Afternoon news update: July 24, 2015

Around the state the unemployment rate is dropping, in fact, Rockford saw a gain of more than 15-hundred jobs in June. But in central Illinois many metro areas are seeing increased job loss. And now this. Japanese automaker Mitsubishi is closing its factory in Normal. The news first broke in Japanese newspapers, and initially Mitsubishi wouldn’t confirm. But as of this morning, the company confirmed it will cease production and look for a buyer in the hopes of keeping its roughly 1,000 United Auto Workers members on the job. ”Our focus right now is to identify a buyer who would continue to operate and maintain employment – the best potential outcome for our employees and the community,” Mitsubishi said in a brief statement. The plant first opened in 1988 and was threatened with closure in 2010, but workers agreed to take a pay cut. It built Mitsubishi’s Outlander Sport, which proved popular, but the company later recalled 460,000 cars – all built in Normal. At its peak in 2002, the plant was producing more than 200,000 vehicles a year. Last year, it was a little less than 70,000.
State Senator Bill Brady says that Illinois officials are already working on a plan to find another manufacturer to move into the central Illinois plant that Mitsubishi Motors wants to close. Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity director Jim Schultz says the agency will take steps needed to help workers at the plant get the job training and job placement they need.
A committee is seeking a new public partner to help it bring a statue of former President Ronald Reagan as a young lifeguard to northern Illinois. The Dixon Park District will consider whether to approve a proposal from the Ronald Reagan Lifeguard Statue Committee to display the 10-foot bronze statue in Lowell Park. If the board of directors gives its approval, the park district would become financially involved in the statue's creation.
A 19-year-old student and football player for Northern Illinois University is under arrest for driving drunk and going nearly 40 MPH over the speed limit near Genoa. 19-year old Skyler Monaghan of Willcox, Arizona was pulled over just after midnight after an officer pulled him over for going 93 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. Monaghan was arrested and charged with various offenses including drunk driving and excessive speed. He is currently being held at the DeKalb County Jail pending bond.
The state has been ordered to keep making Medicaid payments in its most populous county, and the rest of Illinois may soon follow. A.J. Wilhelmi of the Illinois Hospital Association says the court ruling ordering state Medicaid payments to continue only applies to Cook County hospitals, though he says the Bruce Rauner administration could choose to make the payments to the entire state. “We are suggesting that the state should apply this statewide, and have payments made to all Medicaid providers throughout the state so that all 3.2 million Medicaid beneficiaries in the state continue to have access to quality health care,” Wilhelmi said. The plaintiffs in the Cook County case, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, have promised to file another suit if Medicaid money doesn’t start flowing to the rest of the state’s hospitals.

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