One 27-year-old Guatemalan woman said she had no other option but to give birth while holding a garbage can at a Southern California Border Patrol station. A Nicaraguan mother said agents denied her 6-month-old son medical care while he suffered from respiratory problems that caused pneumonia. These are two cases that the American Civil Liberties…
Both congressional candidates in Illinois’ 13th district — Republican Regan Deering and Democrat Nikki Budzinski — say they support lowering prescription prices and capping the cost of insulin. But they disagree on a new federal law meant to achieve those goals. Deering opposes the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which President Biden signed in August. Budzinski…
CHAMPAIGN — Two open houses at Champaign Unit 4 schools this week yielded the same response – parents don’t want their children to change elementary schools next fall. Parents and grandparents assembled in the Garden Hills Academy gym on Tuesday to discuss the proposal to reassign students to help desegregate the district. Like the first…
URBANA — Congresswoman Robin Kelly is up for re-election in Illinois’ 2nd congressional district. She’s running against Republican challenger Thomas Lynch. Illinois Newsroom’s Harrison Malkin spoke with Kelly about ways to curb gun violence, the Green New Deal, and a range of other policy issues. Malkin: First, I wanted to ask you a little bit…
After severe droughts in July and August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated Champaign and Vermilion counties as primary natural disaster areas. With that announcement, farmers with 30% crop loss, can apply for low-interest, emergency loans. This can help replace equipment or refinance certain debts. John Gehrke heads the loan program at the USDA Illinois…
Updated October 15, 2022 at 11:31 AM ET A beta version of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness application is now open — the first time borrowers have been able to apply for up to $20,000 in debt cancellation. The early opening is a test to help the Education Department find problems with the site before…
URBANA – Children still face mental health challenges as the COVID pandemic comes to an end. That’s one of the lessons garnered during an hourlong television special with the school superintendents of Champaign Unit 4, Danville School District 118, and Urbana School District 116. The TV special was taped in late September at Illinois Public Media…
CHAMPAIGN — Dozens of parents rallied on Monday evening at the Unit 4 Board of Education meeting in Champaign. They have joined under a new group called “Unit 4 Families for a Smarter Solution.” The district is currently weighing how to reassign students next year to desegregate elementary schools, and the group largely opposes that…
URBANA — Congresswoman Robin Kelly is up for re-election in Illinois’ newly redrawn 2nd congressional district, which stretches from the Danville area to Chicago’s South Side. Kelly will face Republican challenger Thomas Lynch, a member of the Iroquois County Board, in the November midterm election. Lynch spoke with Illinois Newsroom’s Harrison Malkin about his life…
CHAMPAIGN — University of Illinois researchers published a new database last week on police use of force across the state. The SPOTLITE database – short for “Systemic Policing Oversight Through Lethal-Force Incident Tracking Environment” — includes twice as many incidents as Illinois police previously reported. “When we rely solely on administrative reporting by policing agencies,…
CHAMPAIGN — In an exclusive interview with Illinois Public Media, Republican Regan Deering, the 13th congressional district candidate, made this claim: “I do think that unfortunately, a lot of the communities that are experiencing gun violence across the country do have very strict gun laws on the books.” “Correlation is not causation,” Dr. John Jackson,…
CHAMPAIGN — Families are beginning to weigh in on plans from the Champaign Unit 4 School District to change how it assigns students to elementary schools next year. Some families are excited that the district wants to further desegregate schools. Shanita Weatherall likes the idea of her daughter attending school with students who live near…
URBANA — Two first-time candidates, Democrat Nikki Budzinski and Republican Regan Deering, are facing off in the newly redrawn 13th congressional district in central Illinois. The winner will help determine which party controls Congress in January. Springfield resident Nikki Budzinski spoke with Illinois Newsroom’s Harrison Malkin. Malkin: Nikki (Budzinski) is running against Regan Deering, a…
CHAMPAIGN — In December, the Unit 4 school board plans to vote on a new way to assign students to Champaign elementary schools. The Champaign Unit 4 School District began its school choice system in 1998 to help desegregate Champaign schools. Allowing families to rank choices for their preferred school hasn’t solved the issue of…
When Calvin Duncan was 19 years old, he was arrested for a murder he didn’t commit. “I was in Angola for 24 years,” he says. He heard the same story over and over from other inmates: “That they was innocent, that they didn’t commit the crimes that they was in prison for.” Not everyone was…