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By Ralph D. Russo Associated Press Big Ten is going to give fall football a shot after all. Less than five weeks after pushing football and other fall sports to spring in the name of player safety during the pandemic, the conference changed course Wednesday and said it plans to begin its season the weekend of Oct. 23-24. Each team will play eight games in eight weeks and the conference championship game will be held Dec. 19 — if all goes well. That should give the Big Ten an…

By Larry Neumeister, Colleen Long and Jill Colvin Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and three associates were arrested Thursday on charges they ripped off donors to an online fundraising effort to build a privately funded southern border wall, making him the latest in a long list of Trump allies to be charged with a crime. The organizers of the "We Build The Wall" group portrayed themselves as eager to help the president build…

By Jerry Nowicki Capitol News Illinois jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – The rolling seven-day positivity rate for COVID-19 tests in Illinois continues to tick upward, hitting 4.1 percent Friday – its highest mark since June 11. There were 2,084 new confirmed cases of the virus reported Friday among 46,869 test results recorded over the previous 24 hours. That made for a one-day positivity rate of 4.4 percent across the state. On the same day Gov. JB Pritzker announced…

From Steve Schultz Winnebago County Board District 3 County government is made up of many different departments with different types of management. Some departments are managed by independent elected officials, others are managed the County Board and some are managed by appointed boards. Departments managed by elected officials include the Sheriff who manages law enforcement and the jail, the Clerk of the Circuit Court who manages our court system, the County Clerk who manages our…

By Mike  Stobbe and Nicky Forster Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — While deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. are mounting rapidly, public health experts are seeing a flicker of good news: The second surge of confirmed cases appears to be leveling off. Scientists aren’t celebrating by any means, warning that the trend is driven by four big, hard-hit places — Arizona, California, Florida and Texas — and that cases are rising in close to 30 states in all, with the outbreak's center of…

By Jeff Martin Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) – John Lewis was celebrated as an American hero during his funeral Thursday as former President Barack Obama and others called on people to follow Lewis' example and fight injustice. Three former presidents joined in the eulogies at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church after nearly a week of mourning that took the civil rights icon from his birthplace in Alabama to the nation's capital of Washington to his final resting place in his home of…

By Lisa J. Adams Wagner Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) – Herman Cain, former Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of a major pizza chain who went on to become an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, has died of complications from the coronavirus. He was 74. A post on Cain's Twitter account Thursday announced the death. Cain had been ill with the virus for several weeks. It's not clear when or where he was infected, but he was hospitalized less than two weeks after…