The 217 Today Podcast

217 Today: Monday, June 21, 2021

Brian Moline and Carolina Garibay
 
Workers at Shining Star Hemp Co. load a bag of hemp biomass into the processor.

Workers at Shining Star Hemp Co. load a bag of hemp biomass into the processor. Brian Grimmett/Kansas News Service

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Monday, June 21, 2021

Today's headlines:

  • Six months after a state lawmaker went through prostate cancer treatment largely in private, he’s going public to encourage men to get checked.

  • The Illinois General Assembly this spring approved a measure to allow people convicted of engaging in sex work to expunge their criminal records.

  • Following state and national trends, Champaign County is seeing an uptick in deaths from drug overdoses.

  • Beginning today, people on the University of Illinois Urbana campus who have verified COVID-19 vaccination records will no longer have to test for the virus to gain building access.

In today's deep dive, the 2018 Farm Bill allowed farmers to start growing hemp, but in at least one Midwestern state, the number of licenses issued is on the decline.

Reporting today contributed by Hannah Meisel, Derek Cantu, Christine Herman and Brian Grimmett.