A big weekend of high school sports coming up with the IHSA football championships and boys holiday basketball tournaments.

You can always expect the unexpected. The question is have you planned for it? Through the work of folks at Penn State University they have developed a workbook farmers can use for disaster preparedness and response of their farms. Here a look at how it can help.

The people of this country have come through a very stressful election campaign that included finger pointing and name-calling from both sides. Friendships were divided.

Over 230,000 farms are up against a Jan. 1, 2025, deadline to file their detailed Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) with the Treasury Department under the requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).

Again we are grateful to Joe Rangel for honoring veterans at the Sunrise in Byron with the breakfast.

Last week Rep. Darin LaHood voted for HR 9495. This bill would give Trump and his Treasury Department sweeping authority to label U.S. Nonprofits as "terrorist-supporting organizations" with no oversight, due process, just unilateral power. (it’s in Section 4(B)) Political Targeting.

November marks a 50-year love/hate relationship I have with the Illinois high school football playoffs; dating back to the very first year the IHSA instituted post-season play.

It’s been said that football is a game of inches. There was never more true when Brayden Knoll of Byron came up just short of the goal line with 10 seconds left on an extra point attempt in a 14-13 loss to Lombard Montini.

Most folks when they think of agriculture see crops growing in a field or cows grazing in a pasture. But the industry is much more complex and represents economic effects that we don’t tend to see. Once the grain or the livestock leave the farm there is a tapestry of industries including transportation, processing, wholesale, retail, shipping etc. that are woven together to eventually put food on folks’ tables.

I’m uncertain about most things, including politics. I’m trying to stay that way. A democracy dies when its people fail to question their political beliefs.

As we get ready for round two of the football playoffs, let’s take a look at the other fall sports.

The staff at our Rochelle ALDI have been meeting the special needs of their customers for years by purchasing gift cards to "help" customers when times are difficult.

Most folks when they think of agriculture see crops growing in a field or cows grazing in a pasture. But the industry is much more complex and represents economic effects that we don’t tend to see. Once the grain or the livestock leave the farm there is a tapestry of industries including transportation, processing, wholesale, retail, shipping etc. that are woven together to eventually put food on folks’ tables.

Remember all the jubilation over Byron’s hard-fought 29-28 win over Dixon two weeks ago. Strangely, Byron would have been better off losing.

Tuesday, Nov. 5 is our 2024 general election and in election cycles this one is also popular as the presidential election.

I won’t be long and this year’s harvest will be in the bin. Then comes the difficult part…marketing. There will be plenty of pencil pushing, calling brokers and head scratching twit now and next Spring. So get out your calendar and mark Nov. 20.

Everyone dreams of a European vacation, but many think it's beyond their budget. What most people don’t realize is that foreign travel can, in many cases, be cheaper than traveling within the U.S. I recently returned from a trip to Ireland, for which I only paid $200 for a round-trip ticket — cheaper than a flight to Vegas! So, how can you score such great deals? Here’s what I’ve learned over the years:

Wild, weird and wonderful. That is how I would describe my experience at the Byron-Dixon football game. Beforehand, as I drove down scenic Illinois Route 2, my only hope was that it would at least be competitive, something rarely found at a Byron game.

“There’s something happening here, But what it is ain’t exactly clear…” Words from a great Buffalo Springfield song (For What It’s Worth) written by Stephen Stills. “…There’s battle lines being drawn, Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong, Young people speaking their minds, Getting so much resistance from behind. It’s time we stop, Hey, what’s that sound?, Everybody look, what’s going down?...”.

The stage is set for Byron and Dixon for BNC football supremacy. More importantly, is a chance for both squads to finally be tested.

MAGA - Hm.....really? Isn't the good old USA already great?

Amidst the picturesque scenes of the fall harvest, a pressing concern emerges — the safety of farm vehicles on rural roads.

Political issues always come down to moral ones. That’s never been more obvious than in this presidential election.

In a battle between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in eight-man football, it was Polo over Milledgeville in a great atmosphere at Floyd Daub Field.

USDA’s Crop Production Report and August World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, published in August, confirms that we have very large crops in American fields, with corn, soybeans and other spring wheat projected to have record and above-trend yields in 2024.