Farmers produce state’s second highest yield
PEORIA, Ill. — The Illinois Agricultural Statistics Service said last year had the second-highest yield of corn in the state.
Statistics show Illinois farmers grew 2.2 billion bushels of corn during 2007. That’s an average of 175 bushels an acre, which is just behind the state’s record average of 180 bushels an acre in 2004.
Woodford County was the most productive county in the state. Farmers there averaged 204 bushels of corn per acre. Menard and Sangamon county farmers followed with 199 bushels per acre on average.
Central Illinois’ Logan County had 197 bushels an acre.
Iowan arrested in Ariz. for drug transfer
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Arizona Department of Public Safety said officers seized 66 pounds of cocaine hidden in a trailer and arrested two men after a traffic stop outside Flagstaff.
Sgt. Brad Elliott said an officer stopped a pickup truck towing a trailer on Interstate 40 about noon Friday and became suspicious after the driver and passenger appeared nervous. A search eventually turned up a hidden compartment in the trailer that was stuffed with the drugs.
A Tucson man who owned the truck, 34-year-old George A. Freeman, was arrested on charges of transporting narcotics for sale and possessing narcotics for sale. Booked on the same charges was 54-year-old Patrick L. Sams of Anamosa, Iowa.
Elliott says the men were going to Iowa from Tucson.
Structural weakness closes cathedral
CHICAGO — Officials with the Archdiocese of Chicago said the city’s Holy Name Cathedral will be closed until early May to complete structural repairs on the 134-year-old building’s ceiling and roof.
Engineers had hoped to have the cathedral open in time for Easter March 23.
The cathedral closed Feb. 26. Forensic engineers found structural weakness had caused a 10-pound piece of wood to fall 70 feet from the ceiling to the floor Feb. 12. No one was injured.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Burritt said engineers inspected the ceiling and found the original 1874 wooden trusses need repairs.
Burritt said all Masses will move to the cathedral’s parish auditorium.
Woman allegedly tried to poison children, self
CHICAGO — Authorities in Chicago say a West Side woman has been indicted on 27 charges for allegedly trying to kill her 3-year-old and 10-month-old children by spiking their juice drink with rat poison and boric acid.
According to police reports, 23-year-old Johanna Vera also drank the juice herself.
Vera was indicted Friday on four counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of heinous battery and 16 counts of aggravated battery.
No one died as a result of drinking the juice, but all three were hospitalized after the Nov. 29, 2007, incident.
Vera allegedly told police she wanted to die and take her children with her.
AP correction
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — In a Feb. 27 story about an HIV-infected man charged with having unprotected sex with two sisters, the Associated Press misstated the age and number of children of one woman. She is 26, not 24, and has two children, not three.
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