Natasha Williams has parted ways with WHIO after 19 years at the Dayton CBS-affiliate.

Williams has not appeared at the WHIO morning anchor desk since late last month. The station has been responding to comments on its Facebook page with a statement that reads, “Natasha no longer works at WHIO-TV. We wish her well in her future endeavors!”

Williams co-anchored the morning newscast with John Paul. Before joining WHIO in 1993 as a reporter, she worked at WBBJ in Jackson, WTVO in Rockford and WKEF in Dayton.

Bob Schaper has joined WTVO, the ABC-affiliate in Rockford, IL, as anchor and managing editor, according to the Rockford Register Star.

Schaper has previously been a reporter at rival WREX and at the Register Star. He began this week at WTVO, co-anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast with Mimi Murphy.

“Our viewers will notice the investigative edge Bob will bring to our newscasts,” news director Kent Harrell said.

WTVO-WQRF in Rockford, IL was forced off the air on Friday and staff evacuated the building as heavy snow and low altitude winds caused guy wires on the stations’ tower to whip around wildly.

“Seeing the wires behave that way, in all the years that I’ve been here I’ve never seen them like that,” chief engineer Mike Real said.  “They could actually start shaking the tower down, or cause damage to the tower which is what we wanted to check on.”

In addition to the evacuation at WTVO-WQRF, 12 homes near the tower were evacuated Friday night. Read more

Wisconsin lawmakers are hiding out in Rockford, IL, giving local news crews there an opportunity to go one-on-one with those at the center of a political controversy that is gaining national attention.

Fourteen Democratic lawmakers fled Wisconsin this week in protest of Republican Governor Scott Walker‘s budget proposal, which, among other things, would limit the bargaining rights of those employed by the state.

“We hit the road,” Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller told WTVO reporter Alex Shabad. “This was not planned in advance.”

Shabad was able to catch up with a handful of the lawmakers as they stayed at a Best Western in Rockford.

“We felt by doing this, we’re delaying a vote and people will have more time to talk about the bill,” Senator Jim Holperin explained to Shabad (video here). Read more