If you have an item and you would like to know what it is worth, send digital pictures with a brief description to paulhconnor@gmail.com,
make an appointment to visit
201 North Commerce Street,
Galena, IL 61036, or call 563-543-5201.

Smokey the Bear!

A campaign began in 1944 featuring Smokey and the slogan “Smokey Says …Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires.” His slogan changed to “Remember... Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires” in 1947 and was associated with Smokey Bear for more than five decades. This cookie jar with matching salt and pepper shakers sold on eBay at auction for $355.00.

Dupaco’s Joe Hearn inducted
​into Credit Union Executives Society’s Hall of Fame

Joe Hearn, Dupaco President/CEO

MADISON, Wis.—The Credit Union Executives Society (CUES), a national credit union education and development organization, has inducted Dupaco Community Credit Union President/CEO Joe Hearn into its Hall of Fame.

The CUES Hall of Fame recognizes a lifetime of achievement and dedication to the credit union movement. These extraordinary leaders were chosen by CUES board of directors for their contributions to their profession and the industry; involvement in community service; and education and history of self-improvement.

Hearn joined Dupaco in 1986 as director of marketing, and later promoted to executive vice president. He was named chief operating officer in 2008. Hearn was named Dupaco president/CEO in 2012, upon the retirement of long-time CEO Bob Hoefer.

In addition to his local, state, and national volunteer service, Hearn serves on the CUES board of directors, and is a past chairman.

About Credit Union Executives Society (Cues):

CUES’ mission is to educate and develop credit union CEOs, executives, directors and future leaders. Learn more at https://www.cues.org.

About Dupaco Community Credit Union:

Dupaco Community Credit Union is a not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperative. It is dedicated to the financial sustainability of its members, and specializes in customized financial counseling, money advice and education. It offers savings, loans, investments, insurance and wealth management products for individuals and businesses. Dupaco serves residents in 108 counties throughout Iowa, northwest Illinois and southwest Wisconsin. Chartered in 1948, membership totals more than 124,000 with assets exceeding $1.8 billion. Visit Dupaco at www.dupaco.com.

• On Jan. 5, 1643, in the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke, by the Quarter Court of Boston.

• On Jan. 1, 1818, “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” is published. The book by 20-year-old Mary Shelley is frequently called the world’s first science fiction novel. In Shelley’s tale, a scientist animates a creature constructed from dismembered corpses.

• On Jan. 8, 1835, President Andrew Jackson achieves his goal of entirely paying off the United States’ national debt. It was the only time in U.S. history that the national debt stood at zero, and it precipitated one of the worst financial crises in American history, the Panic of 1837.

• On Jan. 12, 1932, Ophelia Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Caraway had been appointed earlier to fill the vacancy left by her late husband, Thaddeus Horatio Caraway.

• On Jan. 3, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower closes the American embassy in Havana and severs diplomatic relations between the United States and Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba. The action signaled that the U.S. was prepared to take extreme measures to oppose Castro’s regime.

• On Jan. 2, 1974, President Richard Nixon signs the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph or lose federal highway funding. It was a result of fuel shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo.

• On Jan. 6, 1975, “Wheel of Fortune,” the longest-running syndicated game show in American television, premieres on NBC. In over 7,000 episodes, show hostess Vanna White has never worn the same gown twice.

​© 2019 Hearst Communications, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

Social Security Benefits Increase
​in 2020

Each year, we announce the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). By law, federal benefits increase when the cost of living rises, as measured by the Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Usually, there is an increase in the benefit amount people will receive each month, starting the following January.

Nearly 69 million Americans will see a 1.6 percent increase in their Social Security benefits and SSI payments in 2020. 

Other changes that will happen in January 2020 reflect the increase in the national average wage index. For example, the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security payroll tax will increase to $137,700 from $132,900. The earnings limit for workers who are younger than “full” retirement age (age 66 for people born in 1943 through 1954) will increase to $18,240. (We deduct $1 from benefits for each $2 earned over $18,240.)

The earnings limit for people turning 66 in 2020 will increase to $48,600. (We deduct $1 from benefits for each $3 earned over $48,600 until the month the worker turns age 66.)

In December 2019, we will post Social Security COLA notices online for retirement, survivors, and disability beneficiaries who have a my Social Security account. You will be able to view and save future COLA notices via the Message Center inside my Social Security. 

You can log in to or sign up for a my Social Security account today at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount to get more information about your new benefit amount. You can choose to receive an electronic notification by email, text, or both ways under “Message Center Preferences.” Our notification will let you know that a new message is waiting for you. We will not send any personal information in the notification. The Message Center also allows you to go paperless by opting out of receiving agency notices by mail that you can get online, including annual cost-of-living adjustments and the income-related monthly adjustment amount increases. The Message Center is a secure portal where you can conveniently receive sensitive communications that we don’t send through email or text.

More information about the 2020 COLA is available at
www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.

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