Children and families from Champaign-Urbana gathered at the playground at Meadowbrook Park in Urbana on Saturday to say goodbye to the wooden structure that has been around for almost 30 years. The playground will soon be replaced with a new design that Urbana Park District officials say is more modern and accessible. Urbana resident Bree…
As the 2024 election season approaches, political news coverage will rise — and with it, so might conflict between couples with differing political views. It’s something Emily Van Duyn is paying attention to. Van Duyn, an associate professor of communications at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, led a research study where she interviewed 67 individuals who are in…
Emily Stenhoff and Spencer Strunic first met at a Sugar River Pizza in Madison, Wisconsin nearly five years ago. Today, the couple says they’re grateful for an online program that helped them strengthen their relationship and feel more equipped to tackle the challenges of marriage and parenting. Before they met, Emily and Spencer both said…
Despite efforts to simplify the Federal Application for Free Student Aid (FAFSA), students with undocumented parents are dealing with a frustrating website glitch that’s threatening their access to financial aid. A new online form launched at the end of last year — the result of the FAFSA Simplification Act that Congress passed in December 2020. The change was meant…
Dozens of people attended a rally in Champaign demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. aid to Israel amid ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces. The Champaign-Urbana branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Prairie Liberation Center organized the protest as part of a national day of action organized by…
Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday that will lift the three-decade moratorium on developing nuclear reactors. The law, which takes effect in June 2024, will allow the development of generation IV power plants, which are also known as small modular reactors or SMRs. Currently Illinois, and most other states, use generation II reactors. Illinois generates…
Thanksgiving is on Thursday, and many mouths are already starting to water at the thought of a traditional turkey feast. But for community members who are unable to afford or provide dinner, the Urbana High School student council is hosting its 50th annual Thanksgiving Dinner this week. The dinner event is making a comeback as…
Not all Jewish people agree with the actions of the Israeli military amid Israel’s ongoing invasion of Palestine. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the student group Jews for Palestine provides a space for Jewish people in the C-U area who don’t support Zionism — the movement supporting the creation of a Jewish State in Palestinian…
This is the time of year that many college students in Champaign-Urbana scramble to sign off-campus leases for the next academic year. The process can be very complicated, and the race to quickly sign a lease can lead students to make uninformed decisions about their living situation, according to Dana DeCair, director of Off-Campus Community…
The Leapfrog Group issued its Fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades on Monday. The report looks at metrics for patient safety and care quality and assigns an “A” to “F” rating to nearly 3,000 U.S. hospitals. Among those hospitals: OSF HealthCare Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana received a B grade, and Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana received a C…
The Champaign County Environmental Stewards turned post-Halloween cleanup into a community event on Saturday with their second annual Pumpkin Smash. Residents tossed their pumpkins against a cement wall at the Landscape Recycling Center in Urbana, turning potential landfill waste into compost that will later be sold at the center. “It’s important to divert some of…
School buses are among the safest forms of transportation for children, and seat belts and other safety features can make buses even safer, according to the National Safety Council. But very few states currently have laws requiring seat belts on large school buses. Only eight states – Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and…
Although the protest was student-led, older Palestinians and families from the Champaign-Urbana area also marched alongside the university students.
Around 80 people met at the University YMCA in Champaign to celebrate “I Stand with Immigrants” Day of Action on Oct. 25. The event was hosted by the Illinois Coalition of Undocumented Students for Education, or I-CAUSE. The student organization’s mission is to create an alliance of undocumented students to provide representation and resources. “I Stand With…
More than half of non-Spanish-speaking Latinos in the U.S. say they’ve been shamed by other Latinos for not speaking the language, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center. The survey aimed to gain insights into U.S. Hispanics’ perspectives on the Spanish language. It included over 3,000 adults from around the nation and…