The 217 Today Podcast

217 Today: Friday April 16, 2021

Brian Moline
 
Barges float on the McClellan-Kerr Navigation system at the Port of Catoosa in Tulsa, OK. Barges hold 15,000 tons of soybeans, grain or fertilizer. Because of the lower costs and connection to the coast, farmers rely on the system.

Barges float on the McClellan-Kerr Navigation system at the Port of Catoosa in Tulsa, OK. Barges hold 15,000 tons of soybeans, grain or fertilizer. Because of the lower costs and connection to the coast, farmers rely on the system. Seth Bodine/Harvest Public Media

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Friday April 16, 2021

Today's headlines:

  • Video of the fatal Chicago police shooting of Adam Toledo shows the 13-year-old raising his arms above his head the moment he is shot.

  • COVID-19 is seeing a new resurgence in Region 2 of Illinois. The president of OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria says his hospital is currently at 81 percent capacity.

  • The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is expected to announce updates to a program that could result in more farmland being set aside for conservation.

  • Champaign-Urbana public health officials reported 27 new cases of COVID-19 cases Thursday. The number of active cases in the county fell slightly to 453, and the number of county residents hospitalized remained steady at 13.

In today's deep dive, we hear the fifth and final story in our Midwest waterways series from Harvest Public Media. Today, we look at a 400-mile river highway that ships soybeans and grain around the world.

Reporting contributed by Patrick Smith, Tim Shelley, Dana Cronin, and Seth Bodine.