At Spunky Bottoms, an Illinois River wetland’s resilience is on display
The Nature Conservancy acquired the roughly 1,300-acre Merwin Preserve at Spunky Bottoms in the late 1990’s and allowed the site to return to being a floodplain wetland.
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Weatherman-turned-congressman Eric Sorensen wants to guide weather preparedness from D.C.
The former television weatherman is looking to use that experience to help shape federal policy to help keep Americans safe from weather disasters.
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Pritzker for president? Handicapping the Illinois governor’s political future
It’s the most common question Pritzker is getting from local and national reporters.
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Bears stadium fail wasn’t Pritzker’s only fumble — his affordable housing plan also went nowhere
Gov. JB Pritzker’s plan would have allowed multi-unit housing, such as duplexes and triplexes, and “granny flats” on nearly all properties zoned for residential use. But he was unable to overcome local government leaders’ opposition to the proposal.
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This Rockford middle school disciplines Black students more than any school in Illinois
Schools in Illinois discipline Black students at much higher rates than white students.
A Rockford middle school is an outlier for handing out the most discipline violations per Black student of any school in the state. -
Sweet hope, Chicago! Obama, city celebrate a presidential center that ‘could not be anywhere else’
The star-studded opening brought out three former presidents, musical legends and former staffers to celebrate a center that former President Barack Obama said will “serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious our democracy truly is.”
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Lincoln and Logan County officials slam state plans to close Logan Correctional Center
The move has been in the works for several years with state officials saying the all-women’s prison in Lincoln, built in the 1930s, was outdated and in disrepair.
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KIDS COUNT data ranks Illinois 7th in the nation in education
The report looks at dozens of indicators including high school graduation rates, standardized test scores, and chronic absences.
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Trump administration blocks wind farm development in Illinois and across the nation
The Trump administration now has what amounts to a moratorium on new wind farm projects, according to renewable energy advocates.
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Family advocates praise Illinois bill that gives parents more transparency in child abuse investigations
The bill requires child abuse pediatricians — investigators at the hospital who look at medical records to determine if there is potential child abuse — to state who they are to parents as they start an investigation.
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These junior high students championed the black and gold bumblebee. Now it’s the Illinois state bee
While most student research projects end up in a storage bin in the attic, one that 8th graders at Naperville’s Lincoln Junior High worked on is now state law.
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Bill enshrines editorial independence for university-licensed public media in Illinois
Illinois Public Media (WILL-AM/FM/TV) is licensed to the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
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When the school year ends, their paychecks do too. Lawmakers could change that
Illinois bills would give school support workers access to summer unemployment benefits.
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Illinois’ U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth says Congress must curtail war in Iran
The Democratic senator’s remarks came one day after the U.S. Senate voted to take up a resolution that would limit the president’s ability to continue war efforts in Iran without congressional approval.
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How the Supreme Court’s voting rights decision could impact Illinois and explaining Dick Durbin’s ‘John Lewis Voting Rights Act’
WNIJ’s Peter Medlin talked with Northern Illinois University professor Scot Schraufnagel about the Supreme Court’s recent decision to cut key parts of the Voting Rights Act and a bill Senator Dick Durbin has introduced multiple times to restore the Voting Rights Act.
