The Marion County Road and Bridge Committee will recommend to the full county board that work begin to replace the three worst township road bridges in the county. Highway engineer Alex Kreke labeled the bridges as most in need of replacement. The design of the replacement bridges begins a four-year process before construction begins on a new bridge. They are the Bernard Road bridge in Raccoon Township over Raccoon Creek, the Sullens Road bridge in Iuka Township over Conner Ranch Creek, an...

Salem Police arrested 24-year-old Geovani Santiso-Ventura for battery following an incident involving two men in a room at the Days Inn Tuesday night. Santiso-Ventura was held at the Marion County Jail until a court appearance. Central City Police arrested a 31-year-old Carlyle man on an outstanding Marion County DUI warrant as well as new charges of driving on a revoked license and unlawful use of cannabis by a driver. He was held in the Marion County Jail on the outstanding warrant but gi...

by Ben Szalinski, Capitol News Illinois July 13, 2026 Article Summary JB Pritzker signed 31 new laws on Friday. One includes a controversial measure that allows minors to receive birth control without a parent's consent. Others ban certain ingredients from cosmetics, prohibit school administrators from using AI to evaluate teachers, and expand access to ovarian cancer screenings. Pritzker also signed a bill to conform the state's property tax laws to the 2023 Tyler v. Hennepin County U.S. Sup...

The Centralia City Council voted on Monday to approve an amendment to a development agreement with Re:purpose Development allowing for an additional $160,000 in TIF reimbursements. That number is added to the existing reimbursement of $160,000. The maximum amount of reimbursement remains at $375,000. The increased reimbursement supports the company's development of the property at 102 East Broadway as part of the Winery Block project. Re:purpose Development has developed several downtown loc...

Centralia Police are investigating a burglary to a vacant business building in the 300 block of East Broadway. At the time of the report, it wasn't known if those responsible were still inside. However, a search of the building failed to find anyone. A bag of tools was found along a fence. Centralia Police received a report of an air conditioning unit being taken from outside another vacant business building in the 300 block of West Broadway.

A federal district judge added 224 months of federal imprisonment to the sentence of a federal correctional center inmate at Marion after he admitted to producing hand-drawn child sexual abuse material while incarcerated. 42-year-old Christopher L. Collins, also known as "Beetlejuice", pleaded guilty to two counts of Production of Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Children and one count of Possession of Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Childr...

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) - Two teenagers were charged with murder Tuesday in the killings of five members of an Illinois family who were shot at three different locations. A 16-year-old boy will be prosecuted as an adult, while the case against a 15-year-old girl will begin in juvenile court, with a possible transfer to the St. Clair County criminal court, the county prosecutor's office said. Five people were killed, and two more were wounded, primarily on Sunday, in a "targeted mass s...

An 18-year-old Centralia man has been arrested on multiple warrants by Centralia Police. Demarco Smith of South Hickory was taken to the Marion County Jail on two Marion County juvenile warrants and a Berkley County, Missouri warrant. 21-year-old Payton Potter of East 3rd in Kinmundy was arrested by Salem Police for allegedly driving under the influence and illegal transportation of liquor.