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NEW 11:15 a.m. PARKERSBURG, Iowa -- When a fatal tornado ripped through the rural Iowa town Ed Thomas called home, the local football coach became the driving force behind rebuilding. As a trusted and active church member, he encouraged the tiny community to have faith. | Coach who helped launch NFL careers slain | Video

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- A suburban Philadelphia landlord has admitted setting up spy cameras and secretly recording women tenants for nearly a decade.

NEW 9 a.m. Wait a minute, back up. There's the Democratic governor of New Jersey, the father of two daughters, standing next to his attractive wife, giving a televised press conference. Something must be wrong with the sound. Did he just use the word "gay"? In the first person?

UPDATED 7:20 a.m. COLUMBIA, S.C. -- After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he had secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he was having an affair. Wiping away tears, he apologized to his family and gave up a national Republican Party post, but was silent on whether he would resign. | Interactive: Philandering politicians | Video | Sanford's secret e-mails

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Commuter rail tracks in the nation’s capital are studded with devices that detect passing trains and tell them when to stop or slow down. But those devices on the stretch of track near where nine people were killed in a train crash didn’t pass tests by investigators. | Photo gallery

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Just after South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admitted to a yearlong extramarital affair, his state's largest newspaper posted online romantic, suggestive e-mails that it says were exchanged between the chief executive and his Argentinian lover.

“Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief! That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.” — W. Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The hot and the wondrous weren’t exactly visible. But there was no dearth of ice and snow one fateful day last January. | VIDEO: Set design and construction | Ticket info | This year's lineup | Freebies at the fest

CLINTON -- A man accused of helping a teenager sexually assault a woman in a backyard of a Waynesville home may stand trial on the charges, a DeWitt County judge ruled Wednesday.

NORMAL -- James Anderson had a damp bandana around his neck and another one under his hard hat trying to keep cool Wednesday as the temperature topped 90 degrees. | Five-day forecast

EDITOR’S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

“Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief! That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.” — W. Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The hot and the wondrous weren’t exactly visible. But there was no dearth of ice and snow one fateful day last January. | VIDEO: Set design and construction

SPRINGFIELD -- After spending the past three weeks saying he would cut programs serving Illinois' neediest citizens on July 1, Gov. Pat Quinn appeared to blink Wednesday. | Thousands pack Statehouse to protest cuts | Hynes: Quinn has 'confused' the public

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he had secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he was having an affair. | Hall of shame: Other governors who had affairs | Video

NORMAL -- Occupational Development Center — which provides life skills, job training and job placement for people with disabilities in McLean County — will cease operations Aug. 1 unless the state restores some of the agency’s funding for the fiscal year that begins next Wednesday. | Chestnut to close detox center

SPRINGFIELD -- Just because you don’t see a state trooper as you speed through an interstate work zone doesn’t mean you won’t get a ticket.

CLINTON -- A man accused of helping a teenager sexually assault a woman in a backyard of a Waynesville home may stand trial on the charges, a DeWitt County judge ruled Wednesday.

NEW YORK -- How can a hypnotist paralyze your hand just with words?

BLOOMINGTON -- Naveen Miller, a Bloomington mother and State Farm Insurance Cos. employee, spent her lunch break Wednesday with about 160 co-workers learning about Unit 5’s plans to realign where students will attend school in 2010.

NORMAL -- James Anderson had a damp bandana around his neck and another one under his hard hat trying to keep cool Wednesday as the temperature topped 90 degrees. | Five-day forecast for Twin Cities

LOS ANGELES -- "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" introduces some 40 new mechanized characters of all shapes, sizes and even sexes - but it's a pair of jive-talking 'bots that critics are singling out as more than just harmless comic relief. | Movie listings | Review: 'Transformers' shape-shifts into nonsense

NEW YORK -- The author of a new book about the wisdom of free products on the Web has acknowledged taking some liberties in his own work.

LeROY -- Some members of the City Council are wondering who should be in charge of the new Replex recreation center.

BLOOMINGTON -- A Bloomington man is the second person facing charges related to the June 5 shooting at a West Market Street barbershop.

PONTIAC -- Walldogs were already at work in downtown Pontiac on Wednesday, a day before the official start of a long weekend of mural painting.

CLINTON -- The plea hearing for a former Clinton police officer accused of theft and misconduct charges has been continued to July 6. | MyPantagraph: Clinton Neighborhood

SPRINGFIELD -- They began arriving at the Statehouse early Tuesday, by wheelchair, walker and baby stroller. | Photo gallery

SPRINGFIELD -- After weeks of virtual silence on the subject, the man who pays the state's bills says Gov. Pat Quinn has "confused" the public about the state's budget problems with an inconsistent message.

Daily Digest for June 25: NEWS IN BRIEF Unit 5 officials to visit schools NORMAL — Unit 5 school board members will tour construction sites of new schools and a building expansion beginning at 7 a.m. Friday.

EUREKA -- Noah’s Ark Children’s Center will open its 6,000-square-foot remodeled facility Aug. 3, offering full daycare for children ages 6 weeks to 10 years.

CHICAGO -- The Sears Tower will undergo a $350 million green remodeling effort at the 110-story skyscraper, including wind turbines, green roofs and solar panels.

NEW YORK -- Susan Jacobs and her companion Kingston both like chicken and collards, chilling on the couch and riding in her convertible with the breeze tussling his curly black hair. Kingston, it should be said, is a black poodle. | Database: Most popular dog names | Poll: Half of pets get human names | MyPantagraph: Pet Lovers

SLEEPY EYE, Minn. -- A 13-year-old boy with cancer who fled Minnesota to avoid chemotherapy said Tuesday he is angry a judge has ordered him to continue the treatment because doctors say it has significantly shrunk the size of his tumor.

CAIRO -- Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday that the government would not yield to demonstrators demanding the annulment of a disputed presidential election. The wife of the opposition leader said protesters would not buckle under a situation she compared to martial law. | Obama stays with careful response | Video | Interactive: Iran timeline

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A transit operator on the job about three months in the nation’s capital had just started her shift and took over an older train that federal safety officials had warned years earlier should be replaced. | Photo gallery | Video

BAGHDAD -- A 3-year-old Iraqi girl who was blinded and disfigured in a 2006 Baghdad car bombing has returned home to Baghdad with a new set of prosthetic eyes after a trip to London for medical treatment.

PARIS -- President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Monday that the Islamic burqa is not welcome in France, branding the face-covering, body-length gown as a symbol of subservience that suppresses women's identities and turns them into "prisoners behind a screen." | Video

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- A North Dakota woman accused of breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby while drunk has pleaded guilty to child neglect.

How Time Flies for June 25, 2009: 100 years ago June 25, 1909: Bloomington has a small population of Chinese people. Lately they have been silent on the matter of a Chinese man being accused of a New York murder. In fact they are tacit on all subjects just now, including business colleagues and the weather.

June 25-28 Thursday -- Rules of the Road review course; 9 to 11 a.m., Blair House, 1200 E. College Ave., Normal; free.

“Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief! That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.” — W. Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The hot and the wondrous weren’t exactly visible. But there was no dearth of ice and snow one fateful day last January. | VIDEO: Set design and construction

SPRINGFIELD -- After spending the past three weeks saying he would cut programs serving Illinois' neediest citizens on July 1, Gov. Pat Quinn appeared to blink Wednesday. | Thousands pack Statehouse to protest cuts | Hynes: Quinn has 'confused' the public

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he had secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he was having an affair. | Hall of shame: Other governors who had affairs | Video

NORMAL -- Occupational Development Center — which provides life skills, job training and job placement for people with disabilities in McLean County — will cease operations Aug. 1 unless the state restores some of the agency’s funding for the fiscal year that begins next Wednesday. | Chestnut to close detox center

SPRINGFIELD -- Just because you don’t see a state trooper as you speed through an interstate work zone doesn’t mean you won’t get a ticket.

CLINTON -- A man accused of helping a teenager sexually assault a woman in a backyard of a Waynesville home may stand trial on the charges, a DeWitt County judge ruled Wednesday.

NEW YORK -- How can a hypnotist paralyze your hand just with words?

BLOOMINGTON -- Naveen Miller, a Bloomington mother and State Farm Insurance Cos. employee, spent her lunch break Wednesday with about 160 co-workers learning about Unit 5’s plans to realign where students will attend school in 2010.

NORMAL -- James Anderson had a damp bandana around his neck and another one under his hard hat trying to keep cool Wednesday as the temperature topped 90 degrees. | Five-day forecast for Twin Cities

LOS ANGELES -- "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" introduces some 40 new mechanized characters of all shapes, sizes and even sexes - but it's a pair of jive-talking 'bots that critics are singling out as more than just harmless comic relief. | Movie listings | Review: 'Transformers' shape-shifts into nonsense

NEW YORK -- The author of a new book about the wisdom of free products on the Web has acknowledged taking some liberties in his own work.

LeROY -- Some members of the City Council are wondering who should be in charge of the new Replex recreation center.

BLOOMINGTON -- A Bloomington man is the second person facing charges related to the June 5 shooting at a West Market Street barbershop.

PONTIAC -- Walldogs were already at work in downtown Pontiac on Wednesday, a day before the official start of a long weekend of mural painting.

CLINTON -- The plea hearing for a former Clinton police officer accused of theft and misconduct charges has been continued to July 6. | MyPantagraph: Clinton Neighborhood

SPRINGFIELD -- They began arriving at the Statehouse early Tuesday, by wheelchair, walker and baby stroller. | Photo gallery

SPRINGFIELD -- After weeks of virtual silence on the subject, the man who pays the state's bills says Gov. Pat Quinn has "confused" the public about the state's budget problems with an inconsistent message.

Daily Digest for June 25: NEWS IN BRIEF Unit 5 officials to visit schools NORMAL — Unit 5 school board members will tour construction sites of new schools and a building expansion beginning at 7 a.m. Friday.

EUREKA -- Noah’s Ark Children’s Center will open its 6,000-square-foot remodeled facility Aug. 3, offering full daycare for children ages 6 weeks to 10 years.

CHICAGO -- The Sears Tower will undergo a $350 million green remodeling effort at the 110-story skyscraper, including wind turbines, green roofs and solar panels.

NEW YORK -- Susan Jacobs and her companion Kingston both like chicken and collards, chilling on the couch and riding in her convertible with the breeze tussling his curly black hair. Kingston, it should be said, is a black poodle. | Database: Most popular dog names | Poll: Half of pets get human names | MyPantagraph: Pet Lovers

SLEEPY EYE, Minn. -- A 13-year-old boy with cancer who fled Minnesota to avoid chemotherapy said Tuesday he is angry a judge has ordered him to continue the treatment because doctors say it has significantly shrunk the size of his tumor.

CAIRO -- Iran's supreme leader said Wednesday that the government would not yield to demonstrators demanding the annulment of a disputed presidential election. The wife of the opposition leader said protesters would not buckle under a situation she compared to martial law. | Obama stays with careful response | Video | Interactive: Iran timeline

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A transit operator on the job about three months in the nation’s capital had just started her shift and took over an older train that federal safety officials had warned years earlier should be replaced. | Photo gallery | Video

BAGHDAD -- A 3-year-old Iraqi girl who was blinded and disfigured in a 2006 Baghdad car bombing has returned home to Baghdad with a new set of prosthetic eyes after a trip to London for medical treatment.

PARIS -- President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Monday that the Islamic burqa is not welcome in France, branding the face-covering, body-length gown as a symbol of subservience that suppresses women's identities and turns them into "prisoners behind a screen." | Video

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- A North Dakota woman accused of breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby while drunk has pleaded guilty to child neglect.

How Time Flies for June 25, 2009: 100 years ago June 25, 1909: Bloomington has a small population of Chinese people. Lately they have been silent on the matter of a Chinese man being accused of a New York murder. In fact they are tacit on all subjects just now, including business colleagues and the weather.

June 25-28 Thursday -- Rules of the Road review course; 9 to 11 a.m., Blair House, 1200 E. College Ave., Normal; free.

PONTIAC -- Walldogs were already at work in downtown Pontiac on Wednesday, a day before the official start of a long weekend of mural painting.

Daily Digest for June 25: NEWS IN BRIEF Unit 5 officials to visit schools NORMAL — Unit 5 school board members will tour construction sites of new schools and a building expansion beginning at 7 a.m. Friday.

EUREKA -- Noah’s Ark Children’s Center will open its 6,000-square-foot remodeled facility Aug. 3, offering full daycare for children ages 6 weeks to 10 years.

BLOOMINGTON -- Naveen Miller, a Bloomington mother and State Farm Insurance Cos. employee, spent her lunch break Wednesday with about 160 co-workers learning about Unit 5’s plans to realign where students will attend school in 2010.

SPRINGFIELD -- Just because you don’t see a state trooper as you speed through an interstate work zone doesn’t mean you won’t get a ticket.

CLINTON -- A man accused of helping a teenager sexually assault a woman in a backyard of a Waynesville home may stand trial on the charges, a DeWitt County judge ruled Wednesday.

June 25-28 Thursday -- Rules of the Road review course; 9 to 11 a.m., Blair House, 1200 E. College Ave., Normal; free.

NEW 5:05 p.m. SPRINGFIELD -- After spending the past three weeks saying he would cut programs serving Illinois' neediest citizens on July 1, Gov. Pat Quinn appeared to blink Wednesday. | Thousands pack Statehouse to protest cuts | Hynes: Quinn has 'confused' the public

UPDATED 4:05 p.m. COLUMBIA, S.C. -- After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he'd secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he'd been having an affair. He apologized to his wife and four sons and said he will resign as head of the Republican Governors Association. | Hall of shame: Other governors who had affairs | Video

NEW 4:05 p.m. NEW YORK -- How can a hypnotist paralyze your hand just with words?

NEW YORK -- The author of a new book about the wisdom of free products on the Web has acknowledged taking some liberties in his own work.

UPDATED 2:45 p.m. COLUMBIA, S.C. -- After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he’d secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he’d been having an affair. He apologized to his wife and four sons and said he will resign as head of the Republican Governors Association. | Not the only wacky governor

NEW 1:05 p.m. LOS ANGELES -- "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" introduces some 40 new mechanized characters of all shapes, sizes and even sexes - but it's a pair of jive-talking 'bots that critics are singling out as more than just harmless comic relief. | Movie listings | Review: 'Transformers' shape-shifts into nonsense

NEW YORK -- Susan Jacobs and her companion Kingston both like chicken and collards, chilling on the couch and riding in her convertible with the breeze tussling his curly black hair. Kingston, it should be said, is a black poodle. | Database: Most popular dog names | Poll: Half of pets get human names | MyPantagraph: Pet Lovers

CHICAGO -- The Sears Tower will undergo a $350 million green remodeling effort at the 110-story skyscraper, including wind turbines, green roofs and solar panels.

UPDATED 12:30 p.m. BLOOMINGTON -- Occupational Development Center — which provides life skills, job training and job placement for people with disabilities in McLean County — will cease operations Aug. 1 unless the state restores some of the agency’s funding for the fiscal year that begins next Wednesday. | Chestnut to close detox center | Hynes: Quinn has 'confused' public

CLINTON -- The plea hearing for a former Clinton police officer accused of theft and misconduct charges has been continued to July 6. | MyPantagraph: Clinton Neighborhood

NEW 11:50 a.m. BLOOMINGTON -- Occupational Development Center — which provides life skills, job training and job placement for people with disabilities in McLean County — will cease operations Aug. 1 unless the state restores some of the agency’s funding for the fiscal year that begins next Wednesday. | Chestnut to close detox center | Hynes: Quinn has 'confused' public

NEW 10:30 a.m. NEW YORK -- Susan Jacobs and her companion Kingston both like chicken and collards, chilling on the couch and riding in her convertible with the breeze tussling his curly black hair. Kingston, it should be said, is a black poodle. But for Jacobs, 45, of Long Beach, Calif., he is like a child. | Database: Most popular local dog names | Poll: Half of owners give pets human names | MyPantagraph: Pet Lovers Group

NEW 10:15 a.m. BLOOMINGTON -- The Illinois Department of Human Services is urging Illinois residents to take advantage of cooling centers throughout the state, including several in Central Illinois, while the weather remains unusually hot and humid. | Five-day forecast for Twin Cities

BLOOMINGTON -- Police Chief Randy McKinley said the investigation into a string of shootings Sunday night took a positive turn Tuesday, as people appeared more willing to talk to officers about what happened. | Shootings timeline | Community leaders: Southwest side safe

UPDATED 10:30 a.m. COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said he "wanted to do something exotic" to unwind after losing a fight over federal stimulus money and was in Argentina during his unexplained absence, not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff told the public when questioned about his whereabouts, a newspaper reported. | Not the only wacky governor

BLOOMINGTON -- A second man has been arrested in the June 5 shooting at a barbershop on West Market Street.

BLOOMINGTON -- McLean County’s only non-medical, alcohol and drug detoxification program will end July 1 because Chestnut Health Systems can no longer afford to cover the state’s underfunding of the program, Chestnut announced Tuesday. | Local United Way sets cabinet, pacesetter

GRIDLEY -- Police say a 33-year-old Bloomington man was Tasered after he allegedly followed a woman around in his pickup truck Sunday and rammed her vehicle three times. | MyPantagraph: El Paso-Gridley Neighborhood

CLINTON -- The plea hearing for a former Clinton police officer accused of theft and misconduct charges has been continued to July 6.

NEW 10:25 a.m. BAGHDAD -- A 3-year-old Iraqi girl who was blinded and disfigured in a 2006 Baghdad car bombing has returned home to Baghdad with a new set of prosthetic eyes after a trip to London for medical treatment.

SPRINGFIELD -- They began arriving at the Statehouse early Tuesday, by wheelchair, walker and baby stroller. Clad mostly in black, weathering temperatures in the mid-90s, thousands of Illinoisans descended on the Capitol grounds to implore lawmakers to reverse Gov. Pat Quinn's threatened budget cuts affecting the state's neediest citizens from cradle to grave. | Photo gallery

LeROY -- After hearing complaints lodged by a group of residents against City Administrator Jeff Clawson, a City Council committee recommended Tuesday night that his contract be renewed for one year. | MyPantagraph: LeRoy Neighborhood

BLOOMINGTON -- Thousands of Jerry’s Kids, including dozens in Central Illinois, won’t be going to summer camp this year because of the H1N1 flu.