Bus tour to retrace Trail of Tears

Bus tour to retrace Trail of Tears

GOLCONDA — The Illinois Chapter Trail of Tears Association is offering a guided bus tour of the Trail of Tears across Southern Illinois on March 24.

The bus tour will begin at 8 a.m. at the parking lot of Golden Circle Senior Center in Golconda, proceed west across Southern Illinois and then return to Golconda.

The eight-hour, 60-mile trip will include on-board trip guides, who will provide historical information about the path of the trail through Pope, Johnson and Union counties. Stops will be made at historic locations on the trail. The tour guides will share Trail of Tears stories along the way.

In 1838 and 1839, the U.S. government forced several groups of Native Americans, the largest group being Cherokee, to leave their homelands in the eastern states and travel to Oklahoma Territory to live. Many died while making this trip. This event and the path of their journey became known as the Trail of Tears.

Registration is required, and seating is limited. Box lunches will be provided. Registration is $30 per person. Checks should be made payable to Trail of Tears Illinois Chapter and mailed to Trail of Tears Illinois Chapter, P.O. Box 313, Anna, IL 62906.

For more information, call Sandra Boaz, chapter president, at 618-833-8216 or Joe Crabb, vice president, at 618-949-3355.

http://goo.gl/PtUsG

Missouri campground deaths may be murder-suicide

BOURBON, Mo. — The weekend killings of a woman and three children at a campground and resort in eastern Missouri was being investigated Sunday as a possible triple murder-suicide.

Crawford County Sheriff Randy Martin told broadcaster KSDK that investigators believe the shootings happened Saturday morning in a remote area along a gravel road at the Blue Springs Ranch & Resort and that the bodies had been there for “hours” when a guest found them about 1 p.m. Each victim sustained one gunshot wound, and a handgun was found close to the bodies, he said.

Asked if he believes the woman shot the three children and then herself, Martin told the station, “We don’t know for sure, but it kind of appears it could be that way. But again the investigation is still kind of early.”  full story

Nebraska gambling measures fizzle in Legislature

LINCOLN, Neb. — A push to loosen gambling restrictions has fizzled this year in the Legislature, despite claims that Nebraska could preserve jobs, generate much-needed revenue for counties and tap into the millions of dollars that are poured into South Dakota and Iowa casinos each year.

Lawmakers have killed a bill this year to let gambling outlets to run more keno games per hour. A legislative panel rejected a constitutional amendment proposal that would have allowed casinos within 60 miles of a border state, unless the border state shared some of its gambling revenue with Nebraska. And a bill that would allow machine bets on past horse races faces an uncertain future as lawmakers mount a filibuster to stall a vote.

Columbus Sen. Paul Schumacher said gambling opponents have pressured lawmakers into defeating many of the proposals at a time when Nebraska could use the revenue. Lawmakers are trying to balance Gov. Dave Heineman’s tax-cut proposal with funding for child welfare, Medicaid payments for hospitals and nursing homes, and other state needs.  full story

Study: Sleepy People Eat 550 Extra Calories a Day

 

If traditional weight-loss diets have failed you, you might just try hitting the sack.

Growing evidence has linked healthy weight with getting adequate sleep, and in a new report presented at the American Heart Association’s annual Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism conference, researchers found that sleep deprivation is associated with overeating. In the study, people who were sleep deprived ate more than 500 additional calories daily.

That’s a lot of calories. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that over time, the excess consumption can translate into unwanted pounds — though the current study was small and short-term and did not measure participants’ long-term changes in weight.

The study’s lead author, Virend Somers, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, studied 17 healthy but sedentary men and women in a lab clinic for 11 days and nights. The participants agreed to spend the entire study period at the facility, where researchers recorded their every movement, through a special monitor the participants wore, and tallied everything they ate, either from a cupboard in their room or food they ordered. That way, Somers and his team could make relatively accurate calculations of how much energy the participants were taking in in the form of calories and how much they were burning off through activities like walking.   full story