Tag: COVID-19

U Of I Athletic Officials Feeling ‘Excitement’ To Resume Football

URBANA — The Big Ten Conference announced Wednesday that it will resume its football season with an eight-game conference-only schedule beginning the weekend of October 23-24. The news came just over a month after league officials said the season would be postponed until at least next spring. But University of Illinois chancellor Robert Jones says

News Around Illinois: Sept. 18, 2020

TOP STORY — Friday, September 18 Parties Dispute How Far Feds Will Let Madigan Probe Go The U.S. attorney investigating House Speaker Mike Madigan OK’d a separate probe by a House committee, but Democrats and Republicans do not agree on how far it should go, Associated Press’s John O’Connor reports.  John Lausch, U.S. attorney for

News Around Illinois – Sept. 11, 2020

Illinois Files Lawsuit Against E-Cigarette Maker Juice Man CHICAGO (AP) — The Illinois attorney general sued e-cigarette maker Juice Man on Thursday, alleging deceptive marketing practices aimed at enticing youth. The move follows a similar Illinois complaint filed in December against Juul, the nation’s biggest e-cigarette maker. Juice Man, based in Dana Point, California, focused

Working Parents And Closed Schools: The Childcare Struggle During COVID-19

Sierra is in a bind. She and her husband have two children — ages three and nine years old — and they live in Urbana.  Sierra’s 9-year-old son is attending school remotely this fall, because the local school district has deemed it unsafe to reopen for in-person instruction. While she and her husband placed their

News Around Illinois — Sept. 10, 2020

2 Applicants Rejected For Marijuana Licenses Sues Illinois CHICAGO (AP) — Two companies that were rejected for Illinois marijuana licenses have filed a lawsuit to delay the state from awarding licenses to the winning applicants.  The state announced that only 21 of 700 applicants would proceed to a lottery for 75 licenses. Southshore Restore and

U Of I System Enrollment Surpasses 90K Students

Enrollment at the University of Illinois system this year exceeded 90,000 students for the first time. University officials say the increase marks the eighth year in a row of record breaking enrollment numbers. This year’s enrollment gains come in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn.  Combined enrollment at the Urbana, Chicago and

News Around Illinois — Sept. 9, 2020

U of Illinois Sues To Stop Nurses Strike This Weekend CHICAGO (AP) — The University of Illinois Board of Trustees are suing to try to stop nurses at the University of Illinois Hospital from striking this weekend. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court names the Illinois Nurses Association as a defendant and

Champaign City Council Backs Voluntary Staff Cuts To Address Revenue Losses

CHAMPAIGN — With city revenues down due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Champaign City Council Tuesday night endorsed the idea of cutting spending by cutting city staff. They want to do this by offering buyouts to an estimated 15 to 25 employees who agree to leave voluntarily. During the Great Recession, the city of Champaign

Democrat Erika Weaver Wants To Be Advocate For 15th Congressional District

Erika Weaver is a Democrat running for Congress in Illinois’ Republican-leaning 15th Congressional District. Weaver is an attorney with the Coles County Public Defender’s office and a member of her school board in Mattoon. And she says she wants to be her district’s advocate in Congress. “I entered this race because I really want us

Mental Health Providers Take Steps To Meet Growing Need During The Pandemic

PAXTON, IL – Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are reporting symptoms of depression, according to a recent study in the journal JAMA Network Open. The study finds those with lower incomes and high exposure to coronavirus stressors are at greatest risk. In rural Ford County, more people have reached out for help

News Around Illinois – Sept. 4, 2020

Man Charged In Student’s Death Was Also Charged As Juvenile CHICAGO (AP) — A man charged in the July killing of a University of Illinois student was one of five Chicago youths accused of murder after another teen was shot to death during an attempted car theft last year, authorities said Thursday. Cook County prosecutors

U Of I Officials: A Few Students’ ‘Poor Choices’ Could Get Everyone Sent Home

URBANA – About a thousand students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have tested positive for COVID-19 since twice-a-week coronavirus testing became mandatory for all students on Aug. 16. In an effort to get the spread of the virus under control, Chancellor Robert Jones ordered students Wednesday to significantly limit in-person activities for the

News Around Illinois – Sept. 2, 2020

Legislators Pushing Agenda That Includes Police Reform CHICAGO (AP) — The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus on Tuesday announced an agenda that calls for action on several areas it identifies as important to its members and their constituents. The caucus announced it is planning a series of legislative committee hearings leading up to the General Assembly’s

Migrant Clinics Offering COVID-19 Testing To Farmworkers Face Challenges

CHICAGO – The U.S. food supply depends on millions of migrant and seasonal farmworkers, who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of circumstances in which they live and work. Outbreaks of COVID-19 on farms have killed more than a dozen farmworkers nationwide, and infected thousands more, according to tracking from the Food and Environment Reporting

Checking In With The Shield Team: How’s The U Of I Doing Handling COVID-19?

URBANA – Since Aug. 16, when twice-a-week COVID-19 testing was made mandatory for students arriving back to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 679 positive COVID-19 cases have been identified among students, faculty and staff, according to the U of I’s public database. Most of these are among students who arrived back to campus already