BBB: Don't Fall Victim To Shopping Scams

Between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, mixed with the holidays, the Better Business Bureau is noticing an uptick in scams. While these dates are considered the most essential retail days of the year, the Better Business Bureau says it's a prime opportunity for scammers to attack those looking for a deal. Don O'Brien, a scam investigator at the B-B-B, says watch out for those deals that are too good to be true.

According to the B-B-B, nearly 80 percent of holiday shoppers turn to online methods to find the best deal, which is a prime opportunity for scammers. The best tips to beat the fraudsters are to review the return policy and warranty information. Oftentimes, scammers leave out that information, leaving you stuck with the item and no return policy.

Commisioners Consider Opioid Settlement Funding Request

The Wabash County Board discussed a funding request involving the county’s opioid settlement dollars. The Wabash Community Health Center is seeking $10,497 to help establish a new medication-assisted treatment program for individuals battling opioid addiction.

Health Department administrator Judy Wissel explained that patients receiving their first dose of treatment must remain on-site for several hours so medical staff can monitor their response and determine the correct dosage. To accommodate that, the Health Center hopes to convert one of its rooms into a private, comfortable waiting area. The proposal includes installing hospital-style curtain tracks, adding privacy dividers, providing a comfortable chair, and supplying an iPad for patient use.

Hospital staff, including Dr. Patel and the nurse practitioners, are prepared to begin the program immediately, and county leaders were told clients are already waiting to enroll.

However, board members questioned whether the requested items qualify under the state’s strict guidelines for opioid settlement spending. Detailed reports must be filed to verify all expenditures meet state requirements.

County officials agreed the program is important, but without full confirmation they chose to proceed cautiously. The board voted to table the request until the next meeting while additional documentation is gathered and reviewed by the State’s Attorney.

The motion to table passed unanimously.

Evansville man arrested for driving while never having receiving a valid operator's license

On November 22, 2025, at 3:22 a.m. Gibson County Deputy Levi Sims conducted a welfare check on a Red 2012 Chevy Equinox in the parking lot of FastBreak Convenience store located at 805 E. Park Street.  Upon approaching the vehicle Deputy Sims identified the driver of the vehicle as 25-year-old Jorsiri Medina of Evansville.  During a roadside investigation Deputy Sims ran Mr. Medina through the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles and discovered that Mr. Medina never had been issued a valid operator’s license. 
 
Sgt. John Fischer assisted Deputy Sims in his investigation.   
 
All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Tax Bills Mailed Out This Morning

Wabash County Treasurer, Angela L. Broster, would like to announce that the 2024 Payable 2025 Real Estate Tax Bills were mailed out this morning, Monday, November 24, 2025. Due dates for first installment is Friday, January 9, 2026 and second installment is Monday, February 9, 2026. Note it is the same DATE (the 9th in January & February), but different days of the week.

You can make payments in person, in the drop box out front of the courthouse, by mail, at the banks; First National Bank, First Bank and First-Mid. Credit Card payments can be made by using www.govtechtaxpro.com and the credit card company charges a fee for processing payments.

Before Paying your Taxes, please make sure you are receiving your appropriate exemptions. Any questions regarding your exemptions on your tax bill, please contact the Supervisor of Assessments office at 618-262-4463.

Any questions regarding your tax bills please call the Treasurer's office at 618-262-5262. After your 2024 Payable 2025 Real Estate Taxes are paid in full, you can sign up for our Prepayment plan for the 2025 Payable 2026 Real Estate Taxes. Deadline for 2025 Payable 2026 Prepayments is June 30, 2026.

9 months after federal bribery conviction, former Speaker Madigan disbarred

Longtime Illinois Democratic power broker now in a West Virginia prison

By HANNAH MEISEL
Capitol News Illinois
hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com 

Article Summary 

  • Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is no longer a lawyer after the Illinois Supreme Court officially disbarred him this week 

  • The disbarment stems from Madigan’s conviction in February on 10 federal corruption charges, including bribery.

  • The former speaker has already served more than a month in a West Virginia federal prison — with 89 more to go on his term, though he’ll likely serve less than that.


This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. 

CHICAGO — Nearly six decades after becoming a lawyer, former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has been disbarred following his convictions on federal corruption charges — including bribery — earlier this year.

The longtime Democratic power broker, known for his fastidiousness, even beat the Illinois Supreme Court to the punch. 

Two months before he reported to a West Virginia prison in October, Madigan filed a motion with the high court to have his name stricken from the roll of attorneys admitted to the state bar, according to court records. An administrator for the Supreme Court’s Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission wrote that “on the date" Madigan filed his Aug. 19 motion, she was investigating Madigan’s criminal conduct.

Read more: Ex-Speaker Madigan reports to West Virginia prison to begin 7 ½-year sentence

“Had Movant’s (Madigan’s) conduct been the subject of a hearing, the Administrator would have introduced the evidence described below, and that evidence would have clearly and convincingly established the misconduct set forth below,” ARDC Administrator Lea Gutierrez wrote before spending the next four pages explaining Madigan’s convictions.

She then concluded that the former speaker deserved to be disbarred for having “committed criminal acts that reflect adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer” due to his February convictions on bribery and wire fraud. 

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court approved Madigan’s motion, although the official order mistakenly listed his middle name as “James” two of the five times it appeared on the document. The others correctly stated it as Joseph.

Read more: Madigan guilty of bribery as split verdict punctuates ex-speaker’s fall | Ex-Speaker Madigan sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison for bribery, corruption

It’s not uncommon for lawyers under threat of disbarment to just file for their own removal instead of waiting out a hearing; ARDC records indicate that since the 1970s, nearly 60% of the nearly 1,300 attorneys who were ultimately expelled from the Illinois bar opted for “disbarment on consent” by asking the court to strike their names from it. 

But that statistic doesn’t include two of Madigan’s allies convicted in 2023 of bribing the former speaker in the related “ComEd Four” trial. Anne Pramaggiore, the former CEO of electric utility Commonwealth Edison, and longtime Springfield lobbyist and Madigan confidant Mike McClain, saw Gutierrez file complaints to disbar them 10 days after the former speaker made his motion. Both of their law licenses have been suspended since their convictions.

Read more: ‘You preferred secrecy and lies’: Madigan confidant gets 2 years for role in ComEd bribery scheme | Former ComEd CEO sentenced to 2 years for bribery scheme targeted at Madigan

Madigan’s law career began in 1967

Madigan has been a lawyer since shortly after his 1967 graduation from “Loyola University, here in Chicago,” as he put it during his high-stakes run on the witness stand during the end of his trial in January. In law school, he met Vincent “Bud” Getzendanner, who would eventually become his longtime law partner in a practice focused on real estate tax appeals.

In his turn testifying at trial, Getzendanner agreed with a government’s lawyer’s characterization that Madigan “was the rainmaker for the firm” and was more “focused on client acquisition and business development” made possible by his wide network built over a career in public life.

It was the former speaker’s pursuit of new clients in the form of high-powered real estate developers that ultimately gave the feds — who’d investigated Madigan before but came up short on charges — a fresh angle to probe him.

In 2017, Madigan called then-Chicago Ald. Danny Solis, who had connections with all the city’s most powerful developers due to his chairmanship of the city council’s influential zoning committee. Unbeknownst to the speaker, Solis was a year into his cooperation with the feds and the FBI was listening in. Eventually the alderman’s handlers would instruct him to seek Madigan’s help getting appointed to a lucrative state board position in exchange for introducing more potential clients.

Read more: Madigan leaves witness stand expressing regret for ‘any time spent with Danny Solis’ | Madigan takes witness stand, denying he traded ‘public office’ for ‘private gain’ | ‘You shouldn’t be talking like that’: Madigan scolded alderman-turned-FBI mole for bringing up ‘quid pro quo’

Though the jury in Madigan’s case ultimately deadlocked or voted to acquit on the majority of charges related to his pursuit of law clients, the feds were able to parlay Solis’ access to the speaker into a full-blown investigation that encompassed allegations that had nothing to do with Madigan’s tax appeals practice.

The former speaker reported to a federal prison camp in Morgantown, West Virginia, last month after losing the fight to remain free while his newly hired high-profile team of appellate lawyers work on overturning his conviction. In a 73-page brief filed earlier this month, Madigan’s attorneys alleged “the prosecution improperly criminalizes the rough-and-tumble business of state politics”

Read more: 7th Circuit denies Madigan’s bid to stay out of prison while he appeals corruption conviction | Judge denies ex-Speaker Madigan’s request to remain out of prison during appeal


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.


 Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan leaves Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Feb. 12 after a jury convicted him on 10 corruption counts, including bribery. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)

Requests for new K-12 funding in Illinois likely to outstrip available resources

At public hearings, ISBE hears requests totaling $748M

By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com

Story Summary

  • School officials and education advocates have requested funding increases totaling $747.99 million for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

  • The biggest items on the list include the statutory $350 million increase in Evidence-Based Funding, and a $100 million increase for “mandatory categorical programs,” including transportation and certain special education costs.

  • The Illinois State Board of Education is expected to finalize its budget request in January and submit it to the General Assembly for consideration as the legislature puts together a state budget for the next fiscal year.

This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

SPRINGFIELD — If advocates, stakeholders and members of the public were granted all their requests for public school funding next year, lawmakers would have to increase the state’s K-12 education budget by nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.

That’s the approximate total of all the requests that Illinois State Board of Education officials received online and in-person during a recent series of public hearings about a proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

The total is considerably smaller than last year’s requests, which added up to more than $2.2 billion in new funding. But it is still more than what is likely to be available, given that Gov. JB Pritzker is asking most state agencies to make plans for reducing spending by 4% in the current fiscal year in light of fiscal uncertainty at the federal level.

ISBE board members were briefed on the funding requests during their monthly meeting Thursday in Chicago. 

Full EBF, categorial boost

The requests included continued funding of the statutory $350 million increase in the Evidence-Based Funding formula, or EBF. That’s a formula that lawmakers first approved in 2017 that directs new money to the most underfunded districts in the state. It also directs money for property tax relief for certain high-tax districts.

The EBF formula, however, does not include all areas of education spending. It focuses primarily on classroom expenses directly related to improving student outcomes, taking into account the special needs of certain groups such as low-income households and English language learners.

But schools also incur other costs, known as “mandated categorical programs,” that are not covered by the EBF formula. Those include costs associated with special education, transportation and school meals, to name a few, and they are typically shared on a prorated scale between the state and local districts.

The list of funding increases requested for next year included a $100 million increase in state funding for those costs.

Matthew Seaton, ISBE’s chief financial officer, said the requested increase in that category, sometimes referred to as MCATs, was the most frequently mentioned funding request that officials heard about this year.

“I think this is the first time, at least since I've been at the agency, that our most requested budget item was in the MCAT line item,” he said. “Usually, it's EBF. Everybody wants EBF. So I think that’s very telling to where the field’s perception is of needs, that they're really emphasizing mandated (categoricals) this year.”

New literacy plan, more

The request list also included $68.5 million for implementation of ISBE’s new literacy plan, a program the board approved in 2024 to improve literacy instruction throughout the state. 

Other requests included an additional $30 million to hire more special education teachers to relieve staff shortages; a $30 million increase for multilingual education, and a $60 million increase in early childhood block grants.

The list of requests included 51 categories of school spending, with increases totaling $747.9 million.

Receiving public input for funding requests is one of the first steps in developing a budget proposal for the upcoming year. In December, the board will receive another briefing about the state’s financial condition from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, the fiscal staff of the General Assembly.

The board is expected to approve its official budget request at its Jan. 14 meeting in Springfield.

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. 

Members of the Illinois State Board of Education and Superintendent Tony Sanders are pictured at a 2023 board meeting. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)

Former southern Illinois pastor sentenced to prison for fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief money in church’s name

BENTON, Ill. – A district judge sentenced a former church pastor in Hamilton County to 21 months’ imprisonment for obtaining COVID-19 money from the SBA by fraudulently representing to the SBA that the money would be used for his church.

Terry L. Hall, 58, of McLeansboro, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements. Following imprisonment, he will serve two years of supervised release. Hall was ordered to pay $199,900 plus the accrued interest back to the Small Business Administration.

“The vast majority of pastors across southern Illinois answered the pandemic with selfless service,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. “Terry Hall chose a different path: he requested federal relief on behalf of his congregation, then used nearly $200,000 for purely personal expenses. Conduct that far from the calling of ministry demands accountability, and accountability arrived in the form of a 21-month federal prison sentence.”

Enacted in March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act provided emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from impacts by the pandemic.

Under the CARES Act and administered by the SBA, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program provided low-interest funding to small businesses, renters and homeowners. As appropriated, EIDL funds could be used for payroll, sick leave, production costs and other general business expenses.

"FBI Springfield is committed to exposing those who abuse positions of trust in southern Illinois" said Special Agent in Charge of FBI Springfield Field Office, Christopher J. S. Johnson. "Our communities deserve honesty, and we remain steadfast in holding accountable anyone who violates that trust."

According to the indictment, Hall was the lead pastor of a religious congregation in McLeansboro. As pastor, Hall applied for economic relief on behalf of the church and received two EIDL disbursements totaling approximately $199,900 to his personal bank account in 2020. To ensure he received the loan, Hall created fake documents, contacted elected representatives and intimidated fellow church members.

Hall admitted to using the EIDL funds to pay off his mortgage, the construction of a pole barn, various travel and other personal expenses like clothing, gas and food. The church did not receive any assistance to alleviate the economic hardships during the pandemic.

The FBI Springfield Field Office led the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Howard prosecuted the case.

Lawrence County meth dealer sentenced to 15+ years’ imprisonment

BENTON, Ill. – A district judge sentenced a Lawrenceville, Illinois, man to 188 months’ imprisonment for distributing meth in Lawrence County.

Jeffrey S. Metz, 49, pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of meth. Following imprisonment, he will serve four years of supervised release. He was sentenced Nov. 6.

“Trafficking drugs in any county of southern Illinois will earn dealers a federal prison sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft.

According to court documents, Metz admitted to distributing more than 25 grams of meth in Lawrence County in October and November 2024.

"The Illinois State Police is committed to stopping illegal drug trafficking and keeping dangerous drugs from flooding and hurting our communities," said ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly.  " ISP is targeting drug traffickers and will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney's Office to put them behind bars."

The Southeastern Illinois Drug Task Force of the Illinois State Police, the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and DEA contributed to the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Sanders prosecuted the case.

Winslow man arrested for DUI

On November 19, 2025, at 1:24 a.m. Gibson County Ambulance Medic 4 was traveling County Road 800 South near US 41 and observed a Ford F150 attempting to back out of a ditch.  Upon observing the vehicle, they made direct contact with Gibson County Central Dispatch and Deputy Michael Bates was dispatched to the scene.  Upon arriving Deputy Bates spoke with 23-year-old Klayton Kixmiller of Winslow who was inside the vehicle.  While speaking with Mr. Kixmiller Deputy Bates detected multiple clues that Mr. Kixmiller was intoxicated.  At that point he began a roadside DUI investigation.  At the end of the investigation Deputy Bates placed Mr. Kixmiller into custody and transported him to the Gibson County Detention Center.  Upon arriving at the detention center Mr. Kixmiller was charged with Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated. 
 
Sgt. John Fischer assisted Deputy Bates in his investigation.
 
All criminal defendants are to be presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.