Friday, December 12, 2025

State Senator Emil Jones the Third is striking a deal with prosecutors.  The Chicago Democrat agreed to a deferred prosecution deal that will leave him with no conviction.  As part of the agreement, he must admit to certain illegal conduct and pay a fine.  Jones was set for retrial next month on bribery charges.  His first trial in April ended in a mistrial after the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on three criminal counts.   Jones was accused of taking money from a red-light camera company executive to kill legislation requiring traffic studies for automated camera systems.

Seniors across Kankakee County are invited to a special Holiday Food Giveaway tomorrow in Bradley. According to a press release, seniors from all over the county are invited to a food giveaway beginning at 9:00 Saturday morning at the Bradley Community Building on West Broadway. Food will be given out on a first come, first served basis. There is a limit of one package per household. Event organizers ask seniors residing in Kankakee County to show up early to ensure they get some food. The event has been made possible by the Bradley Lions Club, Speckman Realty, and the Women’s Club of Kankakee.

While you’re in Downtown Kankakee this weekend for the Christmas Parade, you can get a sneak peek of the new tea room set to open soon at the French Heritage Museum. Kankakee County Historical Society Executive Director Veronica Featherston with the details.

The Judy Anna Tea room will open on a regular basis at the French Heritage Museum sometime next year.

There’s no doubt that the Holidays can be a stressful time of year for many of us. Rachel Nietfeldt from Riverside’s Pathways Program gave us a few tips on how to manage that stress on a recent episode of the Kankakee Valley Community Happenings podcast with Mike Tomano.

You can listen to the full episode of Kankakee Valley Community Happenings wherever you get your podcasts.

Two Kankakee County bridges will get replaced at no cost to the county board, thanks to the Illinois Department of Transportation. At Thursday morning’s Highways, Waterways, and Buildings Committee meeting, two resolutions were passed for bridge replacements on County Highway 13 over Pike Creek and County Highway 14 over Trim Creek. County engineer Greg Heiden.

Heiden says that figure is for the Pike Creek bridge, which will be replaced first on Vincennes Highway. The cost of the Trim Creek bridge that IDOT has also offered to cover is three hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

The Kankakee County Board Highways, Waterways, and Buildings Committee passed a resolution Thursday morning to recommend the Veteran’s Assistance Commission of Kankakee County be allowed to remodel their front office in Bourbonnais, but not without some debate

VAC Superintendent Eric Peterson says they specifically budgeted for this project in their 2026 budget. The lowest bid for the VAC front office remodel project was around eighty eight thousand dollars from Johnson Downs. The remodel still needs approval from the VAC board and full county board in order to move forward.

Despite recent snowfall, drought concerns are growing across the area. The latest numbers just released Thursday by the US Drought Monitor lists about nine percent of Kankakee County as in severe drought, 17 percent in moderate drought, 52 percent abnormally dry and about 21 percent of the county is listed as having no drought concerns at all. Things are worse in Iroquois County where almost three percent of the country is listed as in extreme drought, 47 percent in severe drought with the rest of the country listed as in moderate drought. 25 percent of Ford County is listed as being in extreme drought with the rest of the county in severe drought. One bright spot is Will County where about a quarter of the country is listed as in moderate drought, a quarter is abnormally dry and the other 50 percent without any drought concerns at all.

Across the state line, the entirety of Benton County is listed as being in moderate drought as is 62 percent of Newton County and 54 percent of Jasper County. Pretty much the entirety of the rest of those counties is listed as abnormally dry. Today’s map includes data gathered by the US Drought Monitor through Tuesday of this week

There are a lot of unique fire issues  when it comes to the holidays. Bourbonnais Township Fire Protection District Chief Jim Keener says there are different fire issues depending on the type of tree you have

Keener says you need to be careful when it comes to lighting the tree as well

Chief Keener adds once the holiday is over, it’s best to get a live tree out of your house as soon as possible. He says make sure you take to to your municipalities gathering point so it can be disposed of properly

There’s still plenty to do around Kankakee County this weekend, With a look at a few of the events, here’s Angelina Gear, Executive Director of Visit Kankakee County