Good morning, troops.

Readers are remarkable: nothing - global pandemic, social upheaval, murder hornets - can't stop their devotion to sharing love and encouragement, as seen in this latest edition of Random Axe of Snideness.

EAST PEORIA - First a pandemic. Then historic rains.

During the early days of former Gov. Jim Edgar's administration, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, was no ally of the Republican governor.

PEORIA - Eighteen more cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in the Tri-County Region in the last 24 hours, for a total of 1,147 cases to-date.