The 217 Today Podcast

217 Today: Wednesday October 7, 2020

Olivia Butts
 
A school bus lot in Rockford.

A school bus lot in Rockford. Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco/WNIJ

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Wednesday October 6, 2020

Today's headlines:

  • A legislative committee looking into the relationship between longtime Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and Commonwealth Edison won’t meet again until after the November 3rd election.

  • People housed in county jails who haven’t been convicted of a crime but are awaiting trial are eligible to vote. But 2020 is the first year county jails in Illinois are mandated to offer a vote-by-mail system.

  • Vistra Energy announced it would close its remaining coal-fired power plants in Illinois within the next decade as a move toward clean energy.

  • Champaign County reported 35 new COVID-19 cases yesterday (Tuesday 10/6). The county’s total is now more than five thousand. 364 of those cases are active, with two people hospitalized.

In today's deeper dive, among the many people adjusting to a new normal during the pandemic are school bus drivers. We check in with drivers in Rockford to see how they’re handling COVID-19.

217 Today is produced by Olivia Butts. Reporting today contributed by Hannah Meisel, Peter Medlin, Lecia Bushak, and Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco.