Rockford Register Star
MN protesters walk tightrope on rights
Protesters who want to speak out about the fatal shooting of Renee Good face a barrage of conflicting directives from authorities. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz encouraged protesters to record federal immigration authorities: “Help us establish a record of...
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AN EAGLE EYE VIEW
Bald eagle spotting season is here, and Illinois is rolling out the welcome mat with a series of eagle-watching events across the state, according to a community announcement. From now through March, families, birders and nature lovers can catch a...
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MN, IL sue over ICE deployments
Fallout continued Jan. 13 from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Midwest, with lawsuits, reported resignations, the end of protected status for some foreign nationals and the threat of denaturalization. Minnesota and Illinois,...
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‘We stand in solidarity’
Days after Renee Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, hundreds of Rockford-area residents gathered in protest in downtown Rockford. In the 400 block of East State Street about 150 people carried...
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SALARY STUDY
The city’s next superintendent will be paid an eyebrow-raising $285,000 annual salary that dwarfs the pay of the out-going superintendent and is the most the district has paid for a leader. Indiana educator Larry Huff has reached an agreement for the...
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Trump holds rally, Dems issue warning on Jan. 6
WASHINGTON – Five years after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Democrats in Congress accused Republicans of a “whitewash” of history while President Donald Trump delivered an upbeat speech to Republican lawmakers that made little mention...
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News Tower Lofts project seeks loan
The Rockford City Council is considering a package of proposed financial incentives including a $4 million forgivable loan for Urban Equity Properties’ estimated $45.6 million redevelopment of the former Rockford Register Star News Tower, 99 E. State...
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What Trump’s arrest of Maduro tells us
As it turns out, the “America First” slogan didn’t mean President Donald Trump would stop the United States from intervening around the world. The capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on Jan. 3 and his pending arraignment in New...
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POWER PAIRING
Kenneth Wolf, 10, is a hilarious, sharp and fun-loving kid who is smart enough to listen — and hustle — when his big sister Abigail, 15, starts giving orders in the kitchen. h For one thing, Kenneth seems to know what’s good for him. And, for another,...
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Mamdani promises new era for NYC
Eduardo Cuevas, Rebecca Morin, Dan Morrison, Trevor Hughes and Mike Snider New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Jan. 1 inauguration and block party reflected a diverse city looking to make good on the 34-year-old democratic socialist’s promises to...
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Arizona traffic stops lead to deportations
On a heavily patrolled stretch of Interstate 10 south of Phoenix, people pulled over for having a cracked windshield or an object dangling from their rear view mirror have ended up in deportation proceedings. The stated goal of the traffic stops is to...
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Big events on calendar for 2026
As a new year dawns, many Americans are reflecting on 2025, a year marked by historic events including the inauguration of a president, the appointment of the first American pope, and major pop culture moments like the release of “Wicked: For Good” and...
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AI to review Medicare claims in pilot program
A new Medicare program that uses artificial intelligence to review medical claims is set to launch in six states. Critics worry it will lead to patients being denied necessary care and more red tape for providers. The controversial new six-year pilot...
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Over 1M students homeless in U.S.
WASHINGTON – After T’Roya Jackson discovered the paint in her apartment gave her daughter lead poisoning, she and her children moved out. They couch-surfed for a while before moving into a homeless shelter over the summer. The hair stylist began...
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Regenerative farming making a comeback
At Troon Vineyard, in southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley, Garett Long has turned composting into an art form, using it to support soil microbes and eliminate the need for petroleum-based fertilizers. h When Andrea Malmberg and her husband, Tony, bought...
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‘DEEP CONNECTION’
The places Indigenous peoples call home have intertwined with their ways of life for millennia. Their stories, foodways and cultures relate directly to their homelands. Lands, waters, plants and animals, the creatures that inhabit the waters below and...
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‘Help’s farther away’
In the 1960s, doctors believed heart muscle died instantly during a heart attack, like throwing a light switch, according to the American Heart Association. Dr. Eugene Braunwald’s research proposed a heart attack was more like a dimmer – the damage...
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Spotify hits marketing sweet spot
Even before the 2025 Spotify Wrapped dropped, I had a hunch what mine would reveal. Lo and behold, one of my most-listened-to songs was an obscure 2004 track titled “Rusty Chevrolet” by the Irish band Shanneyganock. I heard it first thanks to my son,...
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Federal agents pull back in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO – President Donald Trump vowed this year to flood San Francisco with federal agents – and even soldiers – to crack down on crime. Instead, his administration has quietly taken law enforcement away, leaving the city with less help to fight...
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Man seeks fiancée’s release from ICE
Entering her 11th month in an immigration lock-up, the detention of the Lithuania-born Tatjana Vesiolko is an unusual one, even in an era of increasingly strict immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump. Al Dallasta, her American fiancé,...
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Midwest rises as the next frontier in data center surge
Alec Willis moved to Monrovia, Indiana, weeks before learning he would soon have a new neighbor: a 390-acre Google data center campus that will require twice the electricity of all Indianapolis households combined when operational, according to a...
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‘SEEING PEOPLE AS PEOPLE’
When Elizabeth Dalzell’s daughter Liesl complained of severe pain in her left shoulder in June by using sign language, it began a nearly monthlong odyssey through New Jersey’s health care system before the young woman with multiple disabilities...
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States take up conservation goals terminated by Trump
WASHINGTON – With a snappy title and a laudable goal, “30 by 30” was a landmark plan hatched to help save at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030. Alongside this multinational push, the United States had its own trailblazing version of...
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Flag raises controversy at Education Department
WASHINGTON – A top official at the Department of Education has been keeping a controversial flag linked to Christian nationalism and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection hanging outside his office, according to the agency’s union and a department employee...
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United States withheld intelligence from Israel
WASHINGTON – U.S. intelligence officials temporarily suspended sharing some key information with Israel during the Biden administration over concerns about its conduct of the war in Gaza, according to six people familiar with the matter. In the second...
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Pell Grant fund facing depletion
Funds for yet another government program are on track for depletion and could put higher education further out of reach for millions of Americans, according to research from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The Congressional Budget...
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Extraordinary service recognized in Rockford
A dentist who over two decades brought dental care to thousands of children from low-income families and an organization dedicated to honoring U.S. military veterans are winners of the 2025 Excalibur and Excelsior awards. Dr. Cyrus Oates, 72, is the...
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Abrego Garcia released from detention facility
In a whiplash series of events, a federal judge on Dec. 12 blocked an effort to have Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to custody a day after his release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. On Dec. 11, District Judge Paula Xinis ordered...
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Delivery drivers face different conditions
American households have become dependent on Amazon. h The numbers say it all: In 2024, 83% of U.S. households received deliveries from Amazon, representing over 1 million packages delivered each day and 9 billion individual items delivered same-day or...
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Private firms snap up mobile home parks
One of America’s most affordable paths to homeownership is slipping away. At manufactured home parks – sometimes called trailer parks or mobile home parks – rents are rapidly rising due to large-scale buyouts by private equity firms. Although private...
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2025 Excalibur and Excelsior Awards on tap
The Rockford region will pause this week to honor some of the people and organizations that make Northern Illinois a special place to live, work and play. Organizers have assembled a stacked field of finalists for the 2025 Excalibur and Excelsior...
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Ways to make wishes come true this Christmas
An area nonprofit that serves the homeless is wishing for warm winter clothing this Christmas while another serving at-risk kids is hoping for new mats to make a gymnasium safer. These nonprofits and others are hoping that someone in the community...
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GAME CHANGER
Penny Wirtjes and her husband Hal found precious few resources and support systems available in the Rockford region when their grandson Landon was born with Down syndrome in 2009. An x-ray technician for more than 30 years, Wirtjes retired to help her...
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‘I wish this country supported artists’
Being an artist is not viewed as a real job. It’s a sentiment I’ve heard time and again, one that echoes across studios, rehearsal halls and kitchen tables – a quiet frustration that the labor of making art rarely earns the legitimacy or security...
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Deal could possibly alter churches’ political roles
Arguments were heard on Nov. 25 in a case that could overturn decades of First Amendment precedent that bars churches from endorsing political candidates – potentially reshaping the role of religion in politics. In a Texas courtroom, lawyers for...
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AI could worsen school inequalities
Today’s teachers find themselves thrust into a difficult position with generative AI. New tools are coming online at a blistering pace and being adopted just as quickly, whether they’re personalized tutors and study buddies for students or lesson plan...
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Political violence support overstated
Aseries of recent events has sparked alarm about rising levels of political violence in the United States. These episodes include the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10; the murder of a Democratic Minnesota state legislator...
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GROWING THREAT
Botswana’s fertile Okavango Delta is one of the last remaining high-biodiversity ecosystems in the world, home to cheetahs, African wild dogs, baobab trees, crocodiles, termites and owls that catch fish. Roughly the size of the state of Connecticut,...
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Centuries-old seashells tell history of habitats
During a day at the beach, it’s common to see people walking up and down the shore collecting seashells. As a paleontologist and marine ecologist, we look at shells a bit differently than the average beachcomber. Most people dig up shells in the sand...
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Free Shipping Day is coming up
The holiday season is quickly approaching, and it may be smart to ship packages and gifts early to avoid stress. The deadline for sending packages from the United States Postal Service, UPS and FedEx so that they arrive to family and friends by...
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Kirk death fuels revival and renewal at churches
The assassination of Charlie Kirk changed Danika Meyerson in a way that, at first, made her deeply uncomfortable. She wanted to develop a relationship with God. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. But Meyerson, a 45-year-old mom of two boys, wasn’t a...
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‘TIPPING POINTS’ TOO RISKY TO IGNORE
As the planet warms, it risks crossing catastrophic tipping points: thresholds where Earth systems, such as ice sheets and rainforests, change irreversibly over human lifetimes. Scientists have long warned that if global temperatures warmed more than...
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Inflation weighing on income growth
WASHINGTON – Inflation has helped set back income growth to levels comparable to the slow recovery from the Great Recession more than a decade ago, potentially constraining the spending power of consumers ahead of the critical holiday retail season,...
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Area nonprofits reveal Christmas wish lists
This is your chance to prove that wishes can come true in Rockford this Christmas. We asked area nonprofit organizations what’s on their wish list this holiday season, and we will share their responses over the coming weeks. Responses included all...
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How Thanksgiving carved place on calendar
The Thanksgiving holiday, a staple of the waning autumn days and a herald of upcoming Christmas festivities, has stood as a pillar of American culture since before the country’s founding. And in nearly every year since the country’s founding, the...
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Shutdown deal includes some smaller provisions
WASHINGTON – Several eyebrowraising proposals are tucked into the bills that were on track to end the longest-ever fedearl government shutdown. While lawmakers’ attention has centered mostly in recent days around measures to reverse thousands of...
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Rockford food pantries see surge in demand
Food pantries are seeing longer lines, growing demand and customers they have never seen before as food stamps are arriving late and are being slashed amid a government shutdown. At the Rock River Valley Food Pantry, customers – many of whom are the...
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Restaurants’ patrons step up to feed neighbors during SNAP crisis ‘It’s really heartwarming’
Local restaurants that are hosting food drives to benefit local pantries amid a growing food crisis are reporting overwhelming responses from their customers. The Olympic Tavern, Baker Street Burgers, Lucha Cantina, Social Urban Bar & Restaurant,...
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Patricia I. Berg
CALEDONIA - Patricia I. Berg, 68, passed away on November 2, 2025, in her hometown of Rockford, Illinois. She was born on March 16, 1957, daughter to Robert and Ilean (Lind) McNamara. A graduate of East High School’s class of 1975, and Lakeland Medical...
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Food pantries available during benefits disruption
The Trump administration has signaled that it will provide partial Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds as a government shutdown continues. With less food assistance immediately available, people across the region are turning to local food...
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Trump appeals order to pay full SNAP aid
The Trump administration has appealed a federal judge’s order that it was to provide full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food aid to states by Nov. 7. The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Nov. 6 – the same day federal Judge John...
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Grocery buddies help SNAP recipients
Neighbors are helping fellow community members nationwide, signing up to be a grocery buddy and paying for food as SNAP recipients and others have lost their benefits during the government shutdown. People are connecting through social media posts or...
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Local schools brace for extra demand in cafeteria
ROCKFORD — Rockford Public Schools officials say free breakfasts and lunches will be offered to any student who wants them even as the federal government fails to fund food benefits for millions of Americans. On Nov. 3, students at Rockford’s STEAM...
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Federal drug prosecutions at lowest level in decades
WASHINGTON – The number of people charged with breaking federal drug laws dropped to the lowest level in decades this year after the Trump administration ordered enforcement agencies to focus on deporting immigrants, a Reuters review of nearly 2...
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Graduation rates increase by 8 points
ROCKFORD — New Illinois School Report Card data released Oct. 30 shows Rockford Public Schools is making strides when it comes to graduation rates but continues to struggle with chronic truancy. High school four-year graduation rates increased 8...
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Stroll on State returns with a few new twists
Stroll on State returns for a 13th year Nov. 29 and is expected to attract 85,000 people to downtown Rockford for shopping, visits with Santa, horse and carriage rides, hot chocolate, Christmas decorations and plenty of holiday spirit. The free event...
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New company plans to re-ignite Gunite foundry
Four former employees are reopening the 619,000-square-foot former Rockford Gunite factory and resurrecting the brand under a new company called Rockford Brake Manufacturing. The new owners are: Brandon Bauman, director of operations; Scott Henderson,...
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NEXT-LEVEL DEDICATION
The proof of Max Ellinger’s Costco fandom is his only tattoo, inked on his right arm. It’s the Kirkland Signature logo – the Costco house brand for everything from rotisserie chicken to laundry detergent. Ellinger got it in 2019 after a friend...
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New roadmap for economic development
ROCKFORD — Two years after merging the city’s leading business development agencies into a consolidated Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce, the organization has released an “Economic Development Roadmap.” The framework that’s expected to guide the...
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Families brace for impact of SNAP benefit loss
ROCKFORD — Winnebago County Housing Authority resident Dominque Bannister expects to face tough choices about whether to buy food, purchase needed medication or pay utility bills as food assistance is about to be cut off by the continuing government...
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Caterpillar helping to fund Trump’s ballroom
PEORIA – Caterpillar has been named by the Trump administration as one the corporations donating to help fund a new ballroom in the White House’s East Wing, according to multiple reports. Caterpillar was named as a donor to the project along with...
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‘Ready to Learn’
Alignment Rockford has secured a $49,000 subcontract from Birth to Five Illinois to enhance early childhood coordination efforts in the Rockford area and Winnebago County. The funding will support Alignment Rockford’s Ready to Learn initiative, which...
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Navigating local hunger relief options
Federal officials have notified all states that November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will not be funded if the government shutdown continues. This means SNAP customers will not receive November food benefits unless the government...
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‘ACCESS TO SUPPORT’
A safe house that gives women returning to Rockford after spending time in prison a place to live, treatment, employment assistance and educational services is opening on 20th Street. Many of the women leaving jail or prison need a second chance, but...
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ICE descends on historic Mexican neighborhood
CHICAGO – Federal immigration enforcement agents raided the Chicago’s historic Mexican neighborhood on Oct. 22, removing several people, causing car accidents and brandishing weapons, according to residents, local leaders and advocates. Agents in the...
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LOSING A LIFELINE
For the first time in U.S. history, there are more Americans over 62 than under 18. With the national workforce getting older every year, many economists argue that having people keep working longer than they used to would help maintain a robust labor...
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Businesses preparing for Spook the Blocks
Spook the Blocks will take place from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 25 in downtown Rockford. The event will feature trick-ortreating, pumpkin decorating and creative storefront displays, according to a community announcement. Participating businesses are...
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LOSING A LIFELINE
For the first time in U.S. history, there are more Americans over 62 than under 18. With the national workforce getting older every year, many economists argue that having people keep working longer than they used to would help maintain a robust labor...
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Thousands rally in Rockford for ‘No Kings’
Thousands of people from across the region gathered for a “No Kings” rally Oct. 18 in downtown Rockford. An estimated 2,700 rallies were organized across the nation to protest the Trump administration. Turnout was estimated at 7 million. Rockford’s...
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Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
ROCKFORD – Students at Whitehead Elementary School took a break from their regular studies Oct. 16 to learn about Mexican folk dance in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. “Dancing is universal. Our kids love music. They love dancing,” said Whitehead...
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‘INNOVATIVE AND PROGRESSIVE’
A 16-year firefighting veteran, Capt. Rebecca Tyo has been named the new chief of the Rockford Fire Department. Tyo was chosen from among a field of five strong finalists after a national search to choose a successor to Chief Michele Pankow, who made...
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‘CHEMICAL OF CONCERN’
Microplastics seem to be everywhere – in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. They have turned up in human organs, blood, testicles, placentas and even brains. While the full health consequences of that exposure are not yet known,...
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Career learning
ROCKFORD — Rockford Public Schools held its 14th annual Academy Expo Oct. 15, 2025, at Mercyhealth Sportscore Two in Loves Park. Each year, the expo serves as an opportunity for Rockford area high school freshman to learn more about future careers...
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Rebecca Tyo named Rockford Fire’s next chief
Members of the Rockford Board of Fire & Police Commissioners have named a woman with 16 years experience as the next chief of the Rockford Fire Department. Rockford native Rebecca Tyo, 44, is the second woman in the history of the Rockford Fire...
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Developer aims to build 15,000 downtown homes
As Justin Fern of Urban Equity Properties celebrated his latest $13.5 million venture, he announced that it is merely an incremental step toward his ultimate goal of bringing 15,000 people to live in downtown Rockford. Fern said his company has begun...
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