CHAMPAIGN – A new entertainment district is coming to downtown Champaign. The Beat, located on Market St, will be a space for adults to listen to music, support local businesses, and establish a sense of community. Morning Edition host Kimberly Schofield spoke with Tracy Parsons, the Community Relations Manager for the City of Champaign, about…
America is back, baby. Airports and roadways are expected to be jam-packed during the Memorial Day weekend, making up for travel lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis from AAA. But severe and potentially destructive storms forecast for the Plains, Midwest and mid-South through Memorial Day weekend may dampen the fun. AAA projects 43.8 million people…
CHAMPAIGN – Long-time community member and activist died unexpectedly of respiratory complications Wednesday night at age 66. Dr. Irfan Ahmad was an active and well-known member of the central Illinois Muslim community. “He was always just an advocate for underserved communities, particularly the Muslim community, particularly immigrants, but you know, particularly Pakistanis, because, you know,…
UPDATED at 11:30 a.m on Monday, April 29. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators camped out overnight on campus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They want the campus to divest from companies with ties to Israel’s military. The move has led to the cancellation of a meeting that had been planned with UIUC administrators Monday. The new…
Wet workweek ahead The National Weather Service in Central Illinois is forecasting storms on Sunday night and Monday. Meteorologists expect more active weather later in the week. Illini football players selected in the NFL Draft CHAMPAIGN – Former Illinois football players Johnny Newton, Isaiah Adams, Tip Reiman, and Casey Washington were selected in the 2024…
UPDATED at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 28. A long day of protests at the Alma Mater in Urbana ended late Friday night, after pro-Palestinian students and officials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reached a peaceful resolution. Earlier in the day, U of I police arrested two people protesting in support of…
The African American Heritage Trail, established in 2020, is a series of memorial signs that chronicle the history of African Americans throughout the county. Recently, two new displays have been added to the trail. These are dedicated to William F. Earnest and Maudelle Tanner Brown Bousfield. The new signs are located on First street in…
Annual Christie Clinic Illinois Race Weekend underway More than 200 people took part in the Green Street Mile last night, the first race of the Christie Clinic Illinois Race Weekend. Easton Rosen was the top male finisher with a time of 4:25. The top female elite finisher was Laura Krasa with a time of 5:03. …
Urbana police looking for a missing young refugee URBANA – Urbana Police are looking for a missing teenage refugee from Ecuador. officers say 14-year-old Tiago Zumarraga-Mosquera left home on Sunday morning to run an errand. He never returned home. Tiago is 6 feet tall, 160 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He was last…
Illinois is now home to a federally-recognized tribal nation DEKALB – Illinois is, once again, home to a federally recognized tribal nation. 175 years ago, Potawatomi Chief Shab-eh-nay left his home in DeKalb County to visit family in Kansas. He returned home to find the U.S. government had illegally sold 1,280 acres of his northern…
Storms cause damage in central Illinois Clean-up is underway after severe storms caused damage in parts of Central Illinois on Thursday night. The National Weather Service in Central Illinois issued Tornado Warnings in Lawrence, Effingham, Jasper, and Macon Counties. The Illinois State Police reported property damage along I-72 in Macon County. WCIA-TV reports it was farm…
Budzinski files measure to stop post office consolidation in Central Illinois URBANA – Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL13) said she’s introducing legislation to stop the U.S. Postal Service from moving processing and distribution out of post offices in Champaign and Springfield. The Postal Service is considering moving regional mail-sorting operations out of those post offices and…
University of Illinois police investigate sexual assault URBANA – The University of Illinois police department reports it is investigating a sexual assault and an attempted assault. In a campus safety alert, the department said a person was sexually assaulted in the early morning hours Tuesday at an on-campus apartment. In a separate safety alert, UIPD says there…
Urbana Schools to vote on which elementary school will become fully multilingual URBANA – Urbana School District 116 is set to vote Tuesday on which elementary school will become fully dual language. After two years of debate, Urbana administrators and dual language teachers won approval in January to combine their bilingual programs under one…
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…