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Top news features from WILL:
Rural Issues and the Campaign: Ethanol Plants
Story air date: Monday, October 06, 2008
AM 580 is joining with public radio stations across the country to look into how the Presidential race impacts rural residents.
The debate over alternate energy sources like wind and solar power is not only aimed at reducing dependence on natural resources like coal and natural gas.
Driving cars and using other machines rely more on these sources. While John McCain stresses greater production of oil, and nuclear energy, Barack Obama speaks more of using alternates. One getting a lot of attention in recent years is ethanol. But lately, supply and demand have hurt the development of new facilities that produce it. AM 580’s Jeff Bossert looks at how the state of the industry is affecting two rural Central Illinois towns and what the presidential candidates’ energy policies could mean for their future.
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Story categories: business • community life • energy • government • elections • United States • politics
Possible Answers for Problems Facing Black Men
Story air date: Wednesday, October 01, 2008
The words “at risk” are often pinned on African-American males for several reasons. They’re considered less likely to finish high school, more likely to have been in prison, and subject to greater health problems and shorter life spans. Now, recently signed legislation has set up a state task force to study these problems and report on possible solutions. And for the past four weeks, Illinois’ Task Force on the Condition of African-American Males has been gathering community input at town hall meetings around the state. The task force held one of its meetings in Urbana. AM 580’s Jim Meadows reports.
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Story categories: civil rights • community life • economy • government • Illinois • politics • race/ethnicity
The Water We Rely On: A Series
Story air date: Thursday, September 25, 2008
Bill Hammack has been doing a lot of thinking about east-central Illinois’ water supply. You may know him as WILL’s “Engineer Guy,” bringing complex scientific issues closer to home. All this week, Bill is taking a look at how we use water, how much we have and how we manage it for the future. The different ways we use water at home may seem obvious – but in Part 4, Bill finds some ways we may never have suspected.
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Part 1: Bill Hammack begins the first part of his journey not far from his front door:
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Part 2: Bill Hammack treks through the new Illinois-American well field near Bondville in Champaign County and asks whether these wells will suck dry the Mahomet Aquifer. To get a closer look at the situation, he pays a visit to a house right near where the well field is supposed to be drilled:
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Part 3: Bill Hammack examines what it may take to use the area’s massive underground water supply -- the Mahomet Aquifer – responsibly:
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Story categories: business • economy • environment • water resources • government • science • urban planning
Unit 4's "Great Schools, Together" project
Story air date: Friday, September 05, 2008
Two years after voters in the Champaign School District rejected a tax referendum, the district is releasing the final draft of a new long-range strategic plan. A committee of community members has spent the past year working on the plan, which is meant to reflect the public’s concerns about education in the Unit 4 district. AM 580’s Jim Meadows reports.
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- WILL’s video library of community voices talking about Champaign schools, taped at the Vision Committee’s public forums
- Unit 4's Vision Committee website, which includes a full copy of the plan
Story categories: community life • education • Champaign Unit 4
A Student Reporter's Experience in Georgia
Story air date: Thursday, August 14, 2008
Terrell Starr’s summer in the republic of Georgia has ended earlier than he had expected. Fighting between Georgia and Russia has prompted the University of Illinois graduate student – and former AM 580 news intern – to leave Georgia for neighboring Armenia, along with hundreds of other Americans who evacuated on Monday. Starr talked with AM 580’s Tom Rogers about his experiences over the past week.
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Story categories: people • Russia • University of Illinois
New Energy Worries, New Vehicles
Story air date: Monday, August 04, 2008
In small towns across the country, many people have decided that a cheaper way to get around is to leave the car in the garage and pile into the golf cart. Golf carts and other small slow-speed vehicles are becoming more appealing to people living in areas where traffic is low, but gas prices are high. In Illinois, several small towns are allowing golf carts on their streets --- while others are holding back. AM 580’s Jim Meadows reports.
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Story categories: business • community life • economy • energy • government • lifestyle • urban planning
Revival for an Old Nursing Home
Story air date: Friday, July 11, 2008
It only took a year, but what could have been an empty and decaying complex in Urbana is now a training ground for homeland security teams. A couple of days in advance of the official opening, AM 580’s Tom Rogers got an advance tour of the building that was once the Champaign County Nursing Home with the head of the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, Jim Page (left).
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Story categories: crime • government • Champaign County • Illinois
A Pivotal Former Mayor Leaves Rantoul
Story air date: Friday, July 11, 2008
It’s been 20 years since the federal government announced that Chanute Air Force Base would be closing its doors. That cost over a thousand jobs and decimated Rantoul’s population, but the effort to redevelop the land has produced a number of success stories. Katy Podagrosi served as Rantoul’s mayor through much of that time. This week, the village’s leader for more than 12 years -- and resident for nearly 50 -- is leaving the community. She spoke with AM 580’s Jeff Bossert (click below for the full interview)
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Story categories: community life • government • people • politics
