WILL-AM

News Local/State

An Urbana woman has started an online petition asking local government officials to reopen the emergency shelter beds at the TIMES Center, citing the tax dollars used to build the center for that purpose. But the executive director of Rosecrance Champaign-Urbana, the non-profit that owns and operates the facility, says that's no longer a possibility.

News Local/State

A new survey argues criminals should get rehabilitation rather than punishment. The recommendation comes straight from crime victims themselves.

The study commissioned by the Alliance for Safety and Justice says one in three Illinoisans have been a victim of crime in the last decade. More likely to be victimized are people who are younger and lower-income, as well as blacks, Latinos and residents of Chicago.

News Local/State

The Federal Reserve Board’s move this week to increase the benchmark federal funds interest rate for the first time in a year may be good news for a recovering national economy --- but the impact may not be so useful for Illinois’ economy.

News Local/State

The community has lost 95 emergency beds for homeless men since the start of 2016 because of budget cuts.  There is a plan in the works to replace 30 of those beds in January through March of 2017.

News Local/State

The Illinois Department of Corrections on Wednesday announced most of its workers have completed mental-illness training. It's part of the settlement in a long-running legal dispute over how Illinois prisons treat inmates with mental-heath disorders.

News Local/State

The world’s largest seed companies have their eye trained on Africa’s farming industry. A few, including St. Louis-based Monsanto, see drought-resistant corn as the key to an untapped market.

But some African civil service organizations are wary of the genetically modified seeds Monsanto hopes to introduce.

News Local/State

America's central bank is nudging its benchmark interest rate higher, announcing a move from the current 0.25-0.50 percent to a range of 0.50 and 0.75 percent. The decision emerged from a session of the Federal Open Market Committee Wednesday.

News Local/State

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner appeared in another Facebook Live video Tuesday. What's behind the Republican's push on social media?

News Local/State

Leaders of labor unions on the University of Illinois’s Urbana campus say President Timothy Killeen has refused their request for a meeting. But an administration spokesman says otherwise. Members of the Campus Labor Coalition called for a meeting with Killeen during a Tuesday news conference outside of the Henry Administration Building on the Main Quad.

News Local/State

The Urbana City Council will continue its discussion of a resolution affirming its status as a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants at next regular meeting on Monday, December 19th. But the talk at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday the 12th indicated a majority of council members support the resolution in some form.