Clogged supply chains and budget-busting food prices have food banks scrambling to stock pantry shelves. That crunch comes as food banks see increased demand from families struggling to afford meals. Food banks saw a huge increase in demand at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. And while that’s leveled off somewhat, demand remains higher than…
Ann Crain has volunteered at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield for four years. She greets guests and answers questions about the exhibits– which all focus on the life, and legacy, of President Abraham Lincoln. Every year, the museum brings out its copy of the Gettysburg Address around the anniversary of its…
CHAMPAIGN – The rise in gun violence in Champaign-Urbana and elsewhere can be traced back to the trauma young people of color are experiencing. And addressing it effectively requires a united effort from the entire community. Those were takeaways from the discussion Monday night at the Pour Brothers Craft Taproom in downtown Champaign. The event,…
URBANA – The term “news desert” describes an area with a shortage of news coverage. According to research by Penelope Muse Abernathy, 28 Illinois counties have just one newspaper apiece, while two counties (Hamilton and Pulaski in southern Illinois) have none. As a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Abernathy…
CHAMPAIGN – A firefighter is being treated for minor injuries after responding to an apartment fire in Champaign overnight. Fire crews arrived at a multi-family home Friday at 1:10 a.m. in the 800 block of West Church Street. The department says it extinguished a fire in a second-floor unit. The resident of the apartment was not…
CHAMPAIGN – Immigrants make up about 12% of Champaign County’s total population and have contributed to the county’s economic growth in recent years, contributing tens of millions of dollars in state and local taxes and injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy. At the same time, the rapid rise in the immigrant…
MAHOMET — The Champaign County Forest Preserve District has chosen a new executive director. Lorrie Pearson will begin her new role on September 27th. She comes to the forest preserve district from the City of Urbana, where she most recently served as community development services director. Listen to the full interview here. Pearson replaces Mary…
CHAMPAIGN – One of two local newspapers in central Illinois’ Ford County will close down this fall. The publisher of the Ford County Record says the weekly paper will cease publication “within the next month or so.” The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette bought the century-and-a-half-old Paxton Record in 2007, eventually renaming it the Ford County Record. When…
CHAMPAIGN – Hundreds of runners and walkers turned out for the inaugural Run To Remember on Saturday morning in Champaign-Urbana. The 8K run and walk started off in front of the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium, 20-years after the September 11, 2001 attacks. And while it was not specifically created for that day, the race…
CHAMPAIGN – Hundreds of people joined Champaign Fire Chief Gary Ludwig and many other leaders from Champaign-Urbana in honoring the September 11, 2001 attack victims. The ceremony took part 20 years to the day after the attacks. Hijackers crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. As…
CHAMPAIGN – Saturday, September 11, 2021 marks 20 years since one of America’s most tragic days. The Champaign Fire Department will hold a 9/11 Memorial Ceremony, Saturday at 8:46 a.m. on the northeast corner of West Side Park in Champaign. Illinois Newsroom’s Reginald Hardwick talked with Champaign fire chief Gary Ludwig about that terrible day, how…
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will visit all three 9/11 memorial sites to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and pay his respects to the nearly 3,000 people killed that day. The White House says Biden will visit ground zero in New York City, the Pentagon and the memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania,…
URBANA – Family, friends and fellow police officers said farewell to University of Illinois Police lieutenant Aaron Landers Tuesday, at a funeral held at the Vineyard Church in Urbana. The 50-year-old Landers died August 23rd, from injuries suffered in a five-vehicle traffic crash the day before in Champaign. A driver involved in the accident has…
URBANA – A car crash involving five vehicles on Sunday claimed the life of a lieutenant at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Police Department. On Monday, the university confirmed in a press release that Lt. Aaron Landers died from injuries sustained in the crash at Carle Foundation Hospital early Monday. Landers had been on the…
GIBSON CITY – As Gibson City cleans up from last week’s flash flood, a special fund has been set up to help people pay for the damage. Businesses, churches and private individuals have set up about two dozen GoFundMe pages seeking donations for people who suffered flood damage during the heavy rains that fell for…