville once a week to shop and visit
with the Harmless family.
A CUSTOMERS completes a purchase recently at The Weaver’s
“This is just a little oasis,” Dulin
Daughter, a shop that recently opened in the Legend Building on Third
mused as she inspected a Christmas
Street in Covington, Ind.
wreath. “The music, the smells, the
ted piece is truly one-of-a-kind,” a vintage spread, the bed is covered friendly people…it has become one
daughter Ashley Harmless said with with other works of art including of my favorite places to shop and
linens, knitted hats and mittens, and just take it all in.”
a smile. “We don’t use patterns.”
There is an old bed in the cottage- piled high with pillows and quilts.
Directly opposite of the bed, the
sized space reminiscent of your
grandma’s bed. Neatly made up with customer counter, created from old
>> See SHOP // Page 4A
Inside today
© 2015
Commercial-News
Publishing
Local ................................... 2A
Obituaries ........................... 3A
Opinion ............................... 6A
Entertainment ..................... 7A
Weather
Sports............................... 1-4B
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Comics .................................6B
Classifieds ........................ 7-8B
Gracie Nose, 2,
of Danville, is
the daughter
of Mike
and
Ashley
Nose
48 38
Today: Partly sunny
with a high near 48.
Full report, Page 2A
To subscribe: Call 446-1000 or 800-729-2992. Got a news tip? Call us at 477-5182. Coming Friday: Fairmount couple hopes to adopt children from Haiti.
Copyright (c)2015 Danville Commercial News, Edition 12/24/2015
January 4, 2016 2:53 pm / Powered by TECNAVIA
Danville Commercial News 12/24/2015
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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2015 • WWW.COMMERCIAL-NEWS.COM
local
Lost ...
POLICE REPORT
Incidents reported to police include:
DANVILLE:
SUNDAY:
Residential burglary in the 600 block of Bart
Street.
Criminal damage to property in the 900 block
of Belton Avenue.
MONDAY:
Theft of gas at Casey’s General Store, 601 S.
Gilbert St.
Possession of cannabis at Main and Bremer
streets. A man was issued a notice to appear.
Residential burglary and criminal damage to
property in the 1200 block of Giddings Street.
Burglary in the 20900 block of Gessie Road.
Theft in the 1700 block of North Bowman Avenue.
Domestic battery in the 900 block of Sunset
Road. A man was issued a notice to appear.
Retail theft in the 3700 block of North Vermilion
Street.
Aggravated assault in the 1900 block of East
Main Street.
Criminal damage in the 1500 block of Glenview
Avenue.
Residential burglary in the 2500 block of Ruebienville Street.
Domestic battery in the 900 block of Lewis St.
Criminal damage in the 1500 block of Fairwood
Drive.
Criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct in
the 500 block of west Voorhees.
Unlawful use of a credit card at Caseys , 2101
E. Main St.
Disorderly conduct n the 1005 block of Norman
Street.
Criminal damage to property in the 900 block
of Lewis.
Domestic battery in the 300 block of Spelter. A
man was issued a notice to appear.
Theft on the 500 block of Highland Park Road.
Battery on the 800 block of Bryan Avenue.
WEDNESDAY:
Burglary to business at Smokehouse, 501 N
Vermilion St.
Burglary to residence on the 600 block of
Shadowlawn Place.
VERMILION COUNTY
MONDAY:
Theft in the 200 block of East Seventh Street.
Reckless discharge of a firearm in the 1000
block of Belton Avenue.
TUESDAY:
Burglary to residence in the 200 block of east
Second Street, Rankin.
Domestic battery in the first block of east Holloway Street, Bismark. A man was issued a
notice to appear.
TUESDAY:
WEDNESDAY:
Possession of cannabis at Grant and Townsend
streets. A man was issued a notice to appear.
Possession of cannabis at Williams and Paris
streets. A woman was issued a notice to appear.
Aggravated battery to a police officer in the 400
block of Sager Street. A man was issued a notice
to appear.
Home invasion in the 1000 block of north
Gilbert Street.
Domestic battery in the 2400 block of east
Main Street.
Resisting an officer in the 400 block of north
Vermilion. A woman was issued a notice to
appear.
Theft at Walmart, 4101 N Vermilion St. A
woman was issued a notice to appear.
Theft in the 1100 block of Texas Avenue.
Domestic battery in the 2400 block Cannon
Street.
Burglary to vehicle in the first block of Nicklas
Avenue.
Aggravated battery in the 400 block of Harmon
Avenue.
Theft in the 600 block of Commercial Street.
Retail theft at Dollar General, 100 N. Griffin St.
Possession of a controlled substance in the
400 block of south Third Street, Hoopeston. A
man was issued a notice to appear.
Accidents reported to the police include:
Thursday, 12:13 p.m. — At Lake Boulevard
and Vermilion streets involving Shelby Tharp, 25,
of the first block of Eest Lake Boulevard and Kimberly Johnson, 44, of Danville. Tharp was issued
a citation for improper backing.
Saturday, 12:17 p.m. — At Fairchild and Sherman streets involving Tina Hill, 49, of the 1100
block of Harmon Street, and Nolan Reese, 17, of
Danville. Hill was issued a citation for failure to
yield while turning left.
Saturday, 2:20 p.m. — At Vermilion and North
streets involving Amanda Cord, 27, of Catlin and
Calvin Allen, 55, of Danville. Cord was issued a
citation for failure to yield at an intersection.
• Crime Stoppers pays rewards up to $1,000 for
information on felony crimes or fugitives in the
Vermilion County area. The Crime Stoppers can be
reached at 446-TIPS or an anonymous e-mail left at
vermilioncounty.crimestoppersweb.com.
Tornado touches down in
Mississippi as storms rake South
BY JEFF MARTIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — Forecasters warned of a “particularly dangerous situation” as a storm system
swept across the country on Wednesday, and
officials said they feared Christmas yard decorations would become projectiles.
A tornado touched down in northwest Mississippi, damaging or destroying at least 20
homes. A tree blew over onto a house in Arkansas, killing an 18-year-old woman and
trapping a 1-year-old child inside, authorities
said. Rescuers pulled the toddler safely from
the home.
Spring-like storms packing strong winds
toppled tractor-trailers and knocked down
trees, leaving thousands of people without
power in Indiana and Arkansas.
In Mississippi, Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett
said the only confirmed casualty was a dog
killed by storm debris. Planes at a small airport overturned and an unknown number of
people were injured.
“I’m looking at some horrific damage right
now,” the mayor said. “Sheet metal wrapped is
around trees, there are overturned airplanes, a
building is just destroyed.”
Television images showed the tornado appeared to be on the ground for more than 10
minutes. Interstate 55 was closed in both directions as the tornado approached, the Mississippi Highway Patrol said.
The biggest threat for tornadoes was in a region of 3.7 million people in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and parts of Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky, according to the national
Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma. The
center issued a “particularly dangerous situation” alert for the first time since June 2014,
when two massive EF4 twisters devastated a
rural Nebraska town, killing two people.
The greatest risk for a few “intense, longtracked tornadoes” will be through Wednesday
night.
About 120 miles east of the tornado, Brandi
Holland, a convenience store clerk in Tupelo,
Mississippi, said people were reminded of a
tornado that damaged or destroyed more than
2,000 homes and businesses in April 2014.
“They’re opening all our tornado shelters
because they say there’s an 80 percent chance
of a tornado today,” Holland said.
Elsewhere, skiers on the slopes out West got
a fresh taste of powder and most people in the
Northeast enjoyed spring-like temperatures as
they finished up last-minute Christmas shopping.
“It’s too warm for me. I don’t like it. I prefer
the cold in the winter, in December. Gives you
more of that Christmas feel,” said Daniel
Flores, a concierge from the Bronx, his light
jacket zipped open as he shopped in Manhat-
Shop ...
<< CONTINUED from Page 1A
As successful as The Weaver’s Daughter has
become in such a short time, Teresa Harmless
and her family have even bigger plans for the
coming year. Each item they carry has to be
personally created or appreciated by the Harmless family to stock — and they have discovered
they appreciate a lot — and they’ve decided to
expand.
tan with his three children.
Only about half of the nation, mostly in the
West, should expect the possibility of a white
Christmas. In the small coastal town of Loxley,
Alabama, Mandy Wilson watched the angry
gray sky and told drivers to be careful as she
worked a cash register at Love’s Travel Stop.
“It’s very ugly; it’s very scary,” Wilson said.
“There’s an 18-wheeler turned over on I-10.
There’s water standing really bad. It’s a really
interesting way to spend Christmas Eve eve.”
In parts of Georgia, including Atlanta, a
flood watch was posted through Friday evening as more than 4 inches was expected, the
National Weather Service said.
The threat of severe weather just before
Christmas is unusual, but not unprecedented,
said Greg Carbin, a meteorologist at the national Storm Prediction Center.
Twisters hit southeast Mississippi exactly a
year ago, killing five people and injuring dozens of others. On Christmas Day in 2012, a
storm system spawned several tornadoes,
damaging homes from Texas to Alabama.
Emergency officials in Tennessee worried
that powerful winds could turn holiday yard
decorations into projectiles, the same way
gusts can fling patio furniture in springtime
storms, said Marty Clements, director of the
Madison County Emergency Management
Agency in Jackson, the state’s largest city between Memphis and Nashville.
“If you go through these neighborhoods,
there are a lot of people very proud of what
they’ve put out and they’ve got stuff everywhere — all these ornaments and deer and everything else,” Clements said. “They’re not
manufactured to withstand that kind of wind
speed, so they become almost like little missiles.”
Two tornadoes hit central Louisiana on Monday, injuring a man whose travel trailer flipped
over. The Lake Charles office of the National
Weather service said both were EF-1 twisters
with peak winds of 95 mph. The tornadoes
uprooted trees, damaged homes and cars.
In Arkansas, Pope County Sheriff Shane
Jones said the 18-year-old woman was killed
when a tree crashed into her bedroom. The
woman and her 1 ½-year-old sister were sleeping in a bedroom of the house near Atkins
about 65 miles northwest of Little Rock, when
winds uprooted the tree that crashed through
the roof.
“It’s terrible that this happened, especially at
Christmas,” Jones said.
Forecasters said by Wednesday night, the severe weather threat could shift east into the
southern Appalachian Mountain region.
Once the strong storms clear out, warm temperatures were expected. Highs in Atlanta and
Charlotte, North Carolina, on Christmas Eve
were forecast to be in the mid-70s.
<< CONTINUED from Page 1A
Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin all
saw population growth.
The state with the second-worst population
loss is West Virginia with a loss of 4,623 people, according to the new Census data.
While Illinois loses one resident on net to
other states every five minutes, the state of
Florida gains two residents on net from other
states every five minutes — and overall, more
than 550 net new residents from other states
per day.
Experts at the nonpartisan Illinois Policy
Institute who have been tracking population
trends for more than five years say the massive population drain from Illinois is the re-
sult of weak jobs growth, a sluggish state
economy and fiscal mismanagement, which
have pushed many residents out of the state.
“One person leaves Illinois on net every
five minutes — that is a risky figure” said Michael Lucci, vice president of policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, in the release. “These
new numbers show the dangerous cost of
decades of poor public-policy decisions without any move toward substantial reform.
These numbers should be a huge wake-up
call to state lawmakers that it’s time to stop
blocking reform and instead do everything
we can to turn around the state.”
Illinois has suffered two years in a row of
record population loss and out-migration to
other states. In 2014, Illinois lost 95,000 residents to out-migration, and the state’s population shrank by 10,000 people.
Lessons ...
<< CONTINUED from Page 1A
men in the audience.
Allen’s mother Geneva Washington, who
attended the graduation ceremony, beamed
as her daughter received her certificate of
completion.
“I’m so proud of her,” Washington said. “I
told her I was proud of her.”
Norman Anglin, who was recognized for
his leadership in the program, said, “The program tries to change the way we think for the
betterment of the community.”
Fellow graduate Charles Carpenter said the
program “was outstanding.”
“It gave me the motivation to keep moving
forward,” he said. “After the first day I was
eager to learn more. I will keep trying to be a
better person, and I’m working toward success.”
Another graduate, Steven Cobb, said he,
too, “learned a lot.”
“I learned not to snap at people, and I
learned that education is a must or you won’t
get anywhere,” Cobb said. “I would be in a
different position than I am now if I had
made different choices.”
The Getting Ahead program fulfills a need
identified by the equity and inclusion committee Boyd serves on as part of DACC’s involvement in the national Achieving the
Dream movement. That movement focuses
on closing achievement gaps and accelerating
the success of low-income students and students of color.
“This course was the way to reach more
people,” Boyd said of the Getting Ahead program, which is based on an existing course
called Investigation into Economic Class in
America that has been offered for the last two
years at DACC.
Of the dozen students who started the pilot
program in September, all of them stuck with
it and graduated on Wednesday, which was a
Carol Roehm | Commercial-News
VERMILION COUNTY BOARD Chairman
Mike Marron, left, talks Wednesday with
Getting Ahead program graduate Charles
Carpenter.
testament to the students’ dedication to the
program.
“Every single student was committed to
being there,” Boyd said. “It’s one of the best
classes I’ve ever taught. I’ve learned so much
from my students, and I want to see them
reach whatever goal they’ve set.”
The learning won’t stop with Wednesday’s
graduation.
“We’re graduating, but we’re not done,”
Boyd said. “We will continue to meet for an
hour every week or every other week to work
on putting their life plan in place.
“There’s a lot of stereotypes about people
living in Fair Oaks, but I want to say that they
amaze me and I consider them my friends,”
she said. “I can’t wait to see what they do with
their lives.”
FYI
The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST
Tuesday through Saturday.
“If someone had told me a year ago, I’d open
a shop in Covington, I would have laughed,”
Teresa said. “Everyone in town has been welcoming and supportive and we feel that impulsive decision, hatched and raised around the
family dinner table, has worked out well.”
Copyright (c)2015 Danville Commercial News, Edition 12/24/2015
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