WILL-AM

News Local/State

So, 2018 picked up where 2017 left off with eye-popping palace intrigue mixed with the widening net of the Department of Justice's Russia investigation. The week's highlights included tabloidlike, tell-all details from the new book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House with explosive on-the-record and blind quotes from White House insiders. 

News Local/State

Wayne Williams, the new township assessor in Urbana, says that Joe Meents, the controversial deputy he hired this week will leave by the end of the month. Williams says a new committee will now oversee his office’s hiring process --- and that two longtime employees he fired this week will be welcome to re-apply.

News Local/State

After 30 years of hosting All Things Considered, and more than 40 years at NPR, Robert Siegel is retiring. Friday is his final day on-the-air.

News Local/State

The family of a Champaign County Nursing Home resident found dead on the nursing home grounds on a hot summer day is suing the facility. 

News Local/State

Beginning this week, people and corporations donating up to $1.3 million for private school scholarships can get a 75 percent credit toward their state income tax. This was a controversial but bipartisan concept, adopted last summer to help forge a compromise in a big overhaul of Illinois' school funding plan. Such programs have taken off in other states, but it’s off to a slower start here.

News Local/State

For years, Illinois 13th District Congressman Rodney Davis has been trying to get legislation passed that give local governments in rural Illinois a better shot at disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Now, the Taylorville Republican says he may finally have his chance. 

News Local/State

The Illini men saw another terrible start, another impressive comeback, and another Big Ten loss Wednesday night in Minneapolis. Minnesota's Golden Gophers jumped out to a 17-2 lead and won 77-67.

News Local/State

At least 82 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 leaving small town communities scrambling to provide lifesaving services. That’s not an easy task, and to find out why, Side Effects’s Bram Sable-Smith traveled to one Missouri town that lost its hospital two years ago.

News Local/State

Bitter cold temperatures are breaking records across the Midwest this week. In central Illinois, the temperature is below zero and that's before the wind chill. There people who have no choice but to work outdoors look for creative ways to try to minimize the suffering.

News Local/State

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District wants people to test their homes for Radon gas, and officials have an inexpensive way to test homes.