Welcome to the start of our ELEVENTH YEAR of business!

That’s right…Disclosure was begun ten years ago today—March 12, 2013—with what we believed would be a few months’ worth of 8- or 12-page monthly newspapers telling of the abject corruption we’d learned of in Edwards, Richland, Wabash and Wayne counties. That first press run was 500. Every copy sold out—in two weeks. The second issue press run was 1,000. We sold out of THAT in two weeks. Within two months we were at 2,000, and at six months, 5,000, which is roughly where we sit currently. And boy, the corruption, we learned, certainly wasn’t limited to our core counties of Edwards, Richland, Wabash and Wayne. Adding Lawrence, Crawford, Clay, White, Gallatin, Hardin, Hamilton and Saline (in that order) from 2003 to 2009, we learned that it was endemic across the state. The drug problem, we learned, has a profound impact on corruption, which in turn has a profound impact on the drug problem, thus perpetuating it all. When we added the Heartland counties of Edgar, Coles, Clark and Cumberland, we learned that it was, if it could be considered possible, even WORSE in that area, which is why we’re still fighting to keep vendors in that area—because the public officials don’t like their secrets told, and they’ll do ANYTHING to keep it from happening.

But we always prevail, because truth does. Truth is its own defense. There will be more. And we will continue to bring it to you until whatever entities finally bring an end to the First Amendment pry the keyboard from our cold, dead hands.

Here now are your print headlines for the newest edition—the tenth anniversary/eleventh year issue, Volume 11, Issue 1—of Disclosure, March/April 2013. Each headline is preceded by the dateline (where the material in the article took place) and is followed by a brief synopsis of the article. Each headline is linked to the e-Edition, where, if you are a subscriber to the online version, you can read the articles appearing in this paper from the convenience of your computer. If you haven’t subscribed to an e-Edition membership, get yours today!

FRONT PAGE

RICHLAND CO./U.S. District Court, Benton—ISP agent sued in federal court; second such suit in a year: Little Ricky White has been sued again. And it looks like ISP is beginning to figure out just where their liability is.

CLAY CO.—Woman’s death now considered homicide: Interesting little twist to this article about Tracie Denise Hunt: late last week, authorities were telling people close to the deceased woman that her death, by heart failure (which is what EVERYBODY dies from, ultimately) was being considered a homicide, because there’s a difference in ’cause’ of death and ‘manner’ of death. We give ISP a call about this, and suddenly, press releases are being sent out to all mainstream media that her death was a result of ‘natural causes’ and “no foul play was suspected.” We are going with what our sources are telling us: Foul play IS indeed suspected, and is indeed being investigated. The moral of this story: don’t believe the knee-jerk reactions by public officials who are scrambling to cover something. You read the story, and find out what it is they’re possibly covering.

Terry Payton

EDGAR CO.—Jury convicts teen of Second-Degree Murder: The terrible story of how someone we suspect wants Sharia law in this country managed to first bore to sleep, then contrived-ly convince, a jury to convict Terry Payton when his mother threatened his life. There are two side stories that appear with this main article, which is enormous; look for them further down the page.

LAWRENCE CO.—DOC officer beaten by inmate: The ongoing abuses against correctional officers in Illinois’ prison system hits close to home. But are most of the reports real and happening due to overcrowding…or are we just getting reports now because DOC is whining about overcrowding following prison closures in the state?

RICHLAND CO.—Charges upheld in rural shooting: Preliminary hearing held for Jordan Fletcher; another person defending himself, in his own home, is being prosecuted for doing so.

SOUTHERN ILL.—Mayoral matchups few across region: Consolidated Election 2013 is going to be held April 9. Let’s don’t drop the ball on this one, southern Illinois. You may not think this election is important, but each election is, and informed, intelligent voters need to show up in force at the polls that day to ensure they have decent representation at the most basic levels: your municipalities and townships.

 BACK PAGE

Julie Hobbs

HARDIN CO.—Charges dismissed on law secretary; more filed: Julie Hobbs’ charge of practicing law without a license was dismissed at the preliminary. However, she’s now facing another charge, this one possibly equally as bogus.

WESTPORT—Authorities waiting for autopsy/tox results in vet’s death: The terrible story of an accidental death in eastern Lawrence County last month.

Lance Collins

FLORA—Firefighter charged with criminal sexual abuse: Now here’s something you didn’t see in Clay County mainstream media, because they “never put anything about crimes like this in the paper until after it’s done with.” But here, when it’s filed, it’s news. And sometimes it’s news BEFORE it’s filed.

OP-ED

COLUMNS:
SURLY & UNCOOPERATIVE (Jack): Imprisoned for blog critical of judge
ICY (Ang): Another travesty of justice, to rival them all
PROSE & CONS (Bubba): Of Obammy sainthood and the great gun grab
GUEST COLUMNS (Steve Pope): Villain ‘Liz’ Tolbert seeks clemency; make startling revelation in her petition.

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE: Supporter of Terry Payton tells surprising story that didn’t make it into the trial; allegations against a Newton-area arsonist; a look inside a federal prison camp; message to gun-control activists

BACK OVER YOUR TALES: The offensive Urp crew in one of their many early busts; Mt. Carmel man beaten severely; badbadbad state trooper Brian Rawls; Molotov cocktail in Lawrenceville; Morgan Fehrenbacher can’t keep her hooters in her hoodie; April jury trial set for publisher’s son’s felony battery case; ‘Reverse 911′ in Crawford County; White County public officials whine they aren’t making enough money; death of deputy David Mills in Ridgway; and the American Cancer Society is busted out once again.

EGYPT

HARDIN CO.—The rest of the story; Horror behind how 0ut-of-control Hardin woman’s behavior affects 2-year-old: Martina AGAIN. This headline shouldn’t have limited it to her baby; it should have said “how the behavior affects EVERYONE AROUND HER.” Now the question is: Will these largely-criminal acts be investigated by the powers-that-be in Hardin, and will SOMETHING be done with this twit?

WHITE CO.—Troubled trooper could be at the heart of sex case mistrial: Rick White AGAIN. He says stupid things, does even stupider things. Loses cases left and right. And now the situation with Dr. Chhabra. Whose jury was HUNG, btw, by one person who believed he was guilty when the rest believed not guilty. That’s literally how the justice system is suppose to work, EDGAR COUNTY.

HARDIN CO.—Humvee thief tangles with sheriff: WHY anyone would think they can outmuscle Hardin County Sheriff JT Fricker is beyond us. But this numbnuts did. And he lost.

GALLATIN CO.—Gets seven years with no investigation; pills taken from nursing home lead blotter: Crim roundup in GallCo is QUITE interesting this month.

SALINE CO.—Teen charged in truck torching, auto theft: What went down outside of Harrisburg in mid-February; hard to believe two little punks could do this much damage, but there ya go.

SALINE CO.—Robs blind elderly woman: Lindsay Clark, looking a little rough around the edges. Apparently, life with her wife isn’t softening this gal up any.

SALINE CO.—Details of brutal beating, sexual assault released: Michael Irvin. He’s such a good guy, you know. Got a Facebook page and everything. Oh, and when he was 24 he was convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl. But his Facebook peeps say he’s such a good guy. And everything.

guess whooooo…..

SALINE CO.—Violence at county jail and kiddy prison: Hey, guess who got in trouble at the SCDC?? One hint: an inmate there who’s ordinarily a concubine of Steve Patton’s.

SALINE CO.—Woman has meltdown in local ER; meth production and smuggling dope into the jail: Quite the handful of bizarre little stories, all from Saline County and all, unfortunately, typical fare there.

SALINE CO.—Caught cookin off a batch in the trunk: Hint—when cooking a batch of mobile meth, always obey all traffic codes and state statutes. That trunk-meth is hard to talk your way out of.

SALINE CO.—Van loaded with teens crashes, drunk driver taken away by mommy: If there’s one Saline County story you read this month, make this one IT. Some of this shit is damn near impossible to believe.

HEARTLAND

EDGAR CO.—Payton issues letter to friends, family: A heart-touching letter submitted to Terry Payton’s supporters via a Facebook page for him is published in full.

EDGAR CO.—THE JURY THAT CONVICTED TERRY PAYTON: As we’ve said in the vidcasts and podcasts, we don’t often out juries, but this time is the exception. This side story gives the names—as we could figure them out, since nobody bothered to spell any of them and the file was in the judge’s possession in the days following the trial—and puts the onus of a pitiful decision, based on a handful of people giving up the presumption of innocence, onto people that the taxpayers paid to do the job that the police, DCFS and prosecutor Mark Isaf wouldn’t do….but that they didn’t.

CRAWFORD CO.—Habitual crim eyeballs prison time: The law may have finally caught up to Anthony Littlejohn in some kind of meaningful way. We can at least hope.

CRAWFORD CO.—Burglars appear to be running in packs: When the economy gets bad, the bad get to trashing the economy via theft. However, this batch may not be ‘bad’ so much as ‘dumber than a box of hair.’

CRAWFORD CO.—Meth possession cases filed—A young man from a decent family has fallen to the wayward side with the lure of meth; and a Newton man gets hemmed up in neighboring Crawford.

EDGAR CO.—Grandparents speak on the background; Corruption flourishing in Edgar: The background of Terry Payton’s father Stephen Lye, as told by his grandparents; and a very surprising conversation that occurred a few weeks after Kathie Payton’s death between the grandparents and one of the Edgar County POCs (People of the Community), a person who shouldn’t have had a say in ANYTHING that had to do with Terry Payton….which shows the depth of the corruption plaguing that county.

Does she LOOK crazy? well…you know the old saw about a bear shitting in the woods…

EDGAR CO.—’If you’re looking at Jan, you’re looking at Kathie’: Coverage of the most bizarre aspect of the Terry Payton trial, the hideous Jan Payton/Burno/Mills/other unknown names. Dementia? Possibly. Demented? DEFINITELY.

 CENTRAL

RICHLAND CO.—Richland meth mover busted: We’ve been following the antics of Jay Sechrest for about two years now. We’ve been told he uses as well as moves, this by people who’ve observed it. Now, the law has finally caught up to him…as it usually does, even in a place like Richland County.

LAWRENCE CO.—Some upset with drug court deal for local meth maker: More information on what happened and how the situation came about that Jimmy Mahrenholz is off on a drug court plea deal.

Luther Wilkerson

EDWARDS CO.—11 Intimidation counts filed against Princeton man; sex case going to trial: Mike Valentine keeps making an impact on the county, hence the multiple charges Luther Wilkinson is facing. Also, an update on Mr. Martin and his sex counts.

ALBION—Less contentious city meeting sees another resignation: The city’s pro tem mayor resigned this month; this was something he’d had in the works and was going to announce it last month, but had a little more respect for the city and the office of Alderman than to announce on the same day as Ryan Hallam and Gary Mason did.

Danny Cornwell

CLAY CO.—Shooting at ‘The Ridge’: Coverage of the incident we didn’t get to last month because the ISP press release didn’t get out until after deadline: Danny Cornwell and the accusation that he shot up a place out at The Ridge, rural Clay County.

WABASH CO.—Officer suffers from groin head-butt: There are just some headlines that make a person cringe in pain. This is one of them.

LAWRENCE CO.—Valentine’s Day cannabis delivery lands one man behind bars: The story of 7-foot, 500-pound Mr. Bilskie, who had a rather special delivery for the latest holiday…

WABASH CO.—Repeat drug offender busted for possession: Meth busts going on in the big cit-tay of Mt. Carmel, where dope flourishes.

LAWRENCE CO.—Half of mom/son doper team busted again in Lawrence Co.—What the hell is it with these damned enabling 40-or 50-something moms in Lawrence and their damned 20-or 30-something kids???

LAWRENCE CO.—CVS pharmacy joins WalMart in use by dope cooks for meth precursors: Massive news regarding a huge number of people buying the pseudoephedrine pills at the only couple of places in Lawrence you CAN buy em….if we didn’t know any better, we’d think a recent drug convict rolled or something….

LAWRENCE CO.—Damage to business: More coverage of the busting out of the window at the Towne House.

OLNEY—O’Neill tries to be human; former mayor’s property called ‘hazard’ by councilwoman: There might be only one person in the world more insane and less worthy of continuing to draw air than Jan Burno…and if it is, it’s Brian James O’Neill. Also…Ms. FlashinThaBoobs herself, Morgan Fehrenbacher, makes a guest appearance at this city council meeting.

MARCH TO APRIL IS WHAT WE TAKE AS A ‘LONG MONTH’ SO WE CAN GET GARDENING DONE; AS A RESULT OF THAT, THIS ISSUE WILL BE ON STANDS FOR FIVE WEEKS; NEXT ISSUE AVAILABLE APRIL 17!

DON’T MISS THIS ONE, AS IT HAS IMPORTANT ELECTION INFORMATION IN IT…AND DON’T FORGET TO VOTE APRIL 9!!