Lexi Cortes

The St. Clair County Board voted to sign a $2.49 million contract with Acoustic Technology, Inc. Systems at its Oct. 24, 2022, meeting. Installations started in March 2023.

The crash happened July 2023 at the Silver Lake Rest Area off of Interstate 70 near Highland. The bus was en route from Indianapolis to St. Louis.

An estimated 878 people live within a 1-mile radius of the 35-acre Veolia North America-Trade Waste Incineration facility in the Metro East. The closest residential areas are about half a mile southeast of the facility in Cahokia Heights.

Illinois finalized its PFAS limits in 2025, which is why some Metro East residents have been receiving letters from the Illinois EPA that PFAS have been detected above the limits.

U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski criticized Republican leaders, who she blamed for the cuts while drawing attention to the impact on Metro East communities.

The bill that would force Freeburg to ditch its mascot is scheduled to be called in two House Education Policy Committee hearings this week.

The federal funding for farmers has been terminated under President Donald Trump’s administration. Family farmers in the Metro East now face abrupt uncertainty about how to fund plans they made for their growing businesses.

Frank Bergman, the county’s HR director until his termination in 2023, states in the lawsuit and other court filings that an investigation he was conducting into several employees’ allegations in the fall of 2022 revealed “inappropriate actions."

Advocates have said Freeburg's mascot, the "Midgets” to be derogatory, objectifying and dehumanizing. A bill proposed in the Illinois General Assembly would ban public schools from using derogatory names for people with disabilities as mascots.

Addington Place managers announced this month that the facility is closing in April because the owner of the building sold the property, and the new owner does not want to use it for assisted living.

Freeburg has been the “Midgets” for 90 years. Many people with dwarfism now consider the term a slur.

The settled lawsuits involved allegations that St. Clair County did not pay overtime compensation to employees and that sheriff’s deputies injured two people detained at the jail.