Western Illinois University has a paleontological rock star among its faculty. Associate Professor Matthew Bonnan is part of the discovery team who found and described a new dinosaur in South Africa named Aardonyx, which means “earth claw.”

One man's opinion: The videos that are too funny to believe are not believable.

Well, it's over, there are no more waffles. I am going to pause for a moment to let that news sink in and give you the time, if you are so moved, to kill yourself, because this waffle fiasco is pretty definitively the worst thing to happen to our collective breakfast-related condition since the lunchtime mauling of Sonny the Cocoa Puffs bird in that panther cage (he was so young and chocolatey).

Hong Ji came to Peoria two years ago and was surprised to learn that Americans drink tea made from leaves so old they have lost much of their nutritional value. Ji grew up in Harbin in the northeast region of China. Her family operates a tea business there, and she grew up believing in the medicinal value of tea. Now in the U.S., Ji teaches classes on Chinese tea tasting at the Peoria RiverPlex, where she is an exercise specialist for OSF Saint Francis Medical Center's medical and arthritis program.

Genetics is about to join race, religion, sex, color and national origin among workplace protections against discrimination. The Genetics Information Nondiscrimination Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2008, prohibits employers from discriminating based on genetic testing or history of workers or job applicants, including as part of health coverage. Civil rights, ethics and business groups say the change, which will take effect Saturday, is the most significant civil rights legislation since the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1991.

When Lanphier High School officials decided to ask female students to keep their purses small, they became the most recent in a long line of area school administrators to impose such a rule. In October, a rash of violence among Lanphier’s students spurred the school to re-evaluate its security measures, including its policy on book bags and purses.

Do you like birthdays? Why not create more for yourself? Thursday was the 34th annual Great American Smokeout, challenging people not to smoke cigarettes for 24 hours, hoping their decision to quit will last forever. Those who quit at 35 can gain eight more birthdays, and those who quit at 55 can gain about five more, according to the American Cancer Society. Despite strides made reducing cigarette smoking for almost 15 consecutive years, smoking among U.S. adults rose slightly to just more than 20 percent, according to a 2008 national survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

You’d never know it living in Springfield, but Abraham Lincoln is not the only historic figure celebrating a bicentennial birthday. This weekend, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra celebrates the 200th anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn's birth with an all-Mendelssohn program.

“You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake,” Tyler Durden says in the movie “Fight Club.” Nothing drives that home quite like an Internet search of your own name.

This year’s wet, cool weather is expected to take its toll on the state’s corn and soybean production, although area farmers may fare slightly better. In the northern parts of Illinois, soybean production is expected to be up slightly. Corn, however, continues to vex farmers as long rainy periods, punctuated by days of warm sunshine, have kept farmers weeks behind on their harvests.

Pete Johnson was facing a tough year in 2010 at the pharmacy he owns in Wyoming, a store started by his father more than 80 years ago. He wasn't sure he'd be able to survive, in fact, considering as much as 25 percent of his business came from Caterpillar Inc. employees and retirees - business Caterpillar was poised to take from him in favor of agreements it reached with Wal-Mart and Walgreen's. Johnson's was one of several independent pharmacies in small towns not within a "reasonable distance" from a Wal-Mart or Walgreen's to be informed this week and last that they will stay in the Caterpillar network at least another year.

In the 12-month period ending in October, 11,377 people and entities declared bankruptcy in U.S. bankruptcy court in the district that includes Springfield, Danville and Peoria, according to statistics kept by the Bankruptcy Data Project at Harvard University. That’s 1,860 more filings than during the same time frame the previous year.

There are typically enough dishes that do not contain meat to satisfy most vegetarians at Thanksgiving. If you want to make a thoughtful gesture, however, for a vegetarian or vegan guest, we’ve compiled a list of some of the more popular, seasonal vegetarian entrées.

Although the turkey may be the main event for a Thanksgiving meal, the sides are what make it memorable. Traveling for family gatherings can pose some limitations in terms of what sides to prepare. Warm dishes get cold, cold dishes get warm and messy mishaps are caused by bumpy rides.

It may come as a surprise to some, but not all Thanksgiving turkeys come with a pop-up thermometer. The eastern wild turkey still has a place at the table – as it may have had during the first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621. One of the two written accounts of the first Thanksgiving includes a reference to wild turkeys in abundance around the Plymouth colony. Today, some hunters still insist on getting their turkey from the “great store” of wild turkeys in the Illinois woods instead of that other store with a freezer section.