Thursday, June 24, 2021 Today’s headlines: Some Democrats in the Illinois Senate are beginning to push for allowing non-citizens to vote in local school board elections. When schools in Illinois re-open for the new school year, they’ll still have to take precautions against the coronavirus. Illinois could become the first state to require the teaching…
OAKWOOD — Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy announced on Tuesday they were suing Dynegy Midwest Generation over the disposal of coal ash at the shuttered Vermilion Power Station. That coal ash has been in retention ponds near the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River. Later that day, Raoul…
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 Today’s headlines: The U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs says it’s working on a fix to allow veterans who got their COVID-19 shots at VA facilities to participate in Illinois’ vaccine lottery. A new plan that just passed in Springfield and a recent report from the State Board of Higher Education come…
URBANA – Former Illinois Congressman John Shimkus has signed on with a lobbying firm. Kit Bond Strategies, which has been newly renamed the KBS Group, announced Monday that the 63-year-old Shimkus has joined them as a principal. The firm was founded in 2011 by former Missouri governor and senator, Kit Bond. “Shaping public policy is…
URBANA – The University of Illinois plans a return to near normal class schedules in the fall, and campus life free of face masks, social distancing and regular testing for the coronavirus. But university officials say that’s only possible with COVID-19 vaccinations for everybody. U of I President Tim Killeen announced the vaccination requirement for…
Tuesday, June 22, 2021 Today’s headlines: The University of Illinois plans a return to mostly normal class schedules in the fall, but vaccinations for COVID-19 will be a requirement for students. One of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s top advisors is leaving his administration. Former Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes has served as Deputy Governor for Budget and…
Monday, June 21, 2021 Today’s headlines: Six months after a state lawmaker went through prostate cancer treatment largely in private, he’s going public to encourage men to get checked. The Illinois General Assembly this spring approved a measure to allow people convicted of engaging in sex work to expunge their criminal records. Following state and…
CHAMPAIGN — Following state and national trends, Champaign County is seeing an uptick in drug overdose deaths and homicides. Over the past five years, the number of people who’ve died from a drug overdose — in both Champaign County and the state of Illinois — has roughly doubled. Last year, 52 Champaign County residents died…
URBANA — The Boneyard Arts Festival came back for an in-person showcase of local artists’ work at more than 50 venues in Champaign-Urbana and the surrounding area this weekend. Before the pandemic, art exhibitions would be displayed in over 100 venues around the county in April, but after a virtual showcase in 2020, organizers decided…
The average age of farmworkers born outside the U.S. steadily increased from 2008 to 2019, while the average age of U.S.-born workers has stayed about the same over the same period. Foreign-born farmworkers are on average 5 years older than their U.S.-born counterparts. An analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Environmental Research Service attributes the…
URBANA — Clothing has the power to determine the ways people view others and the way they view themselves. Many people use clothes as a form of self-expression and as a way to show how they want to be perceived by others. For the LGBTQ+ community, access to gender-affirming is crucial says Uniting Pride of…
Below are posts as the Illinois Newsroom followed the developing weather situation early Saturday morning. Updated Saturday at 4:24 a.m. After heavy rain and winds passed through Central Illinois early Saturday morning, but the National Weather Service says more severe storms are in the forecast for the weekend. The main severe weather concerns will be…
URBANA — When people think cannabis, they often think marijuana. But the cannabis plant takes many different forms, from medicinal cannabidiol (CBD) to industrial hemp. A new class at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aims to break down all the different uses of the crop and provide a foundation for students interested in entering the…
Friday, June 18, 2021 Today’s headlines: State government offices, including driver services facilities, will be closed today to observe Juneteenth, which President Joe Biden signed off on making a federal holiday yesterday. More students will be prepped to enter the cannabis industry thanks to a new class offered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign….
URBANA – The National Weather Service in Lincoln has issued a Heat Advisory tomorrow from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. for central and southern Illinois. Heat indices are expected to peak at 104 degrees tomorrow in Champaign. According to the National Weather Service, The heat index, also known as the apparent temperature, is what the temperature…