Vigilance Is a Parent's Best Weapon

As a toddler, my daughter is starting to assert her independence. She doesn’t want us to do things for her, she wants to walk on her own and, most of the time, she doesn’t want to hold our hands.

But, we make her hold our hands when we’re out in public. We tell her we don’t want anything to happen to her. She doesn’t understand us now, but this is something she needs to learn from an early age. We don’t want her to get hit by a car or be abducted.

My worst fear as a parent is that something will happen to her similar to the Jorelys Rivera case. I think that’s probably every parent’s greatest fear. Residents have had mixed feelings to hearing that a maintenance man at the apartment complex where Rivera lived was arrested for her death. One person said that he thinks parents will now be watching over their shoulders. I don’t live there, but I know I will be keeping even more of a watchful eye over my daughter now.

Ryan Brunn, , will have his first appearance hearing today at 1:30 p.m. at the Cherokee County Justice Center in downtown Canton.

We should have a drier, warmer day tomorrow with high temperatures in the 50s.

Yesterday, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison after being convicted of federal corruption charges.