Free Republic

The Quaker Oats Company announced Wednesday it is permanently closing its factory in Danville, Illinois, with upwards of 500 employees to be impacted. The News-Gazette reports Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. confirmed the news to the wider community, with city officials saying: Today, we learned that after 65 years of production in Danville, Pepsico will close Quaker Oats effective June 8, 2024. The business has already ceased production but will continue to pay their employees through that time. While this shocks and saddens us, we will unite as a community to help those who have lost their employment. Williams said he...

A less than ideal Sunday morning for many people in the picturesque town of Danville. On Sunday, dozens of local residents woke up to find antisemitic flyers scattered across their neighborhood. Advertisement "To see that locally, such baseless hate, is very disturbing, is upsetting," said Rabbi Shmuli Raitman. Rabbi Raitman is the head of the Chabad of Danville and San Ramon. He says a member of his congregation found one of the flyers during her morning walk and called him to report it. In recent months, several Bay Area cities, including Palo Alto and San Francisco, have also had similar...

DANVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A truck carrying about 100 monkeys was involved in a crash Friday in Pennsylvania, state police said as authorities searched for at least three of the monkeys that appeared to have escaped the vehicle. The truck carrying the animals crashed with a dump truck in the afternoon in Montour County, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Andrea Pelachick told the Daily Item. The truck had been on its way to a lab, Pelachick said. Authorities have asked residents who might see the monkeys to call state police at 570-524-2662. It was unclear if any people or animals were...

A black delivery driver was told by his manager that he would not be making a delivery because the customer had said she only wanted a white driver in her house. Marcus Bradley, an African American, who has worked for Lowe's Home Improvement for the last 11 years, was left devastated after his manager complied with the customer's outrageous wish. The shocking incident reportedly happened in the city of Danville, situated in the US state of Virginia.

Residents of a quiet, peaceful section of Marshall Terrace, a Danville neighborhood near West Main Street, woke Thursday morning to an unwelcome surprise in their front lawns. Small, rolled up flyers had been placed in front of their houses, sporting racial and other discriminatory slurs. While no one knows for sure who passed out the material, the handouts did sport the signature of the Loyal White Knights, a branch of the Ku Klux Klan. At least two different flyers have been identified so far. One ad called for America to “wake up,” and asked readers who have had enough of...

A member of Schoolfield Church of the Brethren got an unpleasant surprise Saturday when she arrived to find graffiti spray-painted across the back of the building. Branwen Hall, daughter of the pastor and the children’s director at the church, said her sister went to the church to do some yard work and discovered three symbols, including an upside-down cross, and the Latin words "Ave Satanas," which translate to "Hail Satan," spray-painted in red. They called the police and reported the vandalism, then got to work trying to remove the red paint, Hall said. Both Hall and the Rev. Richard Berkley...

Vice President Biden in Danville, VA on 8/14: "I have more to say, but I am saying too much already because these guys get me going... and you're gonna have trouble translating all this! The poor lady, she's gonna have tendonitis by the time she finishes this."

An animated opening segment on today's Morning Joe focused on the fallout from VP Joe Biden's remark to a largely African-American crowd yesterday that a Romney presidency would "put y'all back in chains." Washington Post editorialist Jonathan Capehart claimed Biden doesn't have "anything to apologize for." But earlier, Willie Geist opined that had Paul Ryan said such a thing, "there would be calls" for Ryan and Romney "to get out of the race." Taking the cluelessness cake, Mika Brzezinski found it inconceivable that Biden might have been playing the race card. View the video here.

Vice President Joe Biden told an audience in Danville, Va., that Mitt Romney’s policies as president will put them “back in chains.” “”He said in the first 100 days he’s going to let the big banks write their own rules,” Biden said on Romney’s economic policy. “Unchain Wall Street! They’re going to put y’all back in chains.” Earlier in his speech, he said that Wall Street had gone from being the most efficient “allocator of capital” in the world to “a casino.”

DANVILLE — Jeff Blue was taking his last walk in the woods before the end of spring gobbler season Monday morning. "I made one last call on the top of the hollow," he said, "and was calling a hen turkey sound." Eighteen yards away, and downhill, stood Michael Todd Kelly, with a borrowed Mossberg 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun. Blue heard a loud noise, and was knocked to the ground. "I may have been unconscious for 10 seconds, but realization set in," he said. "I yelled, 'Don't shoot. Don't shoot. You shot me.'" There was a pause. Then Kelly yelled at him,...

For those wondering just how strong the sentiment being expressed at Tea Parties and town hall meetings is growing throughout the nation, consider that about 1,000 people turned out to demonstrate against ObamaCare Friday in one of the most liberal cities in America...San Francisco. That's right, a Tea Party in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Cal.) own district. Speakers included KSFO's Brian Sussman, and California Republican Party Vice Chairman Thomas Del Beccaro. Also in attendance, and speaking to the crowd without a microphone due to problems with the sound system, was NewsBusters' own Noel Sheppard (video embedded below the fold, Sheppard...

Danville Police say an officer was acting properly when he shot and killed a dog. "Killer" was a 12-year-old Dachsund known by many in his Berman Drive neighborhood. Officer Murrill McLean shot the animal Monday while trying to serve a warrant at a nearby home. McLean worried the dog had rabies and shot the animal in self-defense. Killer's owner Angela Harper says her pet did not have rabies and has never attacked anyone. "He was a little dog," says Harper. "So I think he was kind of careless in choosing to shoot."

Merck announced Tuesday it will sell its plant in Riverside as part of a world-wide restructuring plan. Workers at the plant were told of the plan Tuesday morning. Company officials said Merck hopes to pull out of the Riverside plant, also known as the Cherokee plant, and sell the facility by 2008. The announcement comes one day after the company said it will close five of its 31 plants and cut 7,000 jobs system wide. "I understand the impact this announcement will have on your and your community and I can assure you that we are committed to doing everything...

Unicorn buck makes Crestline hunter a legend John Moore, 32, of Crestline shows off the unicorn buck he killed in Knox County on the opening day of gun season. "I think I missed him three years ago ... I know some people were hunting it, Moore said. "I noticed there was a cut on his leg that probably came from a crossbow. CRESTLINE -- John Moore went into the woods as just another hunter, but he emerged a star. That's what getting a unicorn deer can do for a guy. "It's pretty cool. I never knew it would go this...

DANVILLE, Va. -- Masonite Corp. plans to close its Danville, Va. pressboard manufacturing plant on March 26, leaving 172 employees without jobs. The company blamed the decision, announced Tuesday, on a steep drop in demand for its products. The products made in Danville include pegboards and the wood product on clipboards. Duron and Presswood products also are used in furniture and store fixtures. Phil Kohner, Masonite vice president of human resources, blamed the reduced demand on Brazilian competition and substitute products.

<p>DANVILLE One hundred years ago, on the last Sunday of September, the mail train let out a screaming whistle as it hurtled down the hill toward the Dan River.</p> <p>It was the sort of haunting sound that could never be forgotten. One witness described it as "the most horrible sound I ever heard."</p>