The Champaign City Building figures prominently in this view of downtown Champaign, as seen from University Avenue.
|

Downtown Champaign bar manager dies nine days after shooting

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

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.
|

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

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.
|

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

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.

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
| | |

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

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.
|

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

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.

Fish in Illinois lakes & streams will no longer be tested for DDT
|

Fish in Illinois lakes & streams will no longer be tested for DDT

Illinois is joining a growing list of states that will no longer test fish in lakes and rivers for DDT and other related pesticides.  Illinois began testing fish for organochlorine pesticides in the 1970s, a few years after the best-known one, DDT, was banned in the U-S. Up until the ban, the chemicals had been…