URBANA – For Uniting Pride board members and city residents, the organization’s annual Pride Fest provided an important safe space in the community for its LGBTQ+ members. This year’s week-long Pride Fest lasted from Sept. 24 to Oct 2, with programming featuring nearly 20 events, including a Pride parade and vendor’s fair on Oct. 1. …
URBANA – The city of Champaign Township hopes to open a new homeless shelter, called Strides, later this fall, but it’s still looking for a location. On Sept. 20, the Champaign City Council, in its capacity as the Champaign Township Board, approved a resolution for the city of Champaign Township to begin the process of…
Tisha Bryson has been shackled, hospitalized and shoved to the ground by central Illinois law enforcement officers more times than she can count while experiencing a mental health crisis. “I try not to hold grudges,” Bryson said, a resident of Hammond in Piatt County, about 40 miles southwest of Champaign. “But some of the ways…
Meteorologist Ed Kieser is probably the best remembered of WILL’s weather forecasters. From 1987 until WILL disbanded its weather department in 2010, Kieser forecast the weather during news and agricultural programming on WILL Radio, and also on WILL-TV.
Former members say Covenant Fellowship Church has reneged on its vows to investigate allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse. URBANA — For Janet Park, the events of last year feel like a waste of time and energy. Park is part of a group that last year brought to light allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse…
Starting in the 1970s, WILL and other public broadcasters began turning to listeners and viewers for part of their operating funds. Debbie Day, WILL’s first development director, talks about how the Friends of WILL helped Illinois Public Media grow.
Governor JB Pritzker signed the SAFE-T Act into law in 2021. On January 1, 2023, the Act will end cash bail in Illinois. In a cash bail system, the ability to pay bail determines if a person is released or remains in jail after an arrest. Illinois Republicans are warning that New York’s bail reform,…
URBANA – Distribution of the new bivalent COVID-19 booster began last week across Illinois, including in Champaign County. The bivalent booster offers more protection against the Omicron variant because it combines the original strain of COVID-19 with the most recent one, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Previous boosters only protected against the SARS…
After three months of planning, two local groups have created a safe space for Latinos to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. University YMCA and Champaign-based restaurant Maize collaborated to commemorate El Grito. El Grito, or the “Cry for Dolores,” is the battle cry and the start of the liberation of Mexico from Spain on September 16,…
CHAMPAIGN — GOP county clerk candidate Terrence Stuber told The News-Gazette in August, “I don’t know,” when asked if Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. After that remark, Aaron Ammons, a Democrat and the incumbent clerk, accused Stuber of being “unqualified, ill-informed, and unprepared to serve.” More recently, Stuber, a member of the Tolono…
DANVILLE — Driving along Illinois Route 1, south of Danville, I approach a dividing line between the 2nd and 15th congressional districts. On one side, there are cornfields. That’s the 15th. On the other, residential homes. That’s the 2nd. In the car with me is Germaine Light. She’s the Vice-Chair of the Vermilion County Democratic…
MONTICELLO — On a hot June day in 2017, the Piatt County Nursing Home in Monticello lost power. “They almost had to evacuate because (it was) 80 degrees, they almost had to evacuate Alzheimer’s residents,” Congressman Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville) said outside the county-owned nursing home on Wednesday. Scott Porter realized then as the nursing home’s…
CHICAGO — A kinesiology professor at the University of Illinois recently explored how Latin Dance can benefit the memory of older Latinos. Susan Aguiñaga is a kinesiology professor at U of I. Along with a team, she explored how Latin Dance can benefit the memory of older Latinos. Aguiñaga explained that there were two groups…
ROCKFORD — Two Ukrainian girls recently danced across the stage of Rockford’s historic Coronado Theatre. It was one of their last days in the U.S. before heading back home. The chaperones, some of them parents, and their teenage friends smile as they watched them waltz. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s528/audio/2022/08/0815ukrf.mp3 Listen to this story here. There hasn’t been much…
A memorial service is being planned later this month for late Illinois State University student Jelani Day, one year after his death. Aug. 24, 2021, marked the last time the graduate student was seen alive at Illinois State University. Day’s body was recovered in the Illinois River in early September. His car and some clothes…