PIERSON STATION – There are only a handful of houses in this town, most of them with hollyhocks, and young Ernie Utt had to go to Champaign or Decatur for his favorite pursuit – pinball.

Army 1st Sgt. Utt made it a long way away, to North Carolina, Texas, California and eventually Iraq, where he was killed in a rocket attack on Baghdad. In September, he would have been 39. The incident is still under investigation.

CHAMPAIGN – Champaign police were investigating the death of a man hit by a train early Wednesday.

Champaign police spokeswoman Joan Walls said a man on the railroad tracks just east of Neil Street was struck by a freight train about 6:15 a.m. in the 1500 block of South Neil Street. The train was headed north, Walls said. Train employees called in the accident.

SPRINGFIELD – Criticizing what it called Champaign County's "parallel juvenile justice system," the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that minors who fail to comply with the terms of supervision a city imposes for ordinance violations should not be charged with contempt of court.

Detention or imprisonment is a sentencing option for contempt, but is not an option for the original ordinance violations. So the cities were able to obtain tougher punishment by seeking contempt charges than what they were otherwise eligible to obtain by revoking supervision, the court noted in a ruling released late last week.

Legal fees have mounted for the city of Urbana, as the first sexual discrimination public hearing case heard by the city's Human Relations Commission has turned into the longest case heard by the commission in 10 years, and possibly ever.

As of June 23, legal fees for the hearing involving Lynn Sprout, a former Carle Foundation Hospital nurse manager, claiming she was fired because she is a lesbian, have cost taxpayers over $24,000. Traci Nally, the attorney representing the city of Urbana, is being paid $120 per hour by the city and has been paid $19,852 since June 2003, according to the city attorney's office. Hearing officer Donald Jackson, who acts as presiding judge for the case, has received $3,559 since June 2003. The case began June 15 and threatens to linger into August.