The 21st Show

Local Elections In Central Illinois; ‘I Am ALS’ Founder Brian Wallach

By Brian Moline, Alan Montecillo and Libby Foster
 

tom.arthur/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

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Tomorrow is Election Day for many of Illinois’ cities and towns. Voters across the state will choose their local leaders with mayoral and city council races in some of our biggest cities. Including Chicago, Champaign and Springfield. Plus, we’ll revisit our conversation with Brian Wallach. He was diagnosed with ALS a little more than a year ago. Since that time, he’s been trying to raise $100 million to help find a cure for future generations.

In the world of national politics, many people are already talking about 2020. But there’s another election day much closer to home that’s taking place tomorrow.

Cities and towns across the country will elect their local leaders in tomorrow’s municipal elections. Here in Illinois these elections include some of our largest cities including Chicago, Springfield, Champaign, and the Bloomington Normal area.

We’ll bring you the results of those elections on Wednesday morning including Chicago’s mayoral race, where the city will elect its first-ever female, African-American leader. But today, we wanted to focus on central Illinois.

We were joined by: 

  • Kristin Walters: Engagement strategist, Illinois Newsroom

  • Mary Hansen: Reporter, NPR Illinois

  • Ryan Denham: Reporter, WGLT

Plus-- 

What do you think of when you hear ALS? Maybe Lou Gehrig or the Ice Bucket Challenge come to mind. But, even though it’s estimated that about 20,000 Americans are living with ALS, beyond that, many of us don’t know much, or anything, about the disease.

Brian Wallach was first diagnosed with ALS in November of 2017, at age 37. He was given 6 months to live. Today, him and his wife are fighting for a cure through his organization, I Am ALS.

We were joined by: 

  • Brian Wallach: Founder, I Am ALS 

Story source: WILL