Local

STERLING – Marty Wolf joked that he always ends up in Jean Dempsey's barber chair because it's empty. But then the truth came out. Marty, who gets his hair cut every 2 weeks, rearranges his schedule to visit the Sterling Barbershop early in the week, when Jean is on duty.

STERLING – A Sterling man was sentenced to 4 years of probation for burglary.

STERLING – A Sterling man was sentenced to 3 years in prison for selling cocaine.

STERLING – Saryn Seeley, 11, is not keeping her prize. She instead (at the suggestion of her father) is raffling it off and donating the proceeds to the Gainey family, whose son has stage 4 colon cancer.

Almost 40 educators with a combined almost 850 years of service in area school districts are retiring at the end of this school year.

DIXON – A proposed wind farm might have an unexpected hurdle if the project's opponents get their way.

DIXON — Mayor Jim Burke had to apologize for speaking out of turn. "Acting student mayor" Katie Lawton ran Monday's City Council meeting, and 23 other eighth-grade government students shadowed city commissioners, department directors and media, as they took part in the city's annual "Government Day."

DIXON – An audit of the city's personnel policies starts this week. The City Council voted Monday to hire PJ Greufe & Associates for $2,500 to $5,000, depending on the details needed; it was one of five firms to apply.

STERLING – The American Legion Riders’ seventh annual poker run to benefit the LaSalle Veterans Home and other veterans charities begins with registration from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Cochran’s Pub, formerly Dyl’s Deli, 13464 Galt Road.

GERMAN VALLEY – A Polo High School teacher was killed in a crash early Monday that was blamed on a missing stop sign.

DIXON – A former Amboy man, originally charged with five counts of sexually abusing two girls, ages 10 and 12, now is facing nine counts.

STERLING – Just as the sun was coming up April 4, Jordan Young spotted a column of smoke as he drove down East LeFevre Road near Platt Park. He decided to find out why.

A cat napping up a tree Monday at Dillion Elementary School in Rock Falls had no idea he needed rescuing. When the Rock Falls Fire Department responded to the call to rescue him, though, Rocket J. Cat responded to firefighter Derrick Newton's gentle persuasion, took a flying leap into a waiting tarp below and lived to mouse another day.

GERMAN VALLEY – A Polo High School teacher was killed in a crash early Monday that was blamed on a missing stop sign.

Senior Ashley Schmitt, 17, is Rock Falls High School's April Student of the Month. She is the daughter of Kevin and Jamie Schmitt of Rock Falls; her sister is Kayla Schmitt, 21, of Rock Falls.

Amboy High School: 2 p.m. Sunday in the high school gym, 11 E. Hawley St.

MORRISON – Libby Glazier-Timmons and Melissa Nyboer never intended to retire – at least not this year. But the Morrison Junior High School teachers opted to retire early to spare the jobs of new teachers amid more than a half-million dollars in budget cuts for next year.

Earlier this month, Sterling Alderwoman Amy Viering attended her last meeting as a city official. She offered the praise that's common at such departures. But one compliment stuck out.

DIXON — The City Council will vote Monday to put a policy on file that prohibits city-issued credit cards for anything other than official city business, as well as sets up practices for internal controls and procedures involving credit cards.

DIXON – For the better part of 33 years, Carol Richardson has been putting together puzzle pieces.