When country music star Craig Morgan was growing up, he spent every summer and most weekends on his grandfather’s farm in Middle Tennessee. It’s fitting then that Morgan will promote the opening of a new agriculture exhibit with an acoustic concert at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.

Having read that Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens has 667 giant wind turbines he can't store in his garage, School Superintendent Ken Maurer hopes he will consider donating one to Metamora. On Tuesday, Pickens announced that he has halted plans for his 4,000-megawatt wind farm complex in the Texas Panhandle because he cannot get credit to finance the $10 billion project in today's economy.

The office may be located at the Peoria ag lab, but Biotechnology Research Development Corp. operates from coast to coast. The little-known agency looks to receive $3.5 million in federal funding, the largest chunk of $8.4 million recently requested for Illinois projects by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. The latest grant focuses on funding projects that deal with livestock productivity, crop yields and veterinary medicine.

National retail sales are still on the decline, but niche businesses are clawing their way out of the recession toward positive results. The niche trend is being recognized nationally because businesses and consumers are trying to make their products last as long as possible, according to the National Retail Federation, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association.

Hoping to attract more aging baby boomers and others needing outpatient surgery, St. John’s Hospital is planning almost $8 million in renovations inside its Pavilion building. The project is expected to begin in September and be completed by October 2010.

Within weeks of his high school graduation, Steven Johnson was making his dreams come true. The 18-year-old actor met President Barack Obama, put on a performance at the famed Kennedy Center and filmed an HBO documentary. It was quite the kickoff to his adult acting career. 

Consumers don’t think anything about researching ways to buy a new car or to purchase that high-definition television, but when it comes to health care, attitudes can become complacent about what can be done to get good health care and not break the bank.

Chrome fenders are no longer a common sight, and downtown business has largely moved to the east side, but Carl and Nichol’s Shell still provides the same full service it has offered since the mid-20th century. Owner Gus Carl celebrated his 80th birthday last month and said this will likely be his last few weeks at the gas station — but rumors of his retirement have been greatly exaggerated in the past.

In the December 1984 cover illustration of Mad magazine, Michael Jackson is front and center. Backing him are not his brothers, but a group of other famous Jacksons — the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former baseball star Reggie Jackson, “Charlie’s Angels” actress Kate Jackson and the ghost of President Andrew Jackson. The tongue-in-cheek “Mad salutes the Jacksons” cover is a favorite of Mark Kessler, the owner of Recycled Records which has been doing brisk business in Jackson memorabilia since the singer’s death June 25.

Manufacturing delays have pushed back the opening date for a new water attraction at Knight’s Action Park. Co-owner Doug Knight said he planned to open the Bermuda Triangle — a 53-foot tower with three waterslides — in time for Memorial Day.

To some, it’s a melodious hum. To others, an odious whine. It’s the distinctive sound made by bagpipers playing their chosen instrument. And for just about the past decade or so, the people making most of that music in the Rock River Valley have been affiliated with the Rockford Pipe Band, the city’s only competitive pipe band that was born out of a native Philadelphian’s love of that sound.
 

Whatever the draw - the three newborn Red River hog piglets, the colorful on both ends mandrills, the rhinos rolling in their mud wallow, something else, or everything all at once - the first month of the Africa! exhibit at the Peoria Zoo was an unqualified success.

Before he became one, Corey Albert thought working as a lifeguard was “just yelling at people a lot.” Fellow Veterans Memorial Pool guard Jessica Cosner had similar expectations of the job. “I just thought I could basically sit on my butt and get paid, but it’s not (like that),” she said. Instead, would-be lifeguards go through a series of swimming endurance tests, prepare to be constantly vigilant, and learn skills that could save a swimmer’s life.

It could be a while before dealers know exactly where General Motors plans to cut back its network of dealerships, the president of the Illinois Automobile Dealers Association said Monday. Sander said GM has indicated it will phase out 66 dealerships in the state by October 2010. Unlike in the Chrysler bankruptcy filing, however, a list has not been released up front.

Illinois leads the nation in bank failures this year, though regulators say that is primarily because it has more banks than any other state. The number doubled to 12 with the shutdown of six banks in two days last week. All the banks, which were spread from central to northern Illinois, were open Monday with new owners.