Today's News

The Vandalia lawyer who has served as Fayette County’s state’s attorney since December 2000 has decided to run for a judge’s seat.

Stephen G. Friedel announced this week that he will be a candidate for the seat in Christian County that will become vacant when Circuit Judge John Coady of Taylorville retires in October of this year.

At this point, Friedel is one of three candidates for the judicial seat.

Others who have announced their candidacy are Tom Finks, the state’s attorney in Christian County, and Taylorville attorney Michelle Coady.

Tuesday night’s meeting of the Field of Dreams Committee was meant to update the community on the status of the project to revitalize area baseball and softball fields. The hour-and-forty-minute round table may have brought up more questions than it answered and revealed how much work the committee still has to do in order to see their “field of dreams” come to life.

The second meeting of the committee brought new faces and a slew of questions, concerns and ideas.

As the Vandalia football team takes the field this week to start practice, the Vandals are not only battling each other in the trenches and on the depth chart, but they are also fighting off heat illness. For head coach John Stout, heat illness is the “No. 1 concern.”

Heat illness can be as minor as a heat rash, when sweat ducts on the skin are covered and the covered area itches, to as severe as heatstroke, when the body fails to regulate its own temperature. Heatstroke is a medical emergency that can be fatal.

Monday afternoon, St. Elmo’s junior high softball team opened its season with a win over Ramsey, 19-10.

Although the Eagles only had eight hits in the game, they were able to capitalize on nine errors by the Ramsey defense. In addition to dominating on offense, three St. Elmo pitchers combined for a no-hitter, they did walk 19 batters.