111924 8AM Tuesday Byers and Co

The Friday performance is at 7 Saturday at 4 and Sunday at 2. Tickets can be purchased online at nowdecatur.com or at the door the day of the performance. For more stories, podcasts, and videos, visit nowdecatur.com.

I'm Dave Anthony Fox News. And Ukraine's president, Vladimir Zelensky, is asking European leaders in their parliament today for even more military help. We have succeeded not only in preventing Putin from

taking Ukraine, but also in defending the freedom of all European nations. Now, as Russian leader Vladimir Putin's war continues to have the missile strike in Ukraine, has killed 12 more people while Fox's Jonathan Savage reports. The Ukrainian military claims it hit a Russian weapon stash 70 miles beyond its border. Ukrainian media and the Russian defense ministry both say U.S. supplied attackums missiles were deployed.

Over the weekend, President Biden decided to allow Ukraine to use them on targets deep inside Russia. A new Kremlin policy allows Russia to use nuclear weapons if an enemy backed by a nuclear power uses conventional weapons against it.

They have a smart enough and work with them to make communities safer. We're going to focus on public safety threats and national security threats first and chooses if those who cross the border lately had great due process and great tax fairs fans were ordered removed by an immigration judge and didn't leave. They're also priority. We expect an update today on the trouble legal case in New York City where the president elect was convicted of falsifying business records to keep it alleged to fair quiet before the 2016 election. Now prosecutors are not going to be able

have to file their plan by today on how to proceed with sentencing. And if the Supreme Court's immunity ruling for former presidents affects the convictions, he calls it political persecution. Also in New York City, a homeless man in custody suspected in three stabbing deaths. We have three innocent New Yorkers. Mayor Eric Adams says all three were stabbed to death and they appear to be chosen at random. America's listening to Fox News.

Life takes a toll on our bodies, no way around it, whether it's sitting hours on end at your computer or working a physical job. Over time, your body pays the price. There is, however, an effective way to turn back the clock on pain. Relief Factor, developed by doctors. Relief Factor helps support your body's response to inflammation. The difference, instead of masking pain, Relief Factor helps eliminate it for good, and it's 100% drug-free.

If the pains that come with living a full life are affecting you, do as so many others have. Turn back the clock on pain with relief factor. Their three week quick start is just 1995, less than a dollar a day. When you feel good, it's amazing how much more you get out of life. So visit relieffactor.com or call 1-800-4 relief. That's 1-800-4 relief. Try it for only 1995. While we can't stop aging, not yet.

We can stop pain. Turn back the clock with relief factor.

House Republicans are putting FEMA under scrutiny today in two hearings probing hurricane disaster response and relief. The first one's an hour from now. The second one on the afternoon will put FEMA's leader on the hot seat over alleged anti-Trump bias. The oversight committee in the U.S. House of Representatives is expecting to hear testimony today from FEMA Administrator DeAnn Crizzwell. The committee's Republican leaders want to question her now that a fired supervisor

admits she directed her team in Hurricane stricken Florida to avoid registering victims from homes displaying Trump campaign signage. That same former supervisor told a podcaster that was the culture at FEMA and that others were engaging in the same practice. Florida is now suing FEMA and that former supervisor.

in the U.S. illegally, Jose Ibarra is charged with murdering nursing student Lake and Riley while she was out jogging in February. Some of the most striking testimony from yesterday included a jail phone call between Ibarra and his wife and his wife lives in New York and was begging Ibarra to tell the truth over the phone. That call was translated from Spanish to English. Listen,

She said that she thinks it's crazy that they don't have anyone else's DNA. They only have his. And she says she doesn't understand how someone can see someone dying and not call 911. Now, the prosecution says that they plan to rest their case today. And the defense says that their testimony will only last about a half a day. We'll likely hear some closing arguments.

and then it's up to the judge to decide Ibarra's fate. That's Fox's Madison Scarpino outside the court in Athens, Georgia. Cell-off is brewing on Wall Street. Dow futures are down within 400 points ahead of the opening bell this hour. On Monday night football, Dallas got blown out at home. The Houston Texans beat the Cowboys 3410. That's Dallas' fifth straight loss. I'm Dave Anthony. This is Fox News.

Memorial Health is committed to bringing better healthcare to Decatur for everything, from specialty surgery to primary care and emergency services. Memorial Health is indicator for Decatur. Discover everything we have to offer at memorial.health, Decatur Memorial Hospital, indicator for Decatur. In moments of crisis, DMH is ready with the area's only primary stroke center and the expertise of our ICU. Discover all the services available at Decatur Memorial Hospital at memorial.health.

Here's a look at your news. Channel 20 storm team forecast today. Mostly cloudy through mid morning. Then clearing as the day goes on high of 64 with some wind tonight. Increasing clouds low around 41 for Wednesday. 20% chance of rain before noon. Mostly cloudy and windy and sunny high near 50 and Thursday. A chance of rain and snow partly sunny and windy high near 40.

current temperature in downtown Decatur 58 degrees. Your W. S. O. Y. Time is eight oh six. We have had an unbelievable year with the heart of Illinois Community Foundation Decatur Earth move credit union. The last announcement. $50,000 surprise gift plus our friends at 80 M workforce investment will be joining us later this hour. The company starts now.

buyers and company. W. S. O. Y. 13 40 a.m. 103.3 FM streaming live at now. Decatur dot com. Good morning and welcome back. Enjoy the sunshine while it's here. We have a busy day ahead. Did I tell you our friends from France are stopping by this week?

You did and you could tell us again because that's exciting. It's very exciting. I'm emailing back and forth and I don't know what the time difference is. It's been a while. But they're coming in because they had their first commercial product available from Enova Feed to Shelf with Garbers here in town, which is pretty cool. So we have Enova Feed and I believe a representative from Garber, how that happened. And you know, I mean, they're nowhere near, you know, to scale yet, you know, what they're doing out there, which is pretty exciting.

This is fun. We'll do that Thursday morning. We'll be stopping by tomorrow. We'll take about the symphony guild. You know, they do this big event around the holidays every year, which is a lot of fun. And we'll tell you how you can get tickets. But today, right now, we get to do the last big announcement along with the Heart of Illinois Community Foundation and Decatur Earth. We have a credit union. I know we've talked about this a lot, but

For those just joining or somebody just moved here. It's been a while. It feels like it was just yesterday. We were standing out in the parking lot on Dividend Drive with the big announcement. I think I rolled in and go, who thought January or February was a good idea for an outdoor press conference, but it was actually pretty nice. It was a nice day. It was probably not. No, not quite as nice as today. It wasn't as windy as today is going to be. So Rachel and Jess are back in with us. Once again, this whole thing, you guys ended up with money.

And what was the mechanism for that? We had the opportunity to sell some Visa stock that we got into way back when we first started offering credit debit cards. That's how you got into the company. That's why we chose to do it. And so we were able to finally really get a good price that we were comfortable selling for. And instead of keeping that on our books and keeping it for ourselves, we thought we should do something to help the community that we've been successful in for so many years.

So you said, you know, instead of just having cash on hand over here, we can do this. And now we go out and we find a partner. We can double that about exactly. So we reached out to the community foundation and they gave us a few different options that included, you know, kind of creating scholarships or endowments. But one of the options was they were going to

bringing $500,000 to the table themselves to make the million dollars. And that's really how this came to be where we can give away a million dollars in one year. So this whole moving forward building a stronger, healthier community was born. And then we have had announcement after announcement after announcement over the last year about where this million dollars is going. And we are now down to the last $50,000, Rachel. Is that correct?

Okay. So last week, you guys were like on some tail spin tour. I mean, it was crazy. It was it was Community Foundation week or something. Yes, it was. Very exciting week for our staff. We love sharing the great work that our donors are doing. And we got to kind of end the week with Earthmover and make a big surprise. And it was very exciting and emotional and

All right. So, uh, and I understand that Darceny was going to be with us today, but it had a last minute thing that came up. But you guys landed a dove with a $50,000 check. We did. Yeah. Did she know? No.

isn't it great when you're able to pull that off started it with a surprise with Evelyn. And so to end it with a surprise, it was it was really cool. So we told our signing. We just wanted to talk to her about how her charity the year went with Earthmover and we got her into one of our branches and told her.

You know, we were thankful for her partnership and gave her $50,000. And she was about truly beyond words other than thank you. You know, here's this. There's a great photo at the heart of Illinois dot org. You can find it under the partnership where there's the go to the chest move. You know, we are really surprised. I don't think that's in my repertoire, but I know what I see it even on photograph, right?

I think what Samford and son is that was that the movie exactly so and then the next is like I want hand go to heart but a big smile and and and how fun is that how fun I know it's been work. It's been a lot for both organizations. Yeah, it's been a lot of work, but like.

being able to tell her that that day and, you know, having we had some some people from Earth over there. Obviously, we had people from the community foundation there. And like Rachel said, it really was emotional. It was almost emotional getting the words out to tell her that she gets $50,000. But then.

to see her reaction into, I guess, her reaction just tells you what the impact of $50,000 is going to be for her organization that helps so many people here. It's unbelievable what $50,000 can do for an organization like Dove. And there's certainly one of the things if you're thinking about holiday giving or wish list or any of the things you can go to the heart of Illinois.

.org and you can give for the holidays. You know, for whatever reason, we choose this time of year as Americans to be very generous and, you know, although a lot of people do it year round, like the two sitting right here in their two organizations. But if you're thinking about giving something, I would highly encourage you to check out the wish list because there's great programs like Dove and every other thing on there and then in multiple counties because you guys are now

You're doing a lot more area than you were. And you guys have been serving areas in the same category for a while. So it's not just in Macon County. If you're in Moultrie or elsewhere listening, you certainly can find that on the wish list too. In fact, you can search by county, right? Yep, you can now make in Payah or Moultrie. All right. So kudos as you cap the year. That's got to be a great feeling.

It is. It feels good to have it done. It was like a lot of lead up and it feels good to have it done and just know that there was going to be a lasting impact as a result. No doubt. And I look through. I mean, I'm just going through some of the stuff. I mean, it is pretty cool. The places and neighborhoods and you mentioned the grant that was great because Evelyn hood from the African American cultural and

And you just go through all of the photos and all of the different weeks and months. And it's pretty amazing. So a million bucks. Yeah, we recorded an episode of the two and seven podcast last week and went through some of our favorites and just most meaningful and looking back. It was hard not to talk about every single one of them. Yeah, they're now like your little kids. I'm going to ask who's ringtone that is. I mean, I know it's yours, but I mean, I won't ask who's calling. Is it that obnoxious with every call?

Yeah, it's my husband. Okay. Well, okay. I knew I was going to be here too. You sound great, honey. You just wanted to show. Oh, wait, you're on. Yes. Anyway, kudos. I know, like I said, the behind the scenes work probably most people want to appreciate. You know, you had people serving out committees that had to go through all this stuff. It's hard.

There's so many good causes you can support and people kind of understand this because they get asked to give and you can't give to everything. And so even in your own individual life, you have to make some of these choices. But when you have a committee that's got to sort through, you know, here are proposals and people, you know, you know, it could be game changing for people and you have to make tough decisions. That's not easy. It's just not. Yeah. I mean, million dollars worth of asks on

on two open call grant cycles where one was $400,000, one was $200,000. We had to give in each one. I mean, total was over two million and asks. It's a lot to sort through. But you learn so much about

the need that is out there. Yeah, it's like I would highly encourage you. The closest you can do to this is when United Way does their thing and you can serve on one of those committees that and you do learn a ton. I mean, you're really doing you get an up close look at some of the organizations that are on the ground doing this work and mostly you just walk away appreciative that there are people that are doing that frontline work because it's not for everyone.

And if you can do that by supporting them financially and giving them the means, $50,000 prize to Dove will go a very, very long way. Are you getting any time off at the Heart of Illinois Community Foundation? This is the end of the year, so I'm assuming it's as busy as it's ever. I mean, just on the donation side. It is. This is our busiest time of year. It's very joyful, though, but we are very busy processing lots of

Donations coming in, but we also have just as much going out into the community. So it's still very exciting, but very busy. Yeah. And if people want to do this thing at the end, and I'm telling you, you don't have to be a gazillionaire to make a difference. What's the best way for them to approach the foundation itself?

Just call us or email us. You can talk to any of our staff and we're happy to work with anyone on their giving, whether you're a first time giver or your experience. You know, our staff is here to help. OK, it's hard of Illinois or if you want to check it out online and congratulations to Dove on that $50,000 final grant and all the folks. I'm sure I don't know how many people you had involved from the credit union, but I'm sure it was quite a few in the background, right? Thanks to them as well for all the heavy lifting. Good stuff, a million bucks late.

So exciting. All right. You go call hubby. Next got your weather. We'll take a break and when we get back here in a little bit, 8 a.m. and workforce investment solutions will be in the studios talk about yesterday's press conference. Stay tuned. Today, it's going to be mostly cloudy through mid morning and then clearing as the day goes on high of 64 with some wind tonight. Increasing clouds low around 41.

For Wednesday, there's a chance of rain before noon, mostly cloudy and windy, then sunny, high near 50. And Thursday, a chance of rain and snow, partly sunny and windy, high near 40. Current temperature in downtown Decatur is 58 degrees. Your WSOI time is 816.

affordable dentures and implants practices and champagne Springfield and Forsyth makes new smiles affordable every day. So you don't need to wait another day to get your smile back. Call 1-800-DENTURE or visit affordabledentures.com to find the practice near you. Affordable dentures and implants go ahead and smile.

Virginia Woolf said it best. The value of education is among the greatest of all human values. This is Jill Reedy, Regional Superintendent of the Macon-Piet Regional Office of Education and aboard trustee of the Hart of Illinois Community Foundation. Investing in education is crucial to breaking down barriers and providing a better quality of life for residents in our community. Last year, Community Foundation donors invested more than $1.7 million in education.

I invite you to join us in making an impact in the educational landscape for area students. Our grants support new curriculum, after-school programming, equipment upgrades, and so much more. Our scholarship support pre-K through PhD students. Whether your passion is to honor a loved one through a scholarship, inspire creativity through art programs, engage in new generation of STEM learners,

or support educators shaping young minds, we will partner with you who ensure your charitable wishes are met. Join us in celebrating education for all. To learn more, call 429-3000 or visit artofillinois.org. You're listening to buyers and companies streaming live at nowducator.com.

There was a time where that man, uh, the concerts were legendary. He was known for the big live show, Peter Frampton live. It's like one of those big double albums you'd get as a kid. Oh, I didn't realize that. Yeah. Frampton live. I don't know what happened to Peter Frampton. I don't know a picture of him and I don't know how long ago. He looks great as an older guy. Yeah. Some of those rock stars age. Okay. Yeah. Kind of just leaned into it, regular, just T-shirt and jeans and

They're not trying to look too crazy. Well, you know, back in the 70s, they were hair bands before they were hair bands. I mean, the long hair was very common. No, but I mean, there's no tiger print. Oh, I got it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just wearing clothes. I'm comfortable and happy to be playing. Yeah. You get guitar. He's 74 years old. That's amazing.

You know, I mean, it isn't once you do the math. It's just an amazing from a perspective that doesn't make any sense. You know what I mean? Like, it's not mathematical. It's not logical. It's just in your head. I can't be 74. Right. Of course he came. It was born in 1950. You're like Brad Pitt is coming up on Disney in the 60s. I think him and George Clooney, both. Yes. Yeah. You know, and forever forever. Like I don't want to hear any complaints about from them, though. Oh, sure. I mean, about, yeah, he is 60 years old. He just turns December 18th. Yeah.

So not quite 74, but 13 years ago, by fast. And well, Brad Pitt still have the hair probably. All right, there is so much going on over the next couple of weeks. We have the auction next Tuesday. I would encourage you if you're our local business, whether you're a regular advertiser or a partner or whatever, that doesn't matter. Reach out.

And if you have a local product, you're selling, you know, if you're a retail store or you've got experiences or whatever, it's a great deal. So basically what we do is you get the value and advertising of the product that you give. And then we're able to sell it to the public at a discounted price so they get a great deal. But they're coming to you. So it's a win-win. You win no matter what. Right. Everybody wins that. And I'll be honest, as someone who's always looking for a deal,

and looking for something new to try. A lot of the things that I have found have come from these auctions where I'm sitting there listening or I read about it or we're talking about it or somebody came in to talk about it. And I go, man, if there's one of those left, I'm going to go give them a shot. Yeah.

Several, several businesses like that that I just didn't know about that ended up being gifts like makeups or spas or car detailing, things like that. You know, you know about chains. You know about many of the restaurants, but there are restaurants where I bought certificates and I go, Hey, for five, 10 bucks. If I lose, I lose. But if I win, man, I found a new place. I got it for G. Are you by 20 of them? That's right. If it's a place you know and love. Yeah. So if

You know, if you're a listener out there, then absolutely make sure you're tuned in because there's going to be three hours of nonstop deals. But if you are an advertiser and you're looking for a way to get your product in people's hands.

going into this Christmas rush. This is an absolutely perfect way to do it. Here's two things I didn't mention. I apologize to the heart of Illinois Community Foundation. They have two events that's going to close out their partnership. The money's all been given away. I just saw the footnote here at the bottom. On December 4th at 4.30 in Central Park right before the Christmas walk, they're going to reveal a gift to the city in Central Park. That's so cool. Yeah, I know what it is, too, and it's even cool.

And then on Saturday, December 7th, the moving forward grant recipients and the folks from heart of Illinois and the DEC, or the Democratic Union, are going to be walking together in the Christmas parade to celebrate this entire thing. Awesome. And I bet that that... I mean, they'll literally be moving forward. Yeah, like it's so little. In a parade round. And probably glowing. And I mean, it's going to be great. What a year. Of course. What a partnership. Yeah.

It's been fun and we really do appreciate them allowing us to be the vehicle to be able to announce this stuff along the way, which has been a blast. It has armed to me as a citizen and ambassador of Decatur, unofficial ambassador of Decatur to be able to say, Oh, yeah, this place sucks. Huh? Let me tell you about a million dollars that was divvied up here, here, here, here. Let me tell you about these programs. Let me tell you about what these organizations are doing.

I mean, it's like it doesn't eat. It's not hard work to talk well about the things that are happening. If you put a little effort into just educating yourself and first and foremost, you feel like you always have to qualify this by saying it's not like we don't have our share of problems that have to be tackled. No one is saying that it's not a zero sum game. It isn't you're all perfect or you're all bad. Nothing in life is ever that black and white. It's

The percentages, you know, are you really improving in 70% and 30% you really have to work on and you're moving up, then you're heading in the right direction. That's right. And a lot of the heading in the right direction, some of it's incremental.

But some of it is game changing. Yes. They were just on the front end up and you think about just today. Okay. That was the last $50,000 of a million in changing lives coming up in a few minutes. We're going to talk about the program that has the potential to change the dynamics of public education partnerships inside of companies in America and getting a workforce ready for what's coming. Not what might come. What's coming. Right.

and also sinking them up to things that are already here. Yes, already. And then what here looks like 10, 15 years from expansion and growth and all of the technology and the whole nine yards, a lot of work. But the right people are at the table to have the conversation, right? Oh, yeah. So then we are friends with my own feet coming in through the whole new dynamic of and no, no big deal. Just the largest insect protein plant of its kind in the world. No big deal. Yeah.

I mean, no big deal. With plans of expansion. Yes. But what does that look like? What do those jobs look like? Right? What will that entail? And so the idea is connectivity. It's the thing that is the hardest to get. You can have all the great intent.

You can have money. You can have people who are willing to do the work. You can have the philosophy of this is how, you know, it should be. But the hardest thing to do is that be the connective tissue between all the things that have to happen to make that happen. It's the hardest thing. Absolutely. That's what land man is. That's what

Jeremy Renner's character. Now we're not dealing with that kind of stuff, but you have to have that connective tissue. And it's the hardest thing because people have silos and people just operate in their day to day thing and they do it their way. You know, you see this in growing pains with companies and, you know, new bosses and new, you know, it's sometimes you don't know what you don't know. That's right. In life. I mean, I really don't think this is anything that's. Relevator. I mean, it's just, it's.

The plan has to be connected and it has to be connected for everyone. And that takes a lot of different efforts in different ways. It's not one size fits all. It's not a blanket approach. We know where the workforce that we need to develop is. There's a study and there's another study that was done privately and independently and you lay those studies over each other and it's abundantly clear. Where is our future workforce going to come from?

And those three different categories are all three very different circumstances. So you can't just treat all three of them the same way. It's not feasible. And the days of setting up a table in a gymnasium here take this brochure. Yeah. Ain't going to get it. It's not going to get done. So excited, optimistic. How can we not be?

But a lot of work is ahead. Just don't blind yourself to that. It is a lot of work. And you know what about the work is when you have the people in the right spots doing their their appropriate share of the work, meaning like putting the experts of this thing next to the experts of that thing instead of one trying to do both whether or not the expert on the other side, when you have different organizations and people

that can own their station as part of the chain. It works far better than one person, one group trying to go, we can do all these things. And they're not really experts of all. So this collaborative type of thing is far more sticky, far more successful, and far more expertly put together because the people that know these parts can do their thing. That's exactly right. But it is so hard to get all of these people on the same wavelength, same page. But not impossible. If you're

If you just have to have the right intent going in and to realize not everybody sees it, not everybody gets it, you know, the biggest conversation we had, we were sitting in Nebraska at the William Jennings Bryan Ag Academy in Nebraska, talking to a principal

of a school district that had a similar makeup as District 61, but instead of a percentage of black students, it was Hispanic students, but poverty level, income levels, it was very similar where they had started a program. And we were there, A, tell us what you screwed up so we don't do that, right? Sure. Tell us what you didn't expect and then found on your plate, right? And what we heard was almost identical to what happened here. I mean, as far as reactions,

So go all the way to Nebraska, sit and talk to somebody we've never met before. And the human dynamic was almost identical from this market to that market. Right. We don't own land. We don't farm all of this stuff, not the 99% of the other career pathways in ag education and into agribusiness.

It was always the same sort of disclaimer. And so we learned a lot from that. So we tried to do things a little differently here, but boy, the reaction was the same. And these corduroy coats aren't ever going to be, you don't know that. And you don't know that because you never exposed this. You can't know. We'll take a break. We'll be back with more ADM and workforce investment solutions in next. This is RJ Christ with your stories.

Now, the Prairie Land Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education has launched its newest chapter indicator in partnership with Workforce Investment Solutions ADM in Richland. The program is designed to establish a pipeline of highly skilled pros tailored to meet the evolving demands of the manufacturing industry in central Illinois. The program will offer a comprehensive pathway for high school students to achieve an associate of applied science and engineering technology with a specialty in advanced manufacturing technician through Richland.

Tickets are still available for the Chamber of Commerce's 71st annual Thanksgiving luncheon on the 26th. This year's speaker will be Milliken's Lori Kearns. The event will be at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel. Doors open at 11.15 with the luncheon program beginning at noon. Tickets are $25 per person with tables of 10 available. More info at nowdecatur.com and more stories, podcasts and videos at nowdecatur.com.

Fox News, I'm Chris Foster. Fox confirms Ukraine's military is taking advantage of President Biden easing restrictions on American-made long-range missile use. The Ukrainian military claims it hit a Russian weapon stash 70 miles beyond its border, where told 12 secondary explosions were recorded. Ukraine hasn't confirmed what weapon was used, but Ukrainian media and the Russian defense ministry both say U.S. supplied attackums missiles were deployed.

Fox's Jonathan Savage, South Carolina House Republican Nancy Mace introduces a bill that would force the first transgender member of Congress, Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride, to use men's public restrooms at the Capitol. She was born at biological males. She should use the men's restroom. That's how it should work. McBride says in a statement, this is a blatant attempt from far right wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. America's listening to Fox News.

Every holiday season, St. Mary's Hospital lights up the night sky with our Christmas star. Each light on the star honors a loved one. On Thursday, December 5th at 6 p.m., we'll gather for a special evening at St. Mary's Hospital. Names of those being honored will be read. We'll share in prayer and song. And you can purchase a light on the Christmas star at nowdecatur.com. We hope you'll join us as we celebrate this holiday tradition, community tradition, family tradition. The St. Mary's Christmas Star.

Here's a look at your news. Channel 20 storm team forecast today, mostly cloudy through mid morning, then clearing a high of 64 with some wind and tonight, increasing clouds low of 41 for Wednesday. There's slight chance of rain before noon, mostly cloudy and windy, then sunny high of 50 Thursday. There's a chance of rain and snow, partly sunny and windy with a high of 40. Current temperature in downtown Decatur, 58 degrees. Your WSOI time is 832.

You're listening to buyers and company streaming live at now, Decatur.com. All right. We're back here on what is you get this bad weather? It's beautiful in downtown right now, at least from the outside, looking out, blue skies and sunshine. The only thing I said bad about today is a little cloudy. I thought I heard the word snow. That's later.

That's Thursday. I am not ready for that. I mean, yeah. OK. Yesterday, I took a trip up north to workforce investment solutions, and they had a press conference, which was really interesting. I went in not knowing anything about fame, and I learned quite a bit. And then I got a chance to have a conversation yesterday with Mark Denzler, who's the president of the Illinois Manufacturing Association. And he was giving me the background on fame, which is pretty cool.

And this newest chapter, and I guess that's what it's called, and I think you guys did pull that microphone up nice and close if you don't mind there. With us today, two guests, and there were a lot of people there yesterday, but Hannah King is with us, human resources generalist for ADM and Rocky Wilkerson, who's the executive director

of workforce investment solutions. Now, fame will start with the definition stands for Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education. And I'm assuming that Prairie Land is the name of the local chapter here. Is that right? Correct. Okay. So, Rocky, how did this conversation start? You know, all of this starts somewhere. Where did this partnership begin to form?

I get you guys get a little closer. Thank you. fame was actually founded in 2010 with a partnership between Toyota and the bluegrass community and technical college. And I think they've had a lot of success with this. It is a premier manufacturing program. And I was invited by ADM to have a conversation about it. And I was so excited when I heard the word partnership partnership. It was constantly being brought up because as you know, Brian, you can't do any of these

these big events, these big trainings without the buy-in from the community and we really needed the employers. And so that's what got me interested in the get-go. And for Workforce Investment Solutions, we are a neutral partner and we're going to handle the money part of it. But we're also the one that convenes. So we're the place that, you know, we can have the meetings, the chapter meetings there. We can do the press conferences there.

We can be the glue that kind of holds all the employers together, keeps everybody on the same page. OK, so yesterday, of course, ADM and my good buddy, Greg Webb, was there to kind of announce. But GSI and Mueller and the railroad thing, forget it. I can't say it. And I don't want to say it wrong. You know, you see it all over the place. Richland Community College, John Oliver, was there. I was asking you, it was interesting.

I feel like the partnership, this feels really solid that you've got major employers and you've got workforce and you've got, you know, all the people who are on this end of the equation. The hardest part is going to be how do you get to the kids on the other side of the equation, right? And then, you know, kids aren't universal. You know, we did a workforce study. The city paid a lot of money for it a couple of years back and Howard Buffett also

did a similar, you know, community study that one of the high camps did. And if you lay those over each other, they're almost identical. And we know that where the underdeveloped workforce is, is not one category. It's three categories. You've got people who are working at a fast food restaurant that with a little bit of training and some guidance could be a welder. You know, if they just had that track, you've got people, these Alice families that are living paycheck to paycheck, they're working. But you know, it's how do you

get into a better career, a better job. And then you've got pockets of people that have just given up hope because they don't see themselves in it and they don't think it's a possibility for them. So you can't reach all of them, you know, with the same kind of, I said earlier before, sitting in a gymnasium of an eight foot banquet table and brochures.

Isn't the way you know this gets done today and that's not about you is about anything right so that connective tissue is the hardest thing to build and so I was a little disappointed that which I didn't see educators there yesterday and I know it's just the opening press conference in these relationships will be built but you're an HR specialist for 80m your global company you know employees

I don't even know what the total number of employees. I know there's thousands here in Decatur, but I mean, you're all in Brazil and across Europe. And you deal with cultures and people in a global way, right? Hiring people. HR isn't yesterday's HR. Correct. Yeah. So tell me about your involvement in this. So from the from the ADM standpoint, what we did after the company

After we got our name, after we got our logo, after we got all of that stuff, we gathered a list of all of the local high schools, whether it be their counselors, their principals, their workforce teachers, all of that stuff. And we gathered a list of all their names, all their emails, and we sent out a huge mass email, and we were like, this is the company, this is the program, this is what we're going to be doing. What can we do to get in front of you and your students? We want to talk about this program. This is really important to us.

And we've heard and had really, really great response from all the school guidance counselors. At this point, we've visited every single school in the dedicated area, except for two at this point. And we've even gone back and we've even discussed with some students that have been very, very interested in the program. So this is every high school you're talking about. Every high school. And then so what we've done to reach those students that are outside that high school realm

is we've discussed on how to reach those students that took the nontraditional route, whether that was the GED route, veterans and incumbents that are already working in our groups themselves.

and how we're going to gather those individuals to get into the program as well. OK. So manufacturing today is wholly different than what most people grew up with, you know, indicator here, thinking of manufacturing. And manufacturing 15 years from now is going to be even more that way. There are so many opportunities. I mean, I think what you guys do is agribusiness. And one of the first objections with the Ag Academy is we don't own land. We don't farm. Well, that's 1% of the jobs. It's the most important. It starts at all. But people just don't

that's going to work. So the students were very, very surprised in regards to what this program is going to be. So this is going to be a maintenance technician program. So these students are going to come into each one of our businesses and they're going to work

on our machines. They're not only going to be in our company, but they're going to be working on everything that's inside of our buildings, everything that's inside of our manufacturing industries. And they were really interested in knowing that there was something different in there. I think a lot of people, especially when it comes to ADM, they associate our company with laborers and with operators and with things like that. People don't really think of the maintenance technician route.

And it's a great, great starting point to come into the manufacturing industry. Yeah. And once you're in a starting point in a company like ADM, there's all kinds of room for growth. Absolutely. 100%. All right. So tell me about the educational side of this, whoever wants to do this. But I mean, you have literally

students work three days a week, but they also attend school or can, and then they can earn up to 65 college credit hours during this program, right? Yes, correct. And that's with Richland. And that is with Richland Community College, yes. So this program is going to be a minimum of $18 an hour for all four manufacturing groups.

sixty five college credit courses and at the end of the five semesters which is a little less than two years they're gonna have over eighteen hundred hours of on the job working experience which makes them marketable to anybody in the manufacturing industry that i've got the education and the experience college ready it's a premier manufacturing program you bet and if they want to go on to that for your degree or even more advanced or i'm assuming if they want to continue a career that doesn't necessarily you know call for that they can make those choices that

And the skills are transferable. So talk to me about some of the career areas, you know, electricity and robotics and mechanics and fabrication and all of these different areas. I mean, how many jobs are we talking about here in Macon County? I mean, because there's a lot coming in it. We look at this IFAB, you know, partnership with the University of Illinois and what that might look like for manufacturing on the Macon County side. And we're talking about we're going to need to fill thousands of jobs. Absolutely.

So like you just said, it's going to be electricity, robotics, fluid power, mechanics, application, industrial troubleshooting and anything really that is going to be in the maintenance realm. OK, and is there a digital place people can land to learn more about this? I know you talked about, you know, sharing the Prairie Land fame website. What is that? Yeah, so it is www.fame-usa.com. And then if you go to the

find the locations. You'll be able to search on a map of every location that is within the area. So obviously, there's two in Illinois, one in Great River and then one here in Decatur. And what has been the success of these older programs that have been in existence for a while? I don't know how long that you said the Toyota plant was sort of the first thing that started this. Have they, have you been able to learn from, you know, any time you do something for the first time, you're going to make mistakes and learn lots of lessons?

has, you know, this partnership of having done this in other areas give you a heads up and what have they learned from when they first started. Oh, absolutely. We partner with the Skyfame location quite a bit and we get tons and tons of ideas from them. Their partnership is amazing. We thank them every single day from partnering with us.

And they've given us all their successes, everything that's been successful for them, everything that hasn't really worked well for them, how to gain students and all of that fun stuff. So it's a great partnership all around. OK, I'm pulling up the website here. So the Prairie Land fame chapter.

And how many chapters are there, do you know? About 40 plus chapters United States wide. And that's pretty quick, right? Timeline as far as so clearly the need is out there. It's not unique to hear. It's all over the place. People are going through the same things. And I love the fact that it's just outside the box. Keep doing what we're doing and expect different results, right? And I love also the fact that the kids can earn money and save money while they're going through this and getting the experience. My favorite part.

How does this, so if I'm a parent, grandparent, family member that's interested in finding out about this, or I think this sounds like a great idea for a student I have in a school district, how do parents, who do they contact? I mean, because I know it's headquartered kind of with you, but all these different companies, who do they talk to? We've got a team going around doing presentations, and I think there's flyers with phone numbers and

and contacts and, you know, ADMs got an area that they're working on at workforces available. We've got four or five partners are on board. I mean, the information is available for those to reach out and get whatever help they need. OK, that's kind of confusing because you just told me to reach out like seven or eight different people. I mean, it's easy and it's accessible. Yeah, but sometimes that's that's hard because you don't know which of those eight necessarily to talk to. So kids can ask their counselors. You've been in all the high schools here in Macon County. So if you're in rural force, either Eisenhower or Mount Zion,

You can just speak to your counselor and they have the pathway to it. Yes. And then if anybody, there's an email as well. It is a prayer land at gmail.com. So anybody can email that and they can get a response from us. If they want to reach out to us directly, all the guidance counselors have all of our information, have all of our flyers.

Um, and anybody can reach out to myself, our recruiting manager, Lisa kitchens. Um, anybody, it will be willing to give them any information I need. I always call workforce. Okay. And there's also an apply button I see on the actual page when you get to that. So, uh,

are there room for more partners? I mean, I'm looking, you know, we've got a lot of manufacturing, we've got new manufacturing, you get people like in Nova feed and stuff, you know, they're going to be needing to hire people in the future. So there's growth for the other side of this if people want to get involved. Absolutely. And Rocky, what would be like, I mean, you know, you can't talk to everybody at once, but if you get somebody, oh, that's exciting or that's working. We'd like to get on board contacting you. Yes. Okay. Yes. And you know, a lot of people are just kind of standing by and watching just to see how this goes.

And I think that we had maybe 40 people there yesterday at the press conference. And I had a lot of feedback on how do we get involved? What would be the best route for the employers to learn more about this? So I think we're also, as you're educating the students, we're also educating potential employers as well. OK, so at the fame site, which we will put in the podcast and the story that is up,

because you can sign up for a newsletter there. You can apply now to be a part of the chapter. That's the home base I was looking for. So folks on that one-stop shop, if there are other companies that are out there, if you know, premium down the road or whoever it might be, that would be the best place for them to go. And we'll make sure we put that link up in the story as well. OK, so you'll keep us posted on a regular basis so we know how things are going. Keep encouraging people to get involved. We'd love to because we're excited to be here. We're excited to share the news.

We're really excited about this premier manufacturing opportunity for Decatur. Okay. And then fame USA itself. They keep growing and moving across because manufacturers, you know, we've got a resurgence and manufacturing today isn't what manufacturing was before and the skill sets are all different. And you've got all kinds of pathways here. Check it out. And thank you both for being here. And thanks for hosting the press conference yesterday. And let's hope this works. Thank you. All right. We'll take a break. Next got your three day forecast. We'll be back with more right after this.

Today is going to be mostly cloudy in spots through mid morning and then clearing a high of 64 with some wind. Then tonight, increasing clouds low around 41. For Wednesday, there's a slight chance of rain before noon, mostly cloudy and windy. Then sunny, high of 50 Thursday, chance of rain, chance of snow, partly sunny and windy in a high near 40. Current temperature in downtown Decatur sits at 58 degrees. Your WSOI time is 848.

Are you ready to advance your career? Milliken University's 17-month evening MBA program begins in January and is designed for working professionals from all majors, backgrounds, and industries. Milliken's in-person classes offer personalized support to help you succeed and provide access to valuable networking opportunities. Plus, Milliken's MBA program includes a travel abroad immersion experience. Apply by December 1st to meet the application deadline. Learn more at milliken.edu slash MBA.

Go with your gut. Your dog's immune system is based in the gut. A diet lacking in nutrients can cause itching, scratching, and a weak immune system. However, there is a solution. D-I-N-O-V-I-T-E. Dinovite. It took a grand total of two weeks. The dog stopped itching, the hair stopped falling out. Try Dinovite for free. Just pay shipping and handling. Learn more at dinovite.com slash radio. Happy year, healthier with every bite. Over a million pets helped with Dinovite.

Why choose a sleep number smart bed? Can I make my side softer? Can I make my side firmer? Can we sleep cooler? A sleep number does that, cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side, your sleep number setting. And now during our Black Friday Sale, say 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed. Plus free home delivery when you add a base. And Cyber Monday. To find a store near you visit sleepnumber.com.

Hi, I'm Dave Koszinski, CEO of Investment Planners and IPI Wealth Management. At IPI, integrity and ensuring significance and peace of mind are the key to the way we do business. Our clients trust us to take care of their investments, and it is our responsibility to work with business partners that will help us do just that. First National Bank is one of those partners. FNB's Quality Service and two Decatur Branch's provide us the stability we need to accomplish our mission. Thanks, FNB. First National Bank, member FDIC.

to customers and company streaming live at now to cater.com. Back here on a beautiful sunny morning and a great day. I feel like we've had a lot come through the show. We're going to have our big food drive awards ceremony today. Good day. Yeah, a lot of positive. Yeah, no, a lot of positivity. Pretty

All right, so tomorrow I was looking at the schedule and there's I don't know what if it's just this time of year or there's a lot going on doesn't it kind of feel like everything's getting stacked on top of each other Yeah, I mean in a good way. Oh, yeah, absolutely full days full days And that's good and then things to do in the evening and we're gonna roll real quick into all the holiday stuff holiday parties holiday family stuff. I mean

You go look at Christmas card lane right now. You can already start your holiday shopping. There's just we were there. Yeah. Here it is. Time for the annoying family group tax. Yeah. Oh, man. Not to get together. Yeah. Just the tax leading up to get to go. Oh, man. Yep. The human, I have a preference to pick up a phone.

and knock out a 30 second phone call versus 15 hours of text that, I mean, because you're not on the same time. I'm a curmudgeon on this. I know what it's my problem, not them. I just, I can't get over the like why everybody feels like they've got to like every comment. And no, I'm saying like the comments, the information I need. Listen, this compliment and to my mom that would drive you nuts.

If one of my sisters posts a bunch of pictures of the kids like 12, 13. Yeah. Bing, bing, bing, bing. Your mom is like 13. 27 notifications and no new information. It's commitment to the to the heart. I get it. I get it. I'm the curmudgeon here. And that goes to the watch. So it's 13 and 13. It's 26. And if you have the iPad around, it's 30. Oh, man.

And you think, Allah, and you're like, don't you have something better to do? It's like, well, in reality, it took 20 seconds. Yes. Shout out to my mom for just loving the stuff. Look, there's nothing wrong with the mom's before. OK, so.

Anyway, tomorrow we will have our friends from the Park District and DMH and the Milliken Symphony, the big thing they do with the Christmas holiday event and a lot to do. And then on Thursday, well, this will be our last full week because next week is Thanksgiving. We will not have a show Thursday and Friday. So everybody can sleep in and get up and watch football.

where now it's Christmas when Netflix has it, right? That's right. Black Friday, Amazon has the Chiefs game. Now, here's the thing. Amazon has given me the comfort level. Amazon owns all the servers in the world. If they get it, if they have buffering issues, then then buffering issues will be had everywhere. They have more server space, maybe them in Google, but probably them. I mean, period. They should, you shouldn't even have to wait for a thing to load on Amazon.

No other computing power. But I now have my doubts about Netflix. As you should. Has yet rightfully so? No. It was 60 million people, which is a big number.

But they're now getting into big boy world, right? And you're wrestling world huge. It's not to me, but it is in reality. We got to be millions tuning in every Monday. And so does this cast doubt on all of these big contracts that are sitting there waiting to be fulfilled? It cast out. Well, it gives me leveraging power from a big company that wants to come to them. It gives me a little leverage and it gives the others. But realistically, I think this was probably a net good for Netflix because it will be the impetus

to force them to over scale and not try to just, well, we'll get enough. And if we need more next time, we'll add next time they'll go, we have way more than we'll ever need. But you think that would have been the case when they were doing everybody here on Friday. Right. You would think that. But I honestly think that sometimes you just got to get you just hammered before you realize just got to understand. And hopefully it's just a scaling thing and not a tech not because look,

I just for giggles, I switched the Netflix and hit play out of the Tyson fight into like a TV show or something and loaded totally fine. Oh, it was that one stream. Right. I mean, it wasn't. It didn't shut them down as all right. So now that tells me that they've had the ability to compartmentalize this thing and keep it separate while the rest of the thing keeps going. And they just got to beef that up. So yeah, I am absolutely worried about it for them.

I you would think that these are fairly smart people that were able to acquire these properties to begin with. That they would not get caught with their pants down again. Literally. And if I'm W. W. E. Yeah, the UFC that owns WWE and and I'm going to them the next day and I go, look, man, this is we have that clause written in. We're if that is anywhere close, we're gone. We're gone that day. Just so you know. Yeah. And if I'm the NFL, I'm calling them and going. First, your streaming was

pretty atrocious. But the presentation was a little weak too. What are we doing here? Yeah. Because even if it wouldn't have streamed poorly, there was some stuff about it that was a little janky.

And we can't do that. We were the NFL. We do it perfectly. We're bringing our people in. Yeah, our brand is bigger than your brand. Yeah, we're not going to mess around. You're not going to bring our brand down. I mean, I certainly that's how they view the shield with everything, right? I mean, if you're more than any sports league, yeah, because they are, they are the horse. You know, these stadiums are for the football and Taylor Swift gets to play there and they control all of that. It's all football driven. It's bigger than just NFL. It's the whole thing. And my feeling has been

aside from the streaming issues. I got to tell you, Friday night, it was incredibly frustrating, just because I wanted to see the spectacle. And I turned out I didn't miss anything, you know, as far as the main thing. But it was incredibly frustrating, frustrating as a consumer to not be able. And I don't mean it was like, you had to sit and wait for a second. It was universally and for many, not even possible. So that is a big failure. But even the stuff that I've watched,

the Tom Brady roast, you know, the golf outing thing with F one, you know, at the Las Vegas last year union. Yeah. It's all felt a little second rate talent wise. Yeah. Yeah. It's just not quite clicking. It's not corporate level. It's not NFL level. Yeah, it feels XFL.

bingo. Good enough to watch if it goes well. But just not that. Yeah. Yes. Just got to keep like it's not even like UFC. It's like whatever West version of that is. Yeah. Exactly. And that's OK. I guess if that's the product you're carrying. But when you're going for the big dogs. Yeah. And part of that is our comparison.

because if we, if none of this existed elsewhere, we'd be like, Hey, that was pretty nice. The smartest thing they've done in the last week was figure out how to get that NBA show on another network intact because all they would get if they tried to recreate that view was not that different people would never be that. Yeah, that's exactly it. It's just not that no matter what it is. It's not that. And that's what

The boxing presentation was it wasn't that what we're used to. That's right. And I'm very happy about inside of you. I can't believe it took this long for cooler heads to prevail to make sure that happened. Yeah. One last thought before we get out of the show here today. Jerry Jones, Spain sent me a text that Jerry Jones is to the Cowboys, what George Steinbrenner was to the Yankee.

That's probably about as fair a comparison as you're going to get not getting along with the managers of the coaches, you know, you go back to all the fights, yet bringing in the superstars, trying to buy championships and sometimes it works. And your decisions are the ones that are coincidentally ruining your own team. Yeah. Because you're you're making those choices. George had the decency to go away.

what he's dead. That's it for us. If you missed any show today, podcast driven by the Bob Brady Auto Group, you can get them anywhere you get your podcast, including now to cater.com. Just go right up to the podcast tab. That's it for us. We'll be back bright and early tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Have a wonderful day.

WSOY Decatur and W277DB Decatur. WSOY 1340 AM and 103.3 FM. Streaming live at nowdecatur.com. This is RJ Grace with your stories now. The US Justice Department has launched an investigation into possible civil rights violations by the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office in the wake of the shooting death of Sonia Massey last summer. The Justice Department sent a six page letter requesting information on Massey's death last week.

The letter also requested info on the department's training, policies, and hiring practices. Massey was experiencing a mental health crisis when she called to report a prowler outside her home on July 6. She was unarmed when she was shot. Deputy Sean Grayson, who has since been fired, now faces murder charges. Multi-platinum recording artist Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, the twin brothers behind the iconic music group, Nelson, will be at the Devon next June.