Afternoon news update: April 8, 2015

King Elementary School students and staff briefly evacuated the school this afternoon because of a natural gas odor. The Rockford Fire Department, Rockford Police and Nicor Gas investigated the odor and found no cause for alarm. Students and staff remained safe. Classes resumed.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner visited with Loves Park business Two Men and Truck this morning to tout his turnaround agenda for the state. The Governor has been on a 14 county campaign-like tour to discuss the details of his plan to cut the budget. The tour wraps up Saturday.
The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report shows the Rockford metropolitan area, which includes Freeport and Belvidere, lost 2.5% of its workforce over a 12 month period.
An Illinois Army National Guard soldier and his cousin appeared in Federal Court in Chicago Wednesday to enter a plea to plotting a terrorist attack on an Illinois military facility. Lawyers for 22-year old guardsman Hasan Edmonds and 29-year old Jonas Edmonds entered the pleas. A federal complaint says Jonas planned to attack the northern Illinois facility while Hasan had planned to join Islamic State fighters.
Two Auburn High School students set themselves apart. Auburn Senior Jacob Higgins is among more than 800 outstanding Black American high school seniors to win National Achievement Scholarship awards. He was chosen from a pool of about 150,000 students. Higgins says he wants to be an astrophysicist and will attend MIT, University of Chicago, or Yale. Auburn Junior Chen Lin received a 36 score on his ACT test, the highest possible composite score. On average, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all test takers earns the top score.
The National Transportation Safety Board says it could take up to 18 months to finish its investigation into the crash of a private plane near Bloomington early Tuesday morning. 7 people were killed in the crash, including two members of the athletic department staff of Illinois State University.

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