This coming May 21, Measure 17-116, proposed by Citizens for Responsible Government, will go to the voters. The measure proposes changes to the County Charter which will change the makeup of the County Board of Commissioners. CRG wants to give the voters a chance to elect five commissioners, two more[Read More…]

Iris ChinookIVN Contributing Writer Doing a classical music show for local community radio station KXCJ is a natural for long-time Valley resident Pat Mersman. Her childhood ears were bathed in classical music from radio and records. “Both of my parents were fond of opera, hence the Saturday morning ritual listening[Read More…]

A new year brings new opportunities and in 2024 a new preschool is coming to the Illinois Valley. It will be sited at Healthy U and is the brainchild of Healthy U Executive Director Sarah Kitting and Children and Families Program Director Chelsea Hamblin.Kitting explained how preschools are an important[Read More…]

M. James Kennedy, a.k.a. Jumbo Dubby, one of the newest hosts to join KXCJ-LP, brings a lot of experience to the station. New to the station but not to Oregon, he has lived all over the state since 2003 and in the Valley off-and-on since 2009. He joined the KXCJ[Read More…]

Iris ChinookIVN contributing writer Energy Trust of Oregon, in partnership with our local IVCanDO, is now offering free energy audits to qualifying Valley homeowners. Joy Lark, project manager for IVCanDO, said, “This specific program is new to our area but has been around for a little while now and seen[Read More…]

“The Show From Below” with DJ Unsupervised said he named his radio program after the belief, “Meaningful change will only come from below.”A first time DJ, Unsupervised, a.k.a., Garland Williams, became involved with KXCJ by way of the Illinois Valley News and the Cave Junction Farmers’ Market in May 2022[Read More…]

The city of Cave Junction has made the decision to prohibit the use of Jubilee Park as an evacuation site for Valley residents. The official evacuation center for the Smith River Complex wildfire is Rogue Community College’s gym on their Redwood Campus in Grants Pass. The American Red Cross is[Read More…]

The flow of traffic between Grants Pass and Cave Junction gets a little bit busier on Wednesdays. Josephine County organizations, largely centered in Grants Pass, pack up and drive to the Illinois Valley to do their important work for the Pop Up Public Health Wednesdays project. A similar effort began[Read More…]

KXCJ-LP, the Valley’s very own community radio station, has a new DJ. Rob Lark, under the name DJ Deep Fields, hosts his show “Exploratorium” every Tuesday night from 8-10 p.m.Lark, talking about the inspiration for his alias, said, “In astronomy, a Deep Field image is captured when a telescope focuses[Read More…]

Local jeweler Bobbi Blakely has been adding value to the Illinois Valley since 1989, both with her faith and her metalsmithing skills. She grew up in a suburb outside Chicago and after receiving a Bachelor of Art in central Illinois she worked as a jeweler and a designer in a[Read More…]