In this issue:
- Record enrollment at U of I
- This is Farm Safety Week
- USPS proposes longer package delivery times in rural areas
- Illinois headlines
Record enrollment at U of I
The University of Illinois has announced that it has enrolled a record number of students at its Urbana-Champaign campus for the fall 2024 semester.
The university enrolled 9008 freshman students, itself a record, and a total of 59,228 students in the student body at the school’s flagship campus. In all, the U of I enrolled 97,772 students across its three campuses in Springfield, Chicago and Urbana-Champaign as well as its satellite campuses and online programs. This marked a 3.2% increase in enrollment over last year.
More than two-thirds of the freshman class are from Illinois. The university also set another enrollment record, with 20,765 graduate students this year.
This is Farm Safety Week
The farmers who provide our food have one of the most hazardous jobs around. Every day, farmers work around dangerous equipment and chemicals, drive slow-moving vehicles on our roadways, deal with intense weather conditions and large animals. Sadly, each year there are farmers who are seriously injured or even killed while working in an industry that is critical to our nation.
This week is Farm Safety Week, a time to recognize the risks that farmers take to supply our nation and to focus on ways to keep them safe while doing so.
One of the most dangerous places on a farm is a grain bin. Farmers should avoid entering a grain bin, but if they must do so they should never work alone. A farmer in Lee County was recently rescued from a grain bin by the local fire department. Farmers also need to be aware of the danger of tractor rollovers and take action to prevent rollovers and the resulting injuries that can occur. And all motorists should be alert for slow-moving farm equipment on roadways.
Find more safety tips from the Illinois Department of Agriculture here.
USPS proposes longer package delivery times in rural areas
A proposal by the U.S. Postal Service would impose significant delays on package delivery times in rural areas starting after the holiday season.
Currently packages are delivered in rural areas within a 1-3 day window, but the new proposal would increase that range to 3-5 days, if not more. It is part of an overall plan by the USPS, called “Delivering for America” to address its ongoing financial difficulties.
This proposal obviously creates significant concerns for residents of rural areas like ours. Our communities already deal with longer delivery times just because of the distance from USPS sorting centers and because of the lower volume of packages as compared to urban areas. This is especially problematic for seniors who receive medications through the mail and small businesses who rely on the postal service for inventory and customer orders.
The USPS has said it will provide additional details on the new system in the coming months.
Our current bill backlog
When a vendor provides the state with goods and services, they submit the bill to the Illinois Comptroller for payment. The Comptroller processes the paperwork and pays the bill when funds are available in the state’s checking account. Currently the total amount of unpaid bills is $2,420,543,459. This figure changes daily. Last year at this time the state had $1.9 billion in bills awaiting payment. This only includes bills submitted to the Comptroller for payment, not unfunded debts like the state’s pension liability, which is well over $100 billion.
Illinois headlines
Are we any safer one year after cash bail was abolished?
Could the REAL ID deadline change? What we know after recent TSA proposal
Op-Ed: The burden of stacked costs on Illinois manufacturers
Downstate federal trial poses latest test for Illinois gun ban