Newspapers in rural areas are folding, leaving vast news deserts. But there are bright spots

Newspapers in rural areas are folding, leaving vast news deserts. But there are bright spots

ByJim Meadows

https://play.podtrac.com/npr-1244411030/cpa.ds.npr.org/s60/audio/2024/04/newspapersweb.mp3 The U.S. has lost more than 2,800 newspapers since 2005, many of them in rural areas. Now some journalists are redoubling their efforts to provide local news and trying new models in a difficult industry. First Street in downtown Mount Vernon, Iowa, has the quintessential “Main Street” feel. It’s got a café , bank…

Quaker Oats is closing its Danville plant, sending pink slips to more than 500 workers

Quaker Oats is closing its Danville plant, sending pink slips to more than 500 workers

ByJim Meadows

One of Vermilion County’s largest employers is closing down and laying off its workforce. Production has ceased at the Quaker Oats plant in Danville, leaving approximately 510 employees without work. Chicago-based Quaker Oats, a unit of Pepsico since 2001, opened the plant in 1969. In recent years, the Danville plant manufactured Quaker Oats granola bars,…

A UIUC researcher wants to compare new farmland soil samples to old ones. Objective: learn how farming affects soil over time.
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A UIUC researcher wants to compare new farmland soil samples to old ones. Objective: learn how farming affects soil over time.

ByJim Meadows

A soil scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana campus is reaching out to landowners and farmers, as he prepares to take soil samples at locations where samples were taken years ago across the state.

New USDA ‘climate-friendly’ farming and ranching practices have yet to be proven, report says

New USDA ‘climate-friendly’ farming and ranching practices have yet to be proven, report says

ByJim Meadows

An environmental activist group charges that many “climate smart” farming practices recently added to a list for U.S. Department of Agriculture funding are not yet proven. The Environmental Working Group says funding from the Inflation Reduction Act should not be used to pay farmers for using the practices, until there is more evidence that they work.

The Champaign City Building figures prominently in this view of downtown Champaign, as seen from University Avenue.
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Downtown Champaign bar manager dies nine days after shooting

ByJim Meadows

Champaign Police are reclassifying the shooting of a downtown bar manager as a homicide, following the death of Brandon L. Hardway. The Champaign County Coroner’s office says the 45-year-old Hardway, of Champaign, died early Saturday at Carle Hospital, due to injuries he received in a shooting on the afternoon of February 8. Police say the shooting happened outside Hardway’s bar, Pour Brothers Craft Taproom, 40 E. University Avenue in downtown Champaign. Police say Hardway had come outside for a cigarette break, and was shot in the back.

Some Midwest states take power to ban wind and solar projects away from local communities

Some Midwest states take power to ban wind and solar projects away from local communities

ByJim Meadows

As the number of wind and solar farms increases, so does opposition in the rural areas where they’re being built. While more counties and townships passed restrictions in the last year, some states are responding by passing laws making it harder for local governments to say no to wind and solar. The land in Piatt…

Kickapoo Rail Trail on track for two-year completion with $11.2 million state grant.
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Kickapoo Rail Trail on track for two-year completion with $11.2 million state grant.

ByJim Meadows

After seven years of construction, less than half of the 24-mile Kickapoo Rail Trail in east-central Illinois has been completed. But now, the project could be finished in the next two years, thanks to a state grant. An $11.2 million grant, awarded through the state’s Rebuild Illinois Capital plan will pay for the completion of the walking and bike path.

A new rail trail planned for rural Piatt County could be part of something bigger.
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A new rail trail planned for rural Piatt County could be part of something bigger.

ByJim Meadows

Plans are in the works to construct a 2.3-mile rail trail in a rural area of Piatt County. As initially reported by columnist Tom Kacich in the News-Gazette, the proposed shared-used path would use the railroad right-of-way originally established for railroad tracks as a route for walking, running and cycling between the small towns of…

With a ceremony, the U.S. Air Force marks the transfer of the last of its Chanute Air Force Base land to civilian hands.

With a ceremony, the U.S. Air Force marks the transfer of the last of its Chanute Air Force Base land to civilian hands.

ByJim Meadows

From 1917 to its closure 30 years ago, the base hosted military aircraft from World War One to the Vietnam War, and training programs for more than one million airmen, including the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first African American Air Force pilots.

The Piatt County Board, with reluctance, approves the county’s first wind farm
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The Piatt County Board, with reluctance, approves the county’s first wind farm

ByJim Meadows

The Piatt County Board voted 4-2 on Friday to approve a special use permit for a wind farm in the county. But several members made it clear they were approving the Prosperity Wind project reluctantly, as a new Illinois law gave them no real choice in the matter.

U of I hopes a new greenhouse will be an incubator for bioenergy crops.
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U of I hopes a new greenhouse will be an incubator for bioenergy crops.

ByJim Meadows

University of Illinois officials held ceremonial shovels Wednesday morning, for a groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of construction on a new greenhouse. It will open next summer in the Urbana-Champaign campus’ Research Park and be used for research into bioenergy crops.