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The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 affected Americans in many different ways. For poet John Mann, it completely changed the focus of his writing.

“My previous work, I basically wrote nature poems. They were fine. I like them. But looking back on that pre-9/11 work, it strikes me as fairly conventional,” Mann said.

“These new poems had a greater intensity for me and were more firmly engaged with history and the political process and the things we were going through.”

The new Macomb School District 185 superintendent won’t wait long to begin work.

Dr Patrick Twomey will start in Macomb on May 1 as assistant superintendent before becoming superintendent on July 1. Twomey said this will allow him to work with retiring Superintendent Dr Alene Reuschel.

“This will give us an opportunity professionally to spend a little bit of time together during that transition time to make it as smooth as possible, which will do nothing but benefit the kids of the district,” said Twomey.

Women and Hispanic farmers who believe that were discriminated against by the USDA have one month left to file a claim with the federal government.

Women and Hispanic farmers who believe they were denied USDA farm service loans have until march 25th to file claims.

There will be two run-off elections for Macomb city council seats.

The closest race in the February 26 primary took place in the Ward 2, where Western Illinois University student Steve Wailand edged incumbent Kay Hill, 17 to 16.

However, County Clerk Gretchen DeJaynes pointed out that in order to win outright in the Macomb primary, a candidate must earn 50% of the vote plus one. In the second ward, 33 votes were cast, which means 16.5 is equivalent to 50%. The “plus one” brings the threshold to 17.5 votes needed to win.