We'll be pretty mild again today and a bit of a cool down coming on Friday and Saturday. We are looking at increasing clouds for today with a high of 61. Winds form the southwest will gust about 20 miles per hour today. Then, we could see some light rain tonight but we'll otherwise be cloudy with a low of 42. Meanwhile...

The City of Vandalia now has some guidance in place concerning Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) after the Vandalia City Council approved an ordinance at their first meeting of November on Monday night. With there being interest shown by at least one entity in submitting a special use permit request to use BESS in ...

The official kickoff to Christmas in Vandalia is just over a week away, but one event will start to get the holiday spirit going as the Olde Tyme Christmas Festival of Trees will be held on Friday night at the Vandalia Moose Lodge. Vandalia Tourism Director Amber Daulbaugh says the theme for Olde Tyme Christmas this ye...

State Senate races for the 105th Illinois General Assembly saw some shakeups Tuesday night, with some Democratic candidates in Republican districts flipping seats and bringing tight challenges in those they lost. Democrats held a supermajority of 40 seats in the Senate compared to the GOP's 19 in the 2025-2026 General ...

(Effingham, IL) -- A former Effingham teacher is pleading guilty to multiple child sex crimes. Dakota Czerwonka entered a guilty plea to grooming and child porn charges. Police say Czerwonka was arrested earlier this year for sending inappropriate electronic messages to a child. Czerwonka is the founder and a former te...

We will see some cooler temperatures settle over the area for the next several days. We could see some areas of light rain during the day today, but we'll otherwise see mostly cloudy skies today with a high of 60. Winds out of the west will gust up to 20 miles per hour. Then, we'll see gradually clearing skies for to...

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker won reelection for a third term, beating his two-time GOP challenger Darren Bailey. Multiple media reports called the race for Pritzker as soon as the polls closed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. At his campaign event at Navy Pier in Chicago, Pritzker said his opponent "ran hard and gave it his a...

Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton has been elected to the U.S. Senate. Stratton was the projected winner almost immediately after the polls closed on Tuesday evening. "The work of being a voice for working families, however, does not end when the ballots are counted. Those families still need an advoca...

Illinois Democrats have completed a clean sweep of elections for statewide offices. Incumbent Kwame Raoul is the projected winner of a third term as attorney general, by a lopsided margin over Republican Bob Fioretti. Democrats congratulated Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on his projected win over Republican Dian...

Fayette County Voting from Tuesday Election 7,774 total ballots cast 5,621 votes on Election Day 569 early voting by mail 1,584 early voting 57.5% turnout U.S. Senate Don Tracy-R 6,137 (80.2%) Julianna Stratton-D 1,394 (18.2) --Stratton was winner of U.S. Senate Seat in Illinois-- Governor Darren Bailey-R 6,450 (83.3%)...

Fayette County Clerk Kara Dugan says everything with the election went well today. They have just ran into some computer issues tonight. Dugan says they are having some software issues and not able to get the numbers to load at this time onto the website. She says the support team is there and working on solving the ...

It will be a pretty nasty day and night around the area with strong winds, rains, potentially a thunderstorms and warmer conditions. We will see rain and possibly a thunderstorms for today with a high of 75. Winds from the south will gust better than 30 miles per hour today. Then, rain and possibly a thunderstorm for...

It is Election Day. Folks throughout the country are voting today in what are called the "mid term" elections--the period between Presidential races. Every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and 1/3rd of the U.S. Senate will be up for election tonight around the country. In Illinois, all of the stat...

It is Election Day in Illinois and voters in the state will gain be selecting between Democrat Incumbent J.B. Pritzker and Republican challenger Darren Bailey in the Gubernatorial race. Bailey spoke on Monday with I70 Media and he says they were able to deliver their final case against Pritzker on Monday with message g...

The City of Vandalia is moving forward with work to seek another grant, this one in an effort to possibly bring a new grocery store to the city. During Monday night's Vandalia City Council meeting, the council unanimously approved an agreement for $2,000 with the South Central Illinois Regional Planning & Developme...

The Illinois Department of Corrections plans to close four downstate work camps, which provide low-level offenders a chance to work within the surrounding community and be reintegrated into society in a controlled manner. Some state lawmakers have been critical of the Illinois Department of Corrections and governor for...

According to a new report, Illinois is one of five states with more than $30,000 in debt per capita. Mariana Trujillo, managing director of government finance at Reason Foundation, said state, county and local governments and school districts are accumulating unfunded obligations. Trujillo said Chicago residents are fa...

We will see cloudy skies again today with widespread rain on the way to the area on Tuesday. For today there is a chance of rain this morning, but we'll otherwise see cloudy skies for today with a high of 65. Then, cloudy skies tonight with a low of 60. Then, we are looking at rain and thunderstorms during the day on ...