CHAMPAIGN — Gun violence in Champaign has steadily marched westward over the past three years as shootings have increased in neighborhoods north and south of West Springfield Avenue, especially in or near several apartment complexes, according to a review of police data over the past seven years by CU-CitizenAccess.org. Three of the four top blocks…
URBANA – Arraignment is scheduled on Monday for a man accused of killing a teenager. On Friday morning, bicyclists found a body laying in a ditch along East Washington Street in Urbana. The Champaign County Coroner’s office identified the victim as 14-year-old Steven Butler III. His family reported him missing the night before. An autopsy…
URBANA – Halfway through 2021, Urbana had already surpassed the total number of shootings that took place in 2020. Last month, the Urbana Police Department reported 55 shootings had occurred so far this year — more than the 53 that occurred in all of 2020. This follows a trend of heightened gun violence throughout the…
URBANA – More than 10,000 residents of long-term care facilities in Illinois have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to state data. But in Champaign County, only one long-term care facility is currently mandating that its staff receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Clark-Lindsey, a long-term care facility and nursing home in Urbana,…
This is a developing story. It will be updated as we learn new details. UPDATE: 56 summer residents are moving back into Hendrick House at the University of Illinois — ten days after an explosion forced them to evacuate. Management for the privately-owned residence hall announced on social media Wednesday that the city of Urbana had…
August 2023 Editor’s note: The information below was originally reported in June of 2021. Much of it is no longer relevant as the COVID-19 public health emergency was declared over by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 11, 2023. For health questions about COVID-19, call the Illinois Department of Public Health hotline…
URBANA – On Monday, Joanne Geigner helped raise the rainbow flag above the Urbana City Building. She is part of Uniting Pride, which advocates for Champaign County’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities. Geigner is also the mother of a transgender son. She says the flag’s visibility sends a message to community members who may…
URBANA – Many people lined up to honor a fallen Champaign police officer during a procession from Urbana to Decatur. Authorities say a gunman killed 44-year-old Officer Chris Oberheim during a shootout at an apartment complex early Wednesday. Here are pictures and video images from the procession to honor Oberheim on Thursday.
URBANA — Bells rang across the University of Illinois’s main quadrangle as seniors lined up at Alma Mater to take graduation pictures by Altgeld Tower. Pandemic or no, May is still graduation season on the Urbana campus. An estimated 5,600 University of Illinois students graduated during the weekend of May 15. However, for many…
Editor’s note: This story was reported by University of Illinois journalism student Farrah Anderson, with coverage coordinated by College Of Media journalism professor Chris Evans and professional journalists at Illinois Public Media. CHAMPAIGN – Between chants of “say their names,” protestors holding cardboard signs wound through the streets of Champaign Saturday. In response, the names…
Illinois billionaire Shahid Khan is known for building the automotive parts company Flex ‘N Gate, based in Urbana, IL, into a global manufacturer with 69 facilities around the world. He also is known as the owner of the National Football League team Jacksonville Jaguars and the UK’s Fulham F.C. soccer team. In addition, he has…
URBANA – Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin easily defeated two challengers in Tuesday’s Democratic local election primary. Listen to this story here. Mayor Marlin won 1,845 votes, or 72.3% of the total, well ahead of Alderman Dennis Roberts, the 2nd-place finisher with 440 votes or 17.24%, and recent U of I graduate Andy Ma with 267…
URBANA – Racial justice and police reform have been on the minds of Americans across the nation. And they’re a major issue in the race for mayor of Urbana. The three candidates running for the post in the Feb. 23 Democratic primary in Urbana all say they would make change in the city’s police policies….
URBANA – Local governments in the Champaign-Urbana area all have crews out, working to clear streets of the snow that fell on central Illinois Monday and Monday night. Public Works staff with both Champaign and Urbana began work on keeping the roads clear on Sunday night, during the first wave of snowfall. Crews give priority…
URBANA – Within three weeks of having tens of thousands of students return to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the spring semester, the campus had identified more than 450 cases of COVID-19. This is fewer than half the number of cases identified by the same time last fall — and lower than U of…