URBANA – Urbana’s emergency housing program is about to move from rented hotel rooms to its own apartment buildings. The program gives shelter to homeless families and people with disabilities for just a few weeks, while helping them arrange for more permanent shelter. Cunningham Township, which covers the same territory as Urbana, launched the program…
URBANA – A nearly stationary line of heavy thunderstorms brought flooding Thursday to the uppermost part of the Sangamon River Valley in Champaign, Ford and McLean Counties. Meteorologist Andrew Pritchard estimates that six to nine inches of rain fell in those counties, from early Thursday morning into the afternoon. He blamed the flooding on…
RANTOUL — An autonomous test track may soon be on its way to the village of Rantoul and the decommissioned Chanute Air Force Base. An intergovernmental agreement, which establishes the lease and purchase of the land, is expected to be reached on Tuesday between the village of Rantoul and the University of Illinois Board of…
MOUNT PULASKI – Think about your favorite produce stand at the local farmers market, how fresh and delicious those fruits and vegetables taste. Now imagine if that produce was available at, say, your kids’ school or the local grocery store or hospital. A new farmer-led cooperative is hoping to make that a reality by building…
URBANA- On Monday, August 2, from approximately 12:30-3 PM, WILL-TV and WILL-FM 90.9 will be off the air to complete regularly scheduled maintenance at our transmitter site. This is weather permitting. For TV, this will only affect those receiving our signal over-the-air. Comcast subscribers will not be affected. Viewers can stream WILL-TV at video.will.illinois.edu/livestream and…
CHAMPAIGN – This week, the city of Champaign dedicated a portion of University Avenue to police officer Chris Oberheim. Oberheim was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call on the morning of May 19. Officer Jeffrey Creel, who was shot and wounded, killed the suspect, Darion Lafayette of Champaign. On Tuesday, members…
CHAMPAIGN – American Legion Post 559 in north Champaign was the scene of gun violence in early July. On Monday evening, members of the community gathered at the same Legion post to ask questions and look for solutions. The July 2nd shooting killed 17-year-old Kieshaun Thatch, and wounded four others. It occurred at a funeral…
CHAMPAIGN – It can be challenging for parents to bond with their new baby when the child ends up hospitalized following the birth. Champaign resident Paige Raab knows that firsthand. Her two traumatic birth experiences — which both resulted in stays in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU — led her to launch…
The vast majority of police staff members for Champaign and Urbana don’t live in the communities they serve. In Champaign, nearly four out of five police officers live outside the city, despite a one-time $3,000 bonus for living in Champaign. In Urbana, nearly nine out of 10 police officers live outside the city, and there…
URBANA – After a year’s delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, work has begun on renovating a long-closed downtown Urbana hotel. Plans are to reopen the building as the Hotel Royer, with the promise of city financing if the work is completed. The new name honors the hotel’s architect, Urbana native Joseph Royer, whose other…
CHAMPAIGN – State Treasurer Mike Frerichs says Illinois is balancing its budget, even without a graduated state income tax that voters rejected last year. And he says the governor and legislators have to continue doing so. Frerichs, a Democrat, made his remarks Tuesday, during a visit to the Champaign Farmers’ Market, held every Tuesday in…
CHAMPAIGN – University of Illinois football player Tailon Leitzsey and more than two dozen of his Illini teammates are holding a free camp for kids ages 6-13 on July 17 at Zahnd Field in Champaign. Leitzsey, a senior from Laurel, Md., graduated with a degree in Kinesiology in Dec. 2020 and was put on scholarship…
MONTICELLO — Live music is coming back to the University of Illinois’ Allerton Park and Retreat Center outside Monticello for the center’s annual concert series. But this year’s concerts are a little different than the ones guests might have experienced before the COVID-19 pandemic, says Allerton Event Coordinator Ashley Sims. The series began in 2013,…
CHAMPAIGN – Champaign Chief of Police Anthony Cobb announced Thursday that he’ll step down from his position. He’s leaving the job to join the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, where he’ll serve as deputy director. Cobb was appointed in 2012 and has overseen the Champaign Police Department for more than nine years. Before…
CHAMPAIGN — A shortage in blood donations locally has prompted a local blood bank to start offering rewards to try to encourage donations. ImpactLife—a blood donation organization that provides blood to hospitals around Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin—said in a press release that it has only been collecting about 85% of the blood that hospitals…