Rockford Register Star
Pritzker and Bailey spar in only campaign debate
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Republican Darren Bailey spent an hour talking over and accusing each other of stretching the truth in their only planned meeting of the campaign on Oct. 13. The WTTW forum was supposed to be a question-and-answer...
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‘Beloved bakeshop’
A popular downtown bakery — known across the city for its French pastries and fresh sourdough bread is closing at the end of the year. The owner of the Crust & Crumbles, JoJo Gendenbaatar, posted a message on social media Oct. 13 letting her customers...
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The AI of the storm
Artificial intelligence has revolutionized weather forecasting in just a few years, with global AI weather models now able to produce forecasts that rival some of the world’s best physics-based prediction systems. h This remarkable progress has been...
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Report weighs data center benefits, costs in Illinois
A new study predicts data centers expected to be built in Illinois over the next decade would create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in new property tax revenue. But many are skeptical the touted benefits will live up to their promises or...
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REBRANDING NICOTINE
An ironic development emerging alongside the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is the portrayal of nicotine as a wellness and performance-enhancing product. Across social media, podcasts, wellness communities and tech startups, prominent wellness...
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Pritzker faces mixed results for businesses
SPRINGFIELD - Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is attempting to become the first governor to serve three terms since Gov. Jim Thompson. He faces Republican candidate Darren Bailey in a rematch of the 2022 gubernatorial election on Nov. 3. h Pritzker, like...
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Trump says new retreat will be like Camp David
President Donald Trump said a new retreat he hopes to create for future White House occupants at one of his Florida golf courses would be safe, secluded and similar to Camp David, the storied presidential getaway in Maryland. Although details of the...
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Loud sounds have hidden health risks
The human body is remarkably good at getting used to the environment around it. You’ve probably experienced this if you’ve ever gone to a matinee and emerged from the dark theater into sunshine. Your eyes sting, so you squint and shield your face until...
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New power infrastructure fuels Belvidere growth
Walmart and ComEd marked the completion of new electric infrastructure that will supply power to a future Walmart perishable foods distribution center in Belvidere. h Company leaders and local officials gathered Oct. 5 at the project site. h The event...
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Many voters don’t see robust job market
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and the Republican Party will carry a 4.2% unemployment rate into the congressional elections in early November, a low number by historical standards and in line with what most economists would regard as full...
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Crusader Women’s Health to open next summer
Crusader Community Health kicked off construction of its newest clinic Oct. 2 at 1201 E. State St. in Rockford. Crusader is in the process of building its new Women’s Health clinic at the site of a former Walgreens that Crusader purchased in March for...
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Illinois’ Chester Bridge demolished
CHESTER – Hundreds of people gathered along the riverfront the morning of Sept. 28 to watch the 80-year-old Chester Bridge come down. Then, in a matter of seconds, it was gone. Explosives ripped through the old bridge, sending it crashing into the...
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EXTRAORDINARY & UNUSUAL
Aman being held in Sangamon County Jail in the fall of 2024 mixed in with a group getting processed for release and walked out in broad daylight, spurring a brief manhunt. h The following May, two people in Cook County Jail were rushed to a nearby...
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Lower MPG rules may cost drivers at pump
President Donald Trump’s move to reduce the sticker shock on new cars by rolling back federal economy rules could end up costing most drivers more money in fuel costs than they would save on new vehicles, according to analysis from Trump’s own Highway...
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Report: AI is being used to plan violence
Did a college student charged with murder in Florida turn to ChatGPT for help not with homework but with planning a mass shooting that left two dead and five wounded? Evidence against him suggests he did, according to a new report citing court records...
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The long afterlife of QAnon
On Election Day in 2024, as voters cast their ballots, Elon Musk posted a campaign music video supporting Donald Trump’s bid for president. h Set to Van Halen’s “Jump,” with a montage of 1980s cultural references and images of Trump in various...
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Pediatric cancer survivor is now an advocate
A lot can change in nine years. In August 2017, Mequon, Wisconsin, native Matthew Ceelen received the devastating news he had osteosarcoma bone cancer, diagnosed after he broke his arm during a freshman high school football scrimmage. He underwent...
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Taliban, Pakistan go from friends to foes
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s air force struck 10 locations in Afghanistan on Sept. 24, its second round of strikes in four days after three months of relative quiet along the two countries’ 1,600mile border. Islamabad said it struck militant hideouts in...
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PATCHWORK OF POLICIES
Standing in your local retail store, it can be mindboggling to try to weigh the pros and cons of all the packaging options. Take shampoo, for example. Shampoo can come in a rigid plastic bottle, a flexible squeeze tube, a refillable metal canister or...
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THE POWER OF STORIES
81-year-old Durbin, the minority whip in the Senate, announced on April 23, 2025, that he wouldn’t seek a sixth term in November, capping a 44-year career in Congress. U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski recalled that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin advised her when she...
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Report alleges censorship at colleges across America
A “widespread, McCarthyite censorship” campaign by the Trump administration led to the suppression of speech at colleges and universities across the nation, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International concluded. The...
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New study measures Space Coast rocket noise
Mere decibel readings don’t tell the whole story about how loud – or rumbly – a rocket launch sounds to people living on Florida’s Space Coast, said Whitney Coyle, who chairs the Rollins College physics department. Still, Coyle and a team of student...
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Cursive is making a comeback in schools
Learning to read and write cursive was once a rite of passage for practically every American schoolchild. Until the early 20th century, children in the United States were generally taught to write in cursive or script, rather than the print writing...
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Sainthood journey reaches a major milestone Sept. 24
The Ven. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen will be beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis, marking a step toward sainthood for the central Illinois native who became a televangelist, lecturer, author and educator. Cardinal Luis Tagle will preside over the Mass that...
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‘THE STORY CONTINUES’
ROCKFORD — Urban Equity Properties plans to bring 142 residential units, 15 retail storefronts, an upscale restaurant and a riverfront pub in the coming years as it embarks on two redevelopment plans totaling $78.4 million in downtown...
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Rockford solar project means $163K in savings
Rockford’s first “Community Driven Community Solar” project has generated an estimated $163,000 in savings for local households and a nonprofit health system during its first year of operation. Project partners Summit Ridge Energy, Trajectory Energy...
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Tech innovation not optional for Illinois farmers
In 2025, bankruptcies on family farms rose 46% nationwide and 70% across the Midwest. Here in northern Illinois, University of Illinois farm economists recently projected returns for corn would be approximately $45 per-acre below breakeven, while farm...
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Houthis’ rapid advance puts U.S. in tighter bind
WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations a year ago, he touted the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites just months earlier as “totally obliterating everything” and said he had brought peace between Israel and...
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Renovations at IL Capitol expected to wrap up this year
SPRINGFIELD — Nearly five years after construction crews started moving dirt on the $350 million renovation of the Illinois State Capitol’s north wing, there are finally glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel. The massive project, which included a...
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U.S. human rights scores plummet
In the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections, how is the U.S. government performing in terms of human rights? Listening to politicians, it can be difficult to know. On one hand, some have pointed to a number of potential human rights abuses committed...
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SEX-TRAFFICKING CRACKDOWN STALLS
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has repeatedly said the fight against sex trafficking is one of its top priorities. But investigations have stalled and prosecutions declined because of staffing shortages, funding cuts, immigration enforcement...
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DIGITAL DETOX
A trove of recent articles bemoan the collapse in recreational reading among younger Americans, with COVID-19 pandemic-related reading declines, artificial intelligence and social media often described as causes. But as the authors of “How Gen Z...
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ROCKFORD GATHERS TO REMEMBER 9/11
Rockford area first responders, local officials and residents gathered at the Winnebago County 9/11 Emergency Responders Memorial on Sept. 11 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America. Among those in attendance were Rockford...
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Attendees pledge allegiance to Trump at GOP convention
DALLAS – President Donald Trump had his supporters recite a pledge of allegiance to himself – and promise to vote in November – as he teamed with Vice President JD Vance on Sept. 10, the second and final night of the first Republican midterm...
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A GENERATION OF AFTERSHOCK
Aquarter-century later, 9/11 still echoes. The worst terrorist attack in U.S. history has been followed by other seismic events, from a once-in-a-century global pandemic to the rise of artificial intelligence that is transforming commerce, education...
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AN IDLE THREAT
Abus company that left its buses’ engines running while parked in Boston neighborhoods has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay $5.6 million in damages for the resulting air pollution. The settlement came in a citizen-enforcement lawsuit under the...
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PRESS UNDER PRESSURE
In his White House Correspondents’ Association dinner speech on July 24, President Donald Trump made his usual diatribes against the news media. He derided the “failing” New York Times and reiterated his complaint that CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins...
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Doctors release new vaccine guidance
As the Trump administration continues to offer conflicting messages about vaccines, top medical groups are stepping in to ease confusion with a set of independent recommendations. The guidelines were released via a partnership between leading medical...
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GRIT, GRACE & GRATITUDE
Jeffrey Coniglio is dressed in white down to his shoes, his daughter Giada in a flowing pale green gown. They are twirling across the dance floor to music from “The Great Showman” when, suddenly, Giada flips head over heels and then swings out into a...
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Speaking Colonially
Did loyalists to the English crown think that George Washington, John Adams and Ben Franklin were a bunch of snollygosters and belswaggers brabbling as they droiled and desudated in the July heat? h Did their hearts ake, missing the wimmin and dawters...
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Ribbon cutting celebrates new treatment system
Aqua-Aerobic Systems and Four Rivers Sanitation Authority will mark the startup of a new wastewater treatment system at the authority’s Rockford facility during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 9. The event celebrates the launch of AquaNereda Aerobic...
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Production offers unique experiences
Rockford’s annual Somnium immersive art experience will return to Sinnissippi Park for four performances over Labor Day weekend with a new production titled “The Book of the Ninth Dimension.” Created by Mentes Extremófilas, a collective of local and...
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Beloved K-9 Zoro dies after lymphoma diagnosis
The Winnebago County Sheriff ’s Office announced the death of K-9 Zoro, a police dog who served the agency for nearly five years before being euthanized Aug. 24 after veterinarians diagnosed him with advanced lymphoma. Zoro began experiencing sudden...
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‘ISOLATED’
Severe storms, heat waves and wildfires can shut down the social life of a community, flooding out festivals, canceling community events and keeping people indoors. They’re also evidence of how climate change isn’t just changing the environments we...
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Illinois Republicans hope to flip legislative seats
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Republicans are hoping to buck historic midterm election trends by focusing on affordability and Democratic scandals in the Statehouse as they seek to emerge from superminority status. President Donald Trump remains deeply...
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Cup of care ambition
Dolly Parton In 1973, Dolly Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” to soften the blow of leaving her business partner Porter Wagoner after years of producing hit country duets together. Parton was ready to pursue a solo career. So she played the song...
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Since 2016, Taylor Farms has disputed more than half of its OSHA citations.
Taylor Farms, the produce company at the center of a U.S. cyclospora outbreak, frequently failed to submit federally required workplace injury logs in recent years, including for at least four facilities where workers suffered fatal or otherwise...
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Colleges confront decline in reading
Anyone who has spent time on a college campus lately has probably heard laments from faculty about their students’ reading habits, or rather nonreading habits. Such complaints are more than an unfounded nostalgia for a bygone age. Reading – not just...
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LOVE, ALWAYS
Dolly Parton, the “Queen of Country” singing and songwriting icon with a personality as bold as her signature blond coif and rhinestoneencrusted outfits, has died. She was 80. Parton’s death was announced by her family on her social media pages and...
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Embryo personhood debate gains notice
About 100,000 babies were born through in vitro fertilization in 2024, according to the most recent U.S. data. But IVF commonly involves trying to create multiple embryos, because success is never guaranteed. If unused, those embryos can be frozen,...
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Navy families irate at Trump comments
A senior Navy machinist aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln pinged a family group chat in early May, asking her sister and mother whether they’d taken time off to be at her son’s graduation at Morehouse College. Getting the 22-year-old kinesiology major...
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USPS issues final rule on mail-in voting
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Postal Service published a final rule Aug. 21 to tighten requirements for mail-in voting ahead of the November congressional elections, despite a court order blocking the changes from taking effect. USPS said it was issuing its...
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A look at the road ahead
The political appeal of the idea — slap restrictions on institutional investors who buy up single-family homes to make more housing stock for regular folk who want to actually live in them — is plain to see. Both houses of Congress endorsed it by...
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Most Americans say Trump is profiting from presidency
WASHINGTON – A majority of Americans believe President Donald Trump and his family have inappropriately profited from cryptocurrency since his return to power and that his policy decisions are influenced by his private business dealings, a new...
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Trump plan could hit science funding
Most Americans don’t read the rules that govern the federal grants funding science. Those rules, called the Uniform Guidance, shape how cancer research is funded, graduate students are trained, clinical trials are sustained, universities stock their...
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Gov. Pritzker signs 10 bills into law
SPRINGFIELD, IL — Rideshare drivers can unionize in Illinois, a new law seeks to regulate and classify plastic pellets as a pollutant, and the state will exercise greater oversight of a federal prescription drug discount program. Those are a few of...
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Library names Neil Bloom 2026-27 artist in residence
For Neil Bloom, filmmaking has always been about community as much as cinema. The 36-year-old Rockford-based filmmaker and founder of the Forest City Cinema Community was named Rockford Public Library’s 2026-27 artist in residence earlier this year, a...
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‘Living out our mission’
A year after hoisting the final piece of structural steel into place, Rock Valley College’s new Downtown West Campus opened Aug. 14 with a ribboncutting celebration. The $55 million campus, located at 315 S. Winnebago St., represents the college’s...
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‘Notice the people doing remarkable things’
Do you know a Rockford area individual or organization that deserves recognition for how they give back to the community? It’s time to gather those good thoughts and turn them into nominations for the annual Excalibur and Excelsior...
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Family’s road trip veered off course
SHEBOYGAN, WI – Elvira BenitezSuarez was napping in the passenger seat when she heard a noise and woke up. What she saw on the GPS alarmed her. “What are we doing in Canada?” she asked her husband, Ricardo Chavez, who was driving. They were way off...
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Cyclosporiasis cases show gradual slowing
Newly reported cases of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection known for causing explosive diarrhea, may be slowing – though not by much – as the investigation into the unprecedented outbreak that has affected thousands drags on. The Centers for...
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Speaker Welch apologizes to former staffer
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch is apologizing for his interactions with a former staff member who brought a sexual harassment complaint against ex-Rep. Harry Benton to his office. Welch told Capitol News Illinois it wasn’t...
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Critics take aim at Trump vaccine order
President Donald Trump hailed his new order on childhood vaccines as a win for parental choice as doctors slammed the move, saying it could lead to greater risk of diseases that were rarely seen for generations. Trump signed an executive order Aug. 10...
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Military bases delay toxic PFAS cleanup
It’s been almost five years since Brandi and Brad Hyatt found out the well at their home next to an Army base in Washington is contaminated with “forever chemicals.” h They started using bottled water for everything from making coffee to rinsing off...
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‘Those people also need the help’
CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill recently that officially recognizes gambling disorder as an addiction in Illinois. The legislation, Senate Bill 2749, updates the state’s existing Substance Use Disorder Act to codify gambling addiction under...
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Rockford newsroom legend David Shultz dies at age 81
ROCKFORD – There were three things retired Rockford Register Star sportswriter and editor David Shultz loved more than anything else: his family, his East High School E-Rabs and his New York Yankees. Known for near encyclopedic knowledge of Rockford...
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Podcaster creates online community for gamblers
(Editor’s note: Some individuals in this story are identified only by first name and last initial at their request to allow them to speak openly about their addiction without fear of reprisal for actions taken when gambling.) At his worst, Jimmy M....
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Reports: U.S. missile supply badly depleted
The war on Iran has severely depleted key U.S. missile stockpiles and left the nation and its allies in a vulnerable position for potentially years to come, several experts and reports say. U.S. missile stockpiles were low before President Donald...
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County fairs are coming to northwest Illinois
County fair season is in full swing in northern Illinois. Check out some family-friendly carnival games or mouthwatering food stands, as well as pageants and farm exhibits. Here’s a day-by-day schedule of upcoming county fairs schedule provided by the...
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Gunshot detection tech ignites controversy
When gunshots ring out on America’s streets, bystanders face an instant, high-stakes dilemma. h Do I call the cops? Were those even gunshots? Maybe it was just fireworks. h Every moment of hesitation risks a delay in medical treatment or gives a...
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New transfer path offers free bachelor’s degrees
Rockford Promise Scholars will have a new route to a bachelor’s degree under an agreement linking Rockford Promise, Rock Valley College and Rockford University. The three organizations signed a memorandum of understanding July 24 that expands...
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9 communities answer call to host new nuclear reactors
CHICAGO — Illinois has opened the door to a new era of nuclear energy generation, but a question remains: Where would new nuclear power plants go? It’s an issue that Gov. JB Pritzker directed state agencies to explore this spring, when he signed his...
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Officials dedicate forest land purchase
Friends, relatives and community supporters gathered July 23 at the Paula Swanson Forest Preserve near Durand to celebrate the dedication of the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County’s newest property. h In a ceremony hosted at 10178 W. Winslow Road,...
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COSTLY CHOICES
CEditor’s note: This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen compulsive gamblers in recovery. Their identities have been omitted to allow them to speak openly about their lives. Quotes are edited for clarity and brevity. ompulsive gamblers...
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In addition to larger tax refunds, spending was boosted by higher-income households that are benefiting from strong growth in asset prices, but a recent stock market sell-off could slow the momentum.
WASHINGTON – U.S. economic growth slowed in the second quarter amid a widening in the trade deficit, but robust consumer spending and business investment related to the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure underscored strong domestic...
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Local literacy programs get major funding boost
United Way Rock River Valley is investing $347,805 in literacy programs across Winnebago County for the 2026–27 program year, supporting 20 community partner organizations focused on helping children develop reading skills. The funding is part of the...
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