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Anthony Bruno
Jim Meadows/Illinois Public Media

News Local/State

Christensen Pleads Not Guilty To Yingying Zhang Kidnapping; Jury Trial Set For Sept. 12

In a hearing lasting less than five minutes, Brendt Christensen entered a “not guilty” plea Thursday in a federal courtroom in Urbana to the charge of kidnapping Yingying Zhang.

Prosecutors accuse Christensen, a recent University of Illinois graduate student, of abducting Zhang, a U of I visiting scholar from China, from a campus bus stop on June 9th.

A jar full of change.
Carter Staley/NPR Illinois

News Local/State

State Budget Boosts MAP

The new state budget will fund Illinois colleges and universities at the level of funding they received in 2015 — minus 10 percent. But there’s one area of higher education that got a boost.  

News Local/State

Mike Marron Announces Bid For 104th IL House Seat

Vermilion County Board Chairman Mike Marron says he wants to run as the Republican nominee for the 104th District Illinois House seat. Marron aims to succeed incumbent Chad Hays, who has announced he won’t seek re-election. 

A rendering of the proposed expansion of the Illinois Terminal, and a new hotel conference center to be located in downtown Champaign.
Ratio Architects

News Local/State

MTD, Grotelueschen Partner On Development Project

Two proposed developments in downtown Champaign have joined together for what would be the largest conference center in Champaign-Urbana. Developer Hans Grotelueschen has moved his hotel and conference center project a few blocks south from its original proposed location at Washington and Walnut to merge with the planned expansion of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District’s Illinois Terminal.