Robbins Family named Farm Family of the Year

The Robbins Family has been named the 2011 Farm Family of the year by the Kankakee Daily Journal:






Jim Robbins spoke at the ceremony, highlighting how important it is for farmers to reach out to non-farm neighbors to explain what farmers do and how they help feed a growing population.


Robbins also discussed the importance of farm exports to the US economy at the event.


In March of 2008, Jim Robbins was featured in a Newsweek article highlighting the importance of grain exports during the economic downturn:


"Jim Robbins's 3,000-acre family farm in Peotone, Ill., may not seem like a vital cog in the global economy. And yet Robbins, a fourth-generation corn and soybean farmer, exports 90 percent of his crops. Each year they either roll on trains to the Pacific Northwest or float on barges down the Illinois River, the first leg of their journey to Asia. "The containers that are bringing everything from China and Taiwan, we're shipping them back with corn, soybeans and soybean meal," he says."


Congratulations to the Robbins family!

Governors State University's leaving Kankakee Education Center in downtown Kankakee

 In May 2006, Governors State University partnered with Kankakee Community College to open the "Kankakee Education Center" in downtown Kankakee.  In order to bring affordable education to the Kankakee area, "GSU worked with Kankakee Community College to make the Center a reality," according to the GSU website.


The Kankakee Education Center is located at 187 S. Schuyler Avenue in the historic Clock Tower Centre.

Governors State University signage in the windows in the Clock Tower Center in downtown Kankakee

Due to low enrollment, GSU announced it will not renew its lease in the building, as reported by the Daily Journal.

Kankakee's Riverside Medical Center Earns Magnet Nursing Recognition

Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee has achieved Magnet Status.  According to Riverside: 

"Riverside Medical Center’s commitment to the highest quality of patient care has not gone unrecognized.  The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet ® Recognition Program has unanimously voted to credential Riverside Medical Center as a Magnet® Credentialed Organization.  


The Magnet designation is one of the highest honors a hospital can earn with respect to the standard of nursing care provided. With this credential, Riverside joins the Magnet community—a select group of 378 healthcare organizations out of nearly 6,000 U.S. healthcare organizations.[i]

“Magnet recognition provides our community with the ultimate benchmark to measure the quality of patient care,” said Phil Kambic, Riverside Medical Center president and CEO.

To achieve Magnet recognition, organizations must pass a rigorous and lengthy process that demands widespread participation from leadership and staff. The process begins with the submission of an electronic application, followed by written documentation demonstrating qualitative and quantitative evidence regarding patient care and outcomes. If scores from the written documentation fall within a range of excellence, an on-site visit will occur to thoroughly assess the applicant. After this rigorous on-site review process, the Commission on Magnet will review the completed appraisal report and vote to determine whether Magnet recognition will be granted.
In particular, the Magnet model is designed to provide a framework for nursing practice, research, and measurement of outcomes. Through this framework, ANCC can assess applicants across a number of components and dimensions to gauge an organization’s nursing excellence. The foundation of this model is composed of various elements deemed essential to delivering superior patient care. These include the quality of nursing leadership and coordination and collaboration across specialties, as well as processes for measuring and improving the quality and delivery of care.
Magnet recognition has been shown to provide specific benefits to hospitals and their communities, such as

• Higher patient satisfaction with nurse communication, availability of help, and receipt of discharge information;[ii]
• Lower risk of 30-day mortality and lower failure to rescue;[iii]
• Higher job satisfaction among nurses;[iv] and
• Lower nurse reports of intentions to leave position.[v]"

Check out this awesome video of Riverside nurses and staff as they learned they had earned Magnet Recognition:

The Labor Unions of Kankakee, Illinois have united together

Kankakee Labor Union Employees have created a website and Facebook page called "Kankakee Employee Labor Unions United."

Essex, Illinois artist Jack Barker

As soon as I saw this photo of Essex-based artist Jack Barker, my immediate thought was, the American Pickers have to stop there!  Such cool stuff!!

Here is a PBS video which includes an interview where Jack Barker discusses some of his work (Barker's is the last interview):

Watch the full episode. See more Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations.

Explosion at Kankakee water plant building, raw sewage leaking into river

Chicago Breaking News reports an explosion at the Kankakee water treatment plant.

The Daily Journal reports raw sewage is going into the Kankakee River as a result of the explosion.

Picture of Kankakee Water Treatment Facility (and the Kankakee River) from the Illinois Water Science Center.

Farm Subsidies in Kankakee County

If you are interested in researching farm subsidies in Kankakee County, this website provides a searchable database of farm subsidy payments organized by state and county.

There is a lot of data on this site.  For example, according to this site, from 1995 to 2009, farms in Kankakee County received $188, 244, 365 dollars in Corn Subsidies.

Included in this total are: deficiency payments, direct payments, production flexibility payments, and other payments.

Subsidies to grain farmers have become a controversial issue in debates over food policy.  Those who argue against corn subsidies argue that these payments flood the food market with products made from corn that they argue are largely unhealthy.

Farmers and other supporters of corn subsidies point to high input costs such as land rent, fertilizer, and weed control chemicals and argue that subsidies are critical to ensuring farmers can produce the food that consumers want.  You cannot deny that the public continues to buy meat---most corn grown in the US is used for livestock feed--and other products that rely on corn.

The New York Times recently published a debate on whether farm subsidies protect national security.