On October 12, 2025, at 1:37 a.m. Gibson County Deputy Levi Sims conducted a traffic stop on a Silver 2017 Audi S7 for conducting an unsafe lane movement on US 41 near County 225 North. Upon approaching the vehicle Deputy Sims identified the driver as 39-year-old Frederick Bowers of Tarboro, North Carolina. During a roadside investigation law enforcement detected the odor of alcohol coming from Mr. Bowers and DUI investigation. At the conclusion of the investigation Mr. Bowers was taken into custody, and law enforcement officers began to speak with a passenger, 27-year-old Jediah West of Vincennes. While speaking with Ms. West a stolen .380 Caliber handgun was recovered from her possession. After both occupants of the vehicle were taken into custody an inventory of the vehicle revealed a second handgun found in the vehicle. At the conclusion of the roadside investigation both individuals were taken into custody and transported to the Gibson County Detention Center. Upon arriving at the Detention Center Mr. Bowers was charged with Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated/Endangerment and Possession of a Firearm by a Serious Violent Felon. Ms. West was charged with Theft of a Firearm.
Deputy Levi Sims was assisted in his investigation by Deputy Wyatt Hunt and Princeton Sgt. Ben Kiesel and Officer Jackie Wood.
All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
City Council Approves Letter Of Intent To Turn Snap On Property Into Solar Farm
The former Snap On Tools property on Oak Street could soon become the site of a solar farm. At a special City Council meeting yesterday, city clerk Ryan Turner said a local group, Tick Tock Energy headed by developer Dean Kieffer, is looking to lease the approximately 11 acre site for a period of 40 years. Tick Tock would be responsible to maintain the property saving the city money and manpower. Turner said Tick Tock plans to spend about $5 million on turning the land into a solar farm, energy from which would be targeted to low income households, city entities, and non profits in Mt. Carmel. Energy savings for those opting into the program could approach 40% according to Turner. The city council Monday greenlit the proposal to the next step. For its’ part, Tick Tock will pay the city $100 a year and pay the property taxes on the site. The $100 annual fee is the same amount the city charges West Berwick for use of the clubhouse at the golf course. Turner and Mayor Joe Judge will now continue discussions with Tick Tock before the deal is finalized.
Turner told the council where the energy generated from the solar farm would be targeted…
Turner explained how the process would work for low income households to take advantage of the reported 40% energy savings….
The approval on Monday from the City Council was just the first step in the process as the developer, Tick Tock Energy headed by Dean Kieffer, will now apply for grant funding.
Illinois sues to block Trump’s National Guard deployment to Chicago
Lawsuit comes hours after federal judge blocked troops' activation to Oregon
By BEN SZALINSKI
BRENDEN MOORE
& HANNAH MEISEL
Capitol News Illinois
news@capitolnewsillinois.com
Article Summary
Illinois and Chicago are suing the Trump administration to block the deployment of National Guard Troops to Chicago. Trump officials ordered the activation of 300 Illinois National Guardsmen over Gov. JB Pritzker’s objections over the weekend.
Late Sunday night, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed he is sending 400 National Guard troops to other states — including Illinois — at the president’s request.
The lawsuit follows an Oregon federal judge’s rulings Saturday and Sunday blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland. They echoed a similar ruling in California last month that found Trump exceeded his authority in sending more than 1,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles this summer.
In the Illinois lawsuit, state and city officials say the National Guard deployment will only further escalate tensions, increase mistrust of police and cause economic harm.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
CHICAGO — Illinois and Chicago filed a federal lawsuit Monday to block the Trump administration’s planned deployment of National Guard troops to the state — a move Gov. JB Pritzker called an “invasion.”
Trump pushed forward with the plan to activate hundreds of National Guard soldiers, including some from Texas, despite monthslong opposition from state and local leaders, as well as objections from civic and business groups in the city.
“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion,” Pritzker said in a statement Sunday night. “It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”
Read more: Over Pritzker’s objections, Trump sending 300 National Guardsmen to Chicago, governor says
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to deploy troops to Illinois to protect federal immigration officers and facilities. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, a near-west suburb of Chicago, has been the site of several clashes between ICE agents and demonstrators in recent weeks.
But Pritzker, who said Saturday that he refused the Trump administration’s “ultimatum” to activate the National Guard himself, has insisted there is no emergency necessitating guardsmen on the ground. He also warned that White House officials would use any conflict between immigration agents and civilians as a “pretext” for military occupation.
“It will cause only more unrest, including harming social fabric and community relations and increasing the mistrust of police,” the lawsuit said.
The suit, filed in the Northern District of Illinois, names Trump, Noem and Hegseth as defendants.
Texas National Guard also activated
Illinois filed its lawsuit hours after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he will send 400 guardsmen to cities around the country, including Chicago, and after a federal judge in Oregon blocked National Guard deployments to Portland.
The order is “effective immediately for an initial period of 60 days” and subject to extension, according to the memo, signed by Hegseth. It comes a day after Pritzker confirmed Trump’s intention to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard.
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit reads. “To guard against this, foundational principles of American law limit the president’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs. Those bedrock principles are in peril.”
ILLUSTRATION
The promised deployment comes as ICE has ramped up activity in Chicago and its suburbs as part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” which has so far resulted in more than 800 arrests according to the Department of Homeland Security.
There have also been two shootings since the clashes began. On Saturday, the governor called the administration’s National Guard activation a “manufactured performance” and not about protecting public safety.
Though the Trump administration insists ICE is targeting undocumented immigrants who have criminal backgrounds, reports have mounted of agents arresting those with no history of illegal activity, detaining children along with their parents and even handcuffing U.S. citizens and children with zip ties. Immigrant and civil rights groups have alleged ICE is arresting people without warrants in violation of a federal consent decree.
The lawsuit also alleges ICE activity in Chicago and its suburbs has already subjected Illinois “to serious and irreparable harm.”
Read more: ‘We are not backing down’: Feds ramp up immigration raids in Chicago area | DHS Secretary Noem defends ICE tactics in second Illinois visit
“It also creates economic harm, depressing business activities and tourism that not only hurt Illinoisians but also hurt Illinois’s tax revenue,” the complaint said.
That argument echoes one made by a group of Chicago business and civic groups over the weekend.
“National Guard troops on our streets, like those reportedly being ordered here by the federal government, have the potential to sow fear and chaos, threatening our businesses’ bottom lines and our reputation,” the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Civic Federation said in a joint statement Saturday.
Read the lawsuit here.
Order violates states’ rights
Attorney General Kwame Raoul argues the troop deployment violates Illinois’ rights as sovereign state to carry about its own law enforcement, as well as 1878 Posee Comitatus Act that bans the military from participating in domestic law enforcement.
The lawsuit also claims the Trump administration failed to meet any criteria that could allow the president to federalize the National Guard. The president can federalize the National Guard to stop a foreign invasion, when the president can’t execute the laws of the country or to stop a rebellion.
Raoul and state leaders have argued for weeks that Trump would use protests in Broadview as a “flimsy pretext” to claim a rebellion.
Several protestors have been arrested near the facility in recent weeks on charges of assaulting officers. Federal agents have sprayed tear gas and fired nonlethal ammunition into crowds that have gathered there.
Over the weekend, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot a woman on the city’s Southwest Side in a confrontation with protesters. Prosecutors eventually charged the woman and another protestor with attempting to “assault, impede, and interfere with the work of federal agents in Chicago.” According to the Chicago Sun-Times, agents fired “defensive shots” when they saw the woman was allegedly “armed with a semi-automatic weapon,” and she was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment before she was charged.
Further, the lawsuit argues the Trump administration has entirely manufactured any public safety crisis in Illinois that would require military intervention. It cites a 2013 social media post by Trump, two years before he announced his candidacy for president, that suggested the military should be deployed to Chicago. It lists several other derogatory comments Trump made about the city, state and their leaders over the years, including as president.
SCREENSHOTS
Read more: As Trump declares ‘we’re going in,’ Pritzker says ‘terror and cruelty is the point’
The lawsuit argues that animosity culminated last week with Trump claiming during a speech to military generals that there was an “invasion from within” and suggesting cities like Chicago should be used as “training grounds” for the military.
How soldiers will be deployed
The lawsuit includes new details about how federal officials communicated with state leaders and gave Pritzker an ultimatum.
DHS sent a memo to the Illinois National Guard on Sept. 28 stating troops “would integrate with federal law enforcement operations, serving in direct support of federal facility protection, access control, and crowd control.”
On Saturday morning, Illinois National Guard Adjutant General Rodney Boyd received a formal email from the Defense Department National Guard Bureau saying Trump asked for at least 300 soldiers, and if Boyd did not activate them within two hours, Hegseth would federalize them. Boyd responded that Pritzker declined to activate the guard. Defense officials sent a new memo late Saturday saying the guard was federalized.
Illinois National Guard leaders received another memo on Sunday informing them soldiers from Texas would be sent to Chicago beginning Monday.
Read more: As Illinois congressional delegation seeks answers, ICE cancels meeting
Abbott, a Republican and ardent Trump supporter, has been a frequent foil of Pritzker, bussing thousands of asylum-seeking migrants from the border to Chicago in 2023 and 2024 and criticizing the Illinois governor for welcoming Texas Democratic legislators who fled their state this summer amid a partisan redistricting fight. He said in a social media post that Pritzker “can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let the Texas Guard do it.”
Prior to this year, the last time a president federalized a state's National Guard without a request from a state's governor was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent federal troops to protect civil rights protesters in Alabama without the cooperation of segregationist Gov. George Wallace.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Authorities Respond To Scare At WVC
From MCPD Chief Mike McWilliams:
On 10/06/25 at 1030 am, Mt. Carmel Police received a third-party call of a male subject reportedly walking through the campus wearing a “bulletproof vest” and a backpack. No report of firearms was given, but MCPD and the Wabash County Sheriff’s Office responded to the campus and were directed to the Science Building. While on scene, officers learned of a student who had inquired with instructors about wearing a weighted vest for physical conditioning while attending classes. Officers and WVC Administrative staff located the student near the Oak Street entrance to the Brubeck Arts Center. After speaking with the student and confirming this story, he agreed to place the vest in his vehicle before returning to class. MCPD would like to remind everyone to call 911 immediately to report any potential “active shooter” type call to ensure the quickest law enforcement response. Fortunately, today, this was not the case.
Vincennes man arrested for OWI
On October 3, 2025, at 10:17 a.m. Gibson County Central Dispatch received a 911 report of an accident with injuries near the entrance to Diversity VUTEQ located in the 800 block of East 350 South. Upon arriving Sheriff Deputies discovered that a White 2012 Toyota Prius had struck a pole. While speaking with the driver 40-year-old Jordan Hess of Vincennes Deputies detected clues that Mr. Hess was under the influence of an unknown intoxicant. At that point they began a roadside OWI investigation that resulted in Mr. Hess being taken into custody and being transported to the Gibson County Detention Center. Upon arriving at the Detention Center Mr. Hess was charged with Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated.
Arresting Officer Deputy Bryan Small was assisted in his investigation by Deputy Michael Bates.
All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Judge Responds To IML Election Criticism
Mt. Carmel Mayor Joe Judge’s recent election to the Illinois Municipal League’s board of directors generated an interesting response from one person according to the mayor…
At last Monday’s City Council meeting, Judge explained why it’s important for him to keep tabs on what’s happening in the Windy City…
Judge’s election came at the recent IML annual conference held in Chicago.
MCFD Busy With Fire Prevention Week
This is National Fire Prevention Week and Mt. Carmel Fire Commissioner Susan Zimmerman says local firefighters will be busy.
Email threats lead to arrest of Washington man
On October 2, 2025, at 5:45 p.m. Gibson County Detectives Jennifer Loesch and Sergeant Roger Ballard arrested 67-year-old Raymond Gossett of Washington, Indiana on the charge of Intimidation With a Deadly Weapon after nearly three week investigation. On Friday September 12, 2025, Deputy Jennifer Loesch opened an investigation after a local Auto Sales business near the Fort Branch area received threatening and misleading emails from an encrypted email service based outside of the country where a specific vehicle was mentioned that was on the property. This unknown person alleged that large amounts of drugs were in the vehicle at one point, and later in the investigation alleged that an explosive device had been planted inside the vehicle.
On September 15, 2025, Deputy Loesch, Sgt. Loren Barchett, and his K9 partner Duke performed a free air sniff around the suspect vehicle, a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee and was unable to locate any illegal substances in or around the vehicle. As the threats grew Deputy Loesch and the Indiana State Police EOD unit examined the vehicle on September 30, 2025, and found no tampering or explosives in or around the vehicle. At that point with the assistance of Gibson County Sheriff’s Office IT Specialist Chris Ziebell Deputy Loesch was able to isolate the IP address of the threatening emails up in Daviess County.
On October 2, 2025, at 1:55 p.m. Deputy Loesch spoke with Mr. Gossett, a former owner of the vehicle, and made him aware of some of the threats and allegations that had been made about his former vehicle. At 2:05 p.m. the Auto Sales business sent their final email where they again alleged that illegal drugs were in the vehicle and the unknown person would come get the vehicle. At that point Deputy Loesch secured a search warrant for Mr. Gossett’s residence in the 300 block of Dewey Avenue in Washington, Indiana. At 7:17 p.m. with he assistance of the Washington PD/Daviess County SWAT Unit Deputy Loesch and Sgt. Ballard executed the search warrant. Mr. Gossett was taken to the Washington Police Department where he admitted that he had sent the threatening and misleading emails. Once the investigation was concluded Deputy Loesch transported Mr. Gossett to the Gibson County Detention Center where he was charged with Intimidation With a Deadly Weapon a Level 5 Felony.
All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
WVC To Offer Gas Utility Construction Training This October
Wabash Valley College is excited to announce its upcoming Gas Utility Construction 4-Week Field Training Program, which will run October 6–31, 2025, on the WVC campus in Mt. Carmel, Illinois.
This hands-on training program is designed to prepare students with the basic skills and knowledge needed for entry-level positions in the gas utility industry. Students will train with modern equipment to learn how to install underground natural gas distribution systems, as well as residential and commercial natural gas service lines.
The curriculum includes:
· Preparing for DOT-required Operator Qualifications (OQs)
· Installing and joining gas piping for natural and propane gases
· Maintaining natural gas distribution systems
· Adhering to OSHA and industry safety procedures
· Working safely around construction equipment in outdoor settings
· Developing teamwork in a crew environment
The program features a large focus on hands-on, field-based learning. Students must bring their own steel-toed boots on the first day of class.
This program is an excellent opportunity for those interested in a high-demand career field, In just four weeks, students will gain practical experience, essential safety training, and industry knowledge that can open the door to a rewarding career in gas utility construction.
The course will be completed in four weeks, making it an ideal option for individuals eager to enter the workforce quickly.
Program Dates: October 6–31, 2025 Location: Wabash Valley College, Mt. Carmel, IL Apply Today: iecc.edu/apply Contact: 618-262-8641 for more details
Road closure planned for State Road 241 in Knox County
KNOX COUNTY Ind. – The Indiana Department of Transportation announces a road closure for State Road 64 in Gibson County.
Beginning on or around Thursday, October 9, crews will close State Road 241 near Monroe City. This road closure will occur between Buchanan Street and Cates Road.
This road closure will allow for a pipe replacement project. Work is expected to take two days to complete, depending on the weather.
The official detour for this project is State Road 61 to Bierhaus Boulevard to U.S. 41 to U.S. 50. Local traffic will have access up to the point of closure. INDOT urges drivers to slow down and stay alert in work zones.
