Media Matters host and journalism scholar Robert McChesney has died at 72
From 2002 to 2012, McChesney hosted the radio program Media Matters on Sunday afternoons on WILL-AM.
Government | Health | Politics
Health and Human Services will lay off 10,000 workers and close agencies in a major restructuring
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” in a video announcing the restructuring Thursday.
Rantoul mayoral candidates talk local economy, policy goals ahead of upcoming election
Rantoul Mayor Charles Smith is facing a challenge from District 5 Village Trustee Samuel Hall III. Both candidates say they want to support the local economy and rebuild village infrastructure.
A university, a rural Illinois town and their fight to survive Trump’s war on higher education
The administration’s research funding and DEI cuts present an existential threat to regional public institutions like Southern Illinois University, the economic backbone of the conservative rural region it serves.
4 takeaways from PBS and NPR’s testimony on Capitol Hill
NPR CEO Katherine Maher and her counterpart at PBS, Paula Kerger, appeared Wednesday before a House subcommittee on government efficiency, where they defended public broadcasting against accusations by Republican lawmakers of political bias.
‘Laced with uncertainty’: rehired Veterans Affairs worker expects she’ll lose her job again
One woman who was rehired at the Veterans Affairs facility in Danville after being fired is worried that she won’t be back for long.
WATCH NOW: PBS, NPR leaders testify before DOGE on federal support for public broadcasting
PBS, NPR and their respective local stations are funded in part by a $535 million appropriation provided by Congress through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in addition to substantial foundation, corporate and viewer donation support.
Raoul joins motion to block dismantling of U.S. Education Department
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 20 other state attorneys general are asking a federal judge to immediately halt President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
Former Utah Rep. Mia Love, the first Black Republican woman elected to the US House, has died
Former U.S. Rep. Mia Love of Utah, a daughter of Haitian immigrants who became the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, died Sunday.
Government | Health | Politics
Her Case Changed Trans Care in Prison. Now Trump Aims To Reverse Course.
In the run-up to the Nov. 5 election, 55% of voters felt support for trans rights had gone too far, according to VoteCast, a survey by The Associated Press and partners including KFF, the health policy research, polling, and news organization that includes KFF Health News.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker tries to chart a path for national Democrats to counter Trump
The billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel empire is highlighting the effects of Trump’s early actions in Illinois and is increasing his national profile as he using a statewide tour to criticize the Republican president and his policies.
Who is running in the April 1 Champaign Unit 4 school board race?
Eleven people are competing to fill five open seats on the Champaign Unit 4 Board of Education. IPM News asked the candidates to answer yes-or-no questions related to issues that have come before the board in recent years.
Gov. Pritzker visits Urbana as part of statewide tour focused on Trump administration’s impact in Illinois
Governor Pritzker urged Illinoisans to participate in “mass activism” and let Congress know they oppose the Trump administration’s cuts to food and agriculture programs.
Trump to order a plan to shut down the US Education Department
Trump has derided the agency as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, finalizing its dismantling is likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.
Local activists march in downtown Champaign after Israel breaks Gaza ceasefire
Nearly 200 people marched from West Side Park to downtown Champaign and back Tuesday evening after Israel resumed air strikes in Gaza, breaking a temporary ceasefire.