Today is Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. Here are local news reports from 100, 50 and 15 years ago:
In 1926, prominent Champaign attorney Manford Savage died at his home at 810 W. Church Street. Born in 1855, he came here in 1874 to join the first class at the Illinois Industrial University. He studied law under Col. J.S. Wolfe and worked in Nebraska for 11 years as an attorney before returning here to form a law partnership with Wolfe, as well as a later one with William Woods, now the county attorney. Savage served as president of the Home Telephone Company for 20 years and oversaw the arrival of the first automated telephones to Champaign.
In 1976, Urbana City Clerk Duane Eckerty was in stable condition following a collapse at city hall. Eckerty, 57, is in his third term as city clerk and has a recent history of occasional serious chest and abdominal pains. “I don’t think it’s related to his heart,” Dr. Dickinson said, “but we’ll be keeping him for a few days of observation just to be sure.”
In 2011, officials are reminding residents that, if you’ve been hanging on to that brick of a cellphone or an old computer for no particular reason, now is a good time to get rid of it. After Jan. 1, 2012, it will be illegal in Illinois to throw a number of electronic devices in the trash that goes to the landfill, and residents and their haulers could be fined if they ignore the new law.