03-04-2025
Top of the Morning, April 3, 2025
Apr. 3—Now available at
— Nominations are open for Central Illinois Business magazine's Forty Under 40, now in Year 18 and powered by Busey Bank. as we prepare to celebrate another group of men and women who make our community go).
— Our photo gallery from Monday's Farm Leader banquet in Urbana is published. Among the highlights: Lois Wood, the first Champaign County Fair Queen, and the current queen, Olivia Shike, getting a chance to meet.
Lois won the 1958 competition. Her husband, Don, was The News-Gazette's Farm Leader in 1996, and Lois has been a regular at each year's banquet.
Olivia, an 18-year-old Unity High grad, was honored as the first Emerging Farm Leader of the Year, a well-received addition to a program we introduced in 1972. Can't wait to see who wins it in 2026.
