The Source

05/29/2026

Here are some area happenings taking place soon! Find out more in our SUMMER GUIDE edition of The Source published on May 28.

05/28/2026

☀️ Our SUMMER GUIDE edition is out! 🐶 Hot diggity-dog!!

🍉 Pick up a copy to keep as your guide to local summertime events, activities, family-friendly happenings and more! Plus, there's a big chronological calendar of events that runs throughout to help you keep track of everything from now through September! Enjoy!

05/27/2026

U of I Extension

Shooting stars on a remnant prairie

By Emily Swihart
The Source Newspaper

The other day I was traveling for work and found myself near a remnant prairie with a few minutes to spare, so I had no choice than to stop for a walk. These parcels of land are incredible examples of what the landscape was before sod busting and settlement. Visiting these historic ecosystems can be a moving experience for history buffs, ecologists or anyone who appreciates the natural history of Illinois.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ILLINOIS PRAIRIES

Approximately 300,000 years ago, the landscape of Illinois began its transformation into what we are seeing today. At this time, the first of four glaciers moved its way into and across the area we know as Illinois. As it and successive glaciers crept across the landscape, their mass and content shaped the land. Over hundreds of thousands of years, these massive blocks of ice crept forward and then receded, time and time again. This slow, powerful activity shaped the land by flattening hills, picking up and relocating large boulders, depositing sediment during thaws, and creating rivers and creeks as ice melted into liquid.

As the last glacier melted out of Illinois approximately 13,000 years ago, the landscape that remained continued to be shaped by wind, water, temperature changes, plant and animal activity, and time, eventually creating the complex ecosystems we know as the tall grass prairie. By definition, prairies are plant communities that are dominated by grasses and forbs. However, high competition between plants and the variability of the landscape contributed to the immense diversity of plant species native to the prairie and the variety of prairie types.

WHAT IS A REMNANT PRAIRIE?

A remnant prairie is a parcel of native prairie vegetation where the soil has never been broken … no plow has ever turned sod. These pieces of history provide a glimpse of what this land was before railroads, fields, cities and the internet. In addition to the cultural connections they provide to the land’s past, they are critical seed banks for the remaining species.

During my recent visit to this remnant prairie, the earliest forbs were developing while warm-season grasses and late-season blooming forbs remained dormant, waiting for warmer temperatures. In this type of ecosystem — one that has been shaped by the topography, competition, seasonal changes and disturbance — patterns can be identified where certain species have had more success than others. It is a patchwork of species that have filled in where they are best suited to grow. This is a pattern unique to a remnant prairie; it cannot be reestablished once destroyed.

As one might expect, settlement of the Midwest and ongoing development have significantly reduced the size and availability of remnant prairies. According to the Illinois DNR, Illinois had 22 million acres of prairie during the 1820s; within 160 years, that number was reduced to less than 2,300 acres. That is approximately .01% original Illinois prairie that remains.

SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

During my recent visit to the remnant, I was surprised and excited to see one of my bucket list plants … Shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia). While I was too early to witness the blooms, flower buds were forming. Surprises like these are precisely the reason I love visiting natural spaces. In honor of my luck, allow me to highlight this unique plant in hopes that others will be able to locate a nearby population.

Dodecatheon meadia is a spring ephemeral that has distinctive nodding blooms that are said to resemble a shooting star. Clusters of blooms appear in mid-spring. Clusters of flowers of red and yellow center, down-turned as white to pink to purple petals, stand vertically and are lifted on 12-to-18-inch scapes. A rosette of simple, ovate basal leaves gathers near ground level.

Shooting star grows best in partial shade, but as my find demonstrated, it will also grow in full sun prairie locations. Similarly, it prefers moist, well-drained soils but will tolerate clay, rocky and sandy soils, too.

Shooting star can be added to a landscape for spring interest. As a true ephemeral, the plant goes dormant during the heat of the summer, disappearing from the landscape until the following year. When it comes to wildlife, shooting star is said to be deer-resistant while serving as a critical early pollen source for native bees. Plant bare-root plants in the fall for best establishment.

** Good Growing Fact of the Week: Many of our remnant prairies are preserved due to being a pioneer cemetery. Although portions of the cemetery would have been disturbed at the time of a burial, the native seed bank was preserved, and the minimal disturbance would have mimicked those that nature would have provided, such as grazing and fire.

05/27/2026

FBI warns of growing trend
Even in Central Illinois, officials are noticing increased instances of nihilistic violent extremism

By Marcel Pacatte
The Source Newspaper

““I feel as if he’s not even a part of the family.” Those are the words of one parent whose young adult son stays in his room most of the time. There has been counseling, and there are arguments. Fights. Resentment. Frustration. Unkept promises and unenforced ultimatums litter the family dynamic.

This mother loves her son, and has tried repeatedly to motivate him to get a job or pursue a course of study. He stays upstairs. Online. Sleeps at odd times — up all night, in bed most of the day.

He does have friends, both in real life and online, and engages with both, including having taken vacations with members of his online friend network, meeting them in person. But he’s not like the others, not even like his siblings.

He’s your son. You know him.

Or maybe you don’t. He could be close to committing an act of violence, potentially. Most often, self-harm. The Springfield FBI office says one of its biggest growth areas is investigating situations such as this one because all it takes is the right — or wrong — influences and, boom, you have a different kind of violent actor from the one with whom we’re most familiar. One not motivated by fervor for a cause or a hatred of a person or group — a political partisan or a religious fanatic — but one pushed into committing an act of self-harm by pressure and exploitation, a disaffected, desultory, aimless person trapped by online sexploitation or other threats and bullying.

The FBI has a term for it: Nihilistic violent extremism (NVE).

And if it sounds fanciful or a sort of paranoia on the FBI’s part, they assure us that it’s real, and that it’s here in Central Illinois as well as all across the country.

Jacob Griffin, a special agent with the FBI’s Springfield office, described agents showing up at a family’s home to question a teen who was being badgered by shadowy online predators. The FBI investigation showed that the teen was hours away from committing an act of violence. When questioned by agents at the home, the teen admitted everything. The parents were stunned, having no idea anything was brewing.

And this brand of violence is small-scale. Personal. Coming almost without warning. Its goal, Griffin said, is to create chaos and uncertainty, to undermine the social order, to rip families apart. And it’s seldom, if ever, the minor’s idea. The idea is planted by the predator, who has established control over the person. Often, the FBI says, the goal is to have teens harm themselves. In the most extreme cases, the teens are goaded into killing themselves.

Kyle Chumley, commander of investigations at the Jacksonville Police Department, concurs that the problem is here and is real, and says that the department is on it.

The department, he said, is less interested in the latest specific group pushing youth to do anything and everything harmful to self or others and more interested in building awareness and creating courage among the targets to resist the efforts of the exploiters, to avoid the traps.

He said the names of groups, which show up and gain currency and then recede and come back under new names, are almost incidental. Chasing each of them, from the Jacksonville Police Department’s perspective, is something best left to the FBI. In Jacksonville, the focus is on the types of things all of them do and combating that by going to classrooms at schools to warn students and teachers and to the community to warn parents and peers about what to look for as they monitor their child’s and friend’s behavior and online activity.

The FBI, according to Griffin, is treating this as the next biggest thing and warns that people need to be aware of it to help the FBI head it off in as many ways possible.

First, Griffin, said, is to know what your children are doing online — who they are interacting with, sites on which they spend time — as a way to keep them from being co-opted by these nefarious bad actors.

The FBI uses terms such as frightening and dangerous to describe what’s happening and is taking it seriously, even though the general public hasn’t seen many of these acts of violence occur.

Griffin said this nihilistic violent extremism is a decentralized subculture that weaponizes digital platforms to exploit and radicalize children, with the goal of having them carry out acts of violence.

Much as criminals rob banks because that’s where the money is, the FBI says these extremists frequent gaming platforms, social media sites and mobile apps because that’s where their targets, young people, are.

Griffin said the FBI already has identified 450 subjects tied to these decentralized networks nationwide. The victims being targeted are minors, some as young as 9 years old.

The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Springfield field office, Karen Marinos, said the minors are being assaulted online. “These groups specifically seek out vulnerable children to coerce them into horrific acts of self-harm and violence.”

They are methodical at identifying victims and quickly gaining their trust and then using sextortion, manipulation and blackmail to force them to self-mutilate, sexually abuse themselves or produce gore or violent video, often demanding it be live streamed.

Worse, the FBI says, the ordinary filters and parental controls are essentially useless as protections for children. These bad actors, the FBI says, are highly skilled at bypassing restrictions or teaching victims how to skirt them.

The best defense against a child becoming prey, the FBI says, is for parents to have open and continuing conversations with their children about their activities online and to discourage use of digital devices in private areas the home, such as bedrooms and bathrooms.

Five things to look for that could indicate potential victimization are:

• Physical markers, such as fresh cuts, scratches or scars. These cuts, the FBI says, frequently are on hidden parts of the body such as the thigh, chest or groin.
• Behavioral changes, such as moodiness, irritability or becoming withdrawn as well as changes in eating or sleeping habits and school performance. “These may be drastic and without warning,” the FBI says.
• Cruelty or aggression against animals, pets or younger siblings.
• The posting of personal information online or unexplained gifts or packages arriving at the home.
• Openly talking about death, feeling unwanted or worthless or threatening su***de as well as actively seeking tools for violence such as fi****ms, explosives or chemicals.

The FBI urges parents to contact 1-800-225-5324 (1-800-CALL-FBI) or tips.fbi.gov with usernames, emails and platform names if they suspect their child is being preyed upon. In cases of imminent danger, the FBI urges people to call 911.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a free service available to help minors or adults who were victimized as minors to get sexually explicit content removed and stopped being shared. Information is at takeitdown.ncmec.org.

The FBI’s Griffin is available to provide community presentations on the FBI’s effort; he was in Pleasant Plains recently at the request of a resident, Teresa Bennett, who had learned about the phenomenon and wanted to increase awareness.

05/26/2026

Health with the Hamels
Don’t get in a pickle

By Clara and Justin Hamel
The Source Newspaper

Pickleball’s popularity has gained speed at an unprecedented rate. It seems everywhere you turn, people are touting the benefits of pickleball. From great-grandparents to teens, it has increasingly become a means to stay active and fit at all stages of life. The surge in popularity is for good reason — pickleball offers an ideal combination of cardiovascular exercise, balance training, coordination and social connection.

Research continues to show that regular movement paired with community engagement can improve longevity, support brain health, reduce the risk of chronic disease and enhance overall quality of life. An added bonus of pickleball and other racket sports is that they feel more like recreation than work, which is part of the reason so many people that engage stay with it.

The beauty of pickleball is that almost anyone can play. Seasoned athletes to beginners can step on the court together and find mutual benefit. Unfortunately, as participation has surged, so have injuries. Many players underestimate how physically demanding the sport actually is. The quick lateral movements, sudden stops, repetitive swinging and rapid changes in direction can place significant stress on the body if a player is not properly prepared.

One of the most effective ways to prevent injury is to stop treating pickleball like a casual game and start treating it like the athletic activity it truly is. Walking straight onto the court and immediately jumping into a game is one of the fastest ways to strain a muscle or irritate a joint. Taking a few minutes for a proper warm up can make a tremendous difference. Light walking, arm circles, gentle squats, torso rotations and dynamic stretching help increase circulation and prepare the muscles and joints for movement. A body that is warmed up and mobile is far less likely to get injured.

Footwear also plays a major role in staying healthy on the court. Many people wear running shoes, but those shoes are designed primarily for forward movement. Pickleball requires constant side to side motion, and court shoes provide the stability needed to reduce stress on the ankles, knees and hips. Wearing the right shoes can be the difference between feeling good after a match or limping off the court.

In addition, a surprising number of injuries happen when players overreach for shots or try to generate too much power with their arms alone. The mechanics of movement matter. Good pickleball is about force alone. Positioning, balance and controlled movement are key points of focus to prevent injury. Keeping the knees slightly bent, engaging the core and moving the feet instead of consistently lunging can help protect the shoulders, elbows and lower back. In many cases, playing smarter is safer and more effective than trying to overpower the shot.

Pacing yourself is equally important. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of competition and ignore fatigue, especially for players returning to exercise after years away from sports. But tired muscles and slower reaction times are a recipe for injury. Staying hydrated, taking breaks and gradually increasing playing time allows the body to adapt.

Recovery should be an integral part of the game. It is easy to ignore that nagging ache in your ankle or that click in your knee with every shuffle. Remember, the goal is not just to make it through today's game, but to take care of your body so you can play for days to come. This means proper periods of rest, stretching after matches, maintaining overall strength and balance, and listening to your body. Embracing these steps as part of the game can ensure you are playing for years to come.

*Dr. Justin Hamel and Clara Hamel have a combined over 30 years of experience in health fields. Reach them at 1° Performance & Longevity, located at 46 N. Central Park Plz., Suite 101, in Jacksonville, on Facebook or by phone at 217-243-6358.

05/26/2026

New Berlin native taking golf to the next level

By Marcel Pacatte
The Source Newspaper

Editor’s note: This story originally ran in the Waverly Journal.

Talk to Dain Richie about golf and you begin to feel as if you are talking to a psychiatrist.

Golf, some will tell you, is 90% mental and 10% physical. Richie agrees — if not with the precise percentage at least with the gist — saying the physical part of golf only gets a player so far.

So when he tells you about the analysis he has done on his game, about getting inside his own head to figure out, for instance, why he used to fade in the final round of play, about working to understand himself and his game, about how he dives into developing a blueprint for working both on his own game and the golf team’s game as a whole, about identities, about coming up with an intention for his golf game each week, etc., you almost expect to see him both lying on the couch and scrawling on a pad, both patient and doctor, working all the angles to get this golf thing figured out.

And, with just one or, with luck, two events left in his collegiate golf career, it’s about time he gets it figured out.

Hearing him talk, you know why he is where he is at. More about that in a moment.

After all the talk about the head stuff and figuring it out he tells you almost matter of factly that when he’s finished with college play he’s turning pro, adding, “It’s not really that big of a deal.”

It’s not that he takes the step lightly or isn’t aware of the import.

He more means that the shift in his daily routine will be subtle. His mom and dad, however, have a different take on how big of a deal it is for him to be at this point.

“It’s incredible,” Bill Richie said.

“He has worked so hard,” Anna Richie said.

Of course mom and dad are going to say that, right?

But wait a minute. First, who is this Dain Richie guy? Some of you knew him, grew up with him, have at least casually followed his exploits, maybe played against him. We need to know a little more about who he is right now to understand what’s about to happen.

The facts are straightforward. He grew up on a farm at a point outside of Loami that is variously described as Waverly, Loami and New Berlin. He was valedictorian of his class at New Berlin when he graduated in 2021, having found his way to golf as a high school freshman when a previous injury kept him away from football.

And then he discovered he had a facility for the sport.

Now here he is, finishing his master’s in business administration at Mississippi State, having already procured an undergraduate degree there in interdisciplinary studies with a focus on business and communication. And, yes, dean’s list all the way.

There are more facts, golf ones.

He finished in the top 10 in 18 out of 23 tournaments in his first two years of college. All-America First Team, All-America Second Team, two times All-Conference, two times All-Academic First Team, school records for nine-hole season average, nine-hole and 18-hole overall. That’s just a glimpse but you get the idea.

He won the Springfield Men’s City Golf Tournament in 2023, in what is remembered as a dramatic final round.

That win, which centered on the final round’s 13th hole, proved that Richie could deliver under pressure and remain consistent.

He has had multiple top-10 finishes and a strong scoring average at Mississippi State.

Earlier this month Richie nabbed his first regular-season collegiate tournament victory. He tied for first place at 8 under par, the first State golfer to win a regular-season tournament in three years.

Richie’s mom said she remembers him playing golf — practicing — in their yard every day when everything was closed and school was remote online learning.

That. His high school coach, Chuck Ross, remembers that there was no state tournament Richie’s senior year because of covid and said flatly, “He’d’ve won it.”

His dad makes a point that Richie is too humble to make for himself: “He has climbed to the top of every program he’s been involved with.”

First at Parkland Community College in Champaign, then at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and now in Starkville, which is in the SEC, considered by many to be college golf’s most competitive conference.

Dad: “Probably 50 of college golf’s top 100 players are in the SEC.”

To circle back: That 8-under finish? Richie tied for 1st.

Now do you get it?

When quizzed about how his collegiate career is ending, the word “sizzling” comes up. Our word, not his. Fair to say, we ask. He chuckles, a little reticent, but it’s our word, not his. “Yeah. That’s fair.”

Ross fleshes out how Richie excelled: “He practiced more than anyone else in my 22 years of coaching.”

New Berlin co-ops with South County for golf, and Ross said Richie practiced before school, after school, in season, out of season: “He had a nice little setup in his garage.”

And, Ross said, Richie knew where golf gets real, constantly working on his chipping and putting.

But more than that, Ross said Richie was a polite and earnest player — a polite and earnest person.

“He also was a very good basketball player. Smart. A very intelligent athlete.”

Very. Intelligent. Athlete.

One high school competitor, Routt Catholic’s Conrad Charpentier, who competed in the state finals as a sophomore, remembers playing against Richie when Charpentier was a freshman. “Dain is a great guy. I was paired up with him,” and it was evident right off that Richie was a class apart. “It was just different the way the ball came off his club and how he managed the game.”

The talent. And the psychiatry.

Ask Richie what he likes about golf, what drew him to the sport, and he has to think. A little. And then he lands on this: The challenge. The mental challenge. We’re back, you see, at the psychiatry of it all.

“I have to let myself go,” he said, when his game isn’t going well. “I have to take ownership. I have to push myself to play well. What I love is the constant quest for getting better. It’s the process that I enjoy. It’s a never-ending process.”

Golf as a process.

Examining each of his games.

The drives.

The putts.

He knows, he admitted as much, that part of his success is attributable to natural ability.

But that alone — without the thinking, without the analysis, without the push to figure out how to overcome that fizzle in the final round, wouldn’t have him about to turn pro.

The NCAA Regional Championship is toward the end of May and five of the six teams there, of which Mississippi State is one, will advance to the National Championship at the end of May.

He hopes to be there.

After that? Pro. He’s looking to be on the tour and playing mini events. The big one he’s eying right now is when the Korn Ferry Tour comes to Panther Creek, his old stomping ground, in late June. The Korn Ferry Tour showcases younger golfers and is a gateway to the PGA Tour.

The familiar is good; Richie worked at Panther Creek in addition to securing that City Championship victory there.

But golf also has been a passport for Richie. He said he has seen plenty and has played on some amazing courses, probably in 25 states. He lists a trip to Scotland, where the game was invented, and having played at Royal Aberdeen and Trump Aberdeen. His ideal, and he apologizes for being cliched about it, is to play at Augusta National. In the Master’s.

He said it out loud.

Almost as a dare. To himself.

05/25/2026

05/24/2026

The wilderness

By Patsy Kelly
The Source Newspaper

May is a beautiful month, full of promises — flowers, green emerging from brown — new life. No matter. It can still be a wilderness. In grief we live in a wilderness, though our address has not changed and we place our head on the same pillow at night. The familiar has turned into an unknown.

The wilderness of grief does not offer those picturesque signs with a huge map showing trails, landmark and a big, red arrow pointing, “You are here.” No sign, no trails, no arrow. No GPS. We are in a foreign land and even though people recognize us, they fail to realize that we have relocated.

The wilderness is a common trope in literature and scripture. That is because it is part of the hero’s journey. Every hero must take their own journey; and every journey leads through the wilderness. Never mind that you don’t consider yourself a hero. Neither do I. Never mind that you have excused yourself from the invitation to a journey; so have I. Never mind that you have steadfastly refused to enter the wilderness. Same here.

It is not optional. Grief sets us on the path. Here we are.

There seem to be times when going into the wilderness is required. Moses had everything going for him — an adopted member of Pharoah’s family, regaled and wealthy. Then his moral conscience leads him into trouble, and he finds himself in the wilderness. According to the rabbinic tradition, he’s looking for a lost lamb; but who is really lost? He finds a bush burning without being consumed and everything changes. Moses finds a mission and a purpose, and he finds himself.

Jesus is also required to go into the wilderness. There he fasts 40 days and 40 nights. He doesn’t meet a burning bush, but he does meet Satan, who tempts him to misuse his power. Jesus refuses to do this, Satan departs and angels come to tend to Jesus. This is when Jesus finds a mission and a purpose, and he also finds himself.

We grieving folks are not looking for a mission or a new purpose. We are mostly trying to survive. But grief takes us into our own wildernesses. We may be unwilling, fighting against going on the journey. But maybe we find companions along the way, and maybe that makes the journey easier. We find tools to help one another and to help ourselves. We reach out to other people. That becomes a mission and a purpose, and we begin to find ourselves.

For more information about the Grief Group, email [email protected].

05/24/2026

PHOTO OP — Pressure Checkin’

Photo/Marcy Patterson

Jacksonville firefighters Brady Hays, left, and Patrick Longmeyer work on daily fire hydrant checks.