WILL-AM

News Local/State

After last year’s historic violence in parts of Chicago, a group of state legislators are once again pushing for tougher gun possession laws.

News Local/State

More than 50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, University of Illinois associate professor Chris Benson says the US is again facing the “mountain of despair” the civil rights leader once spoke of. The professor of Journalism and African-American Studies delivered the keynote address Friday at the Champaign Countywide King Celebration and Awards event at Parkland College, encouraging the audience of more than 150 to ''find their super power." 

News Local/State

Illinois outscored Nebraska 45-26 in the second half to win 79-59. The Illini improved to 8-10 overall this season and 3-2 in Big Ten conference play.

News Local/State

Maryland coach Mark Turgeon didn't let history repeat itself when his team defeated Illinois 62-56 on Saturday. The Terrapins were No. 11 when they came to Champaign two years ago and were upset 64-57 by an Illinois team that did not make the NCAA Tournament.

News Local/State

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday that Republicans will — once again — vote to cut off federal tax dollars for Planned Parenthood. They are planning to include the measure as part of a bigger upcoming bill to repeal pillars of Obamacare. This isn't the first time that they have tried to pass this type of legislation — President Obama vetoed a similar bill last January.

News Local/State

As we all know, Donald Trump's tweets have become a potent force in our new era. On the one hand, a single tweet can cripple opponents, activate supporters, move markets, and subsume the news cycle. On the other, they're a window into Trump's wee-hours, unfiltered id.

News Local/State

Most of the WILL Severe Weather Coverage Area is under a freezing rain advisory until Sunday night, while counties to the west (including McLean) are under a Winter Storm Watch.

News Local/State

Fleeing, unarmed people shot in the back. Mentally ill men and women, not suspected of any crime, stunned by a Taser while they lay on the ground. People already detained or incapacitated who were beaten, with police accounts falsely describing the force as necessary. A 161-page report from the Justice Department details harrowing accounts of excessive force by the Chicago Police Department and highlights systemic failures that allow the violence to continue even as members of the public attempt to protest or report the brutality.

News Local/State

Gov. Bruce Rauner has named a former political rival and a retired state lawmaker to state posts.

The first-term Republican appointed Democrat Paul Vallas on Friday to the Chicago State University Board of Trustees. Vallas is one of four people Rauner appointed to the board.

News Local/State

The largest public-employee union in Illinois will ask its members this month whether they'd support a strike in a contract dispute with Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration. The state council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees told members Friday that they'll vote on authorizing the union's bargaining committee to call a strike.