WILL-AM

News Local/State

City officials in Champaign say they expect to spend at least $700,000 to remove the remaining ash trees from the city. 

News Local/State

The Champaign County Board will decide August 18 if it will ask voters to support a 1/4-cent sales tax for expanding jail facilities, and other building projects.  But opponents, including one Democratic board member, call the tax a 'blank check' with no binding language to commit funds.  And a member of ‘Build Programs, Not Jails’ campaign says with a 12 year tax plan, future board members will be spending that money.

News Local/State

A judge has ordered Illinois’ Public Health Director to reconsider chronic post-operative pain as a qualifying condition for the state’s medical marijuana pilot program.

News Local/State

Could a campaign emphasis on "law and order" derail the emerging bipartisan consensus on crime and punishment?

News Local/State

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White says he's working to dispel some of the myths that may explain why so few people of color are registered organ donors. White came to Urbana's Carle Foundation Hospital Tuesday to mark National Minority Donor Awareness Week, which was August 1-7.  He says there are currently 5,000 people on the waiting list for transplants in Illinois.

News Local/State

A federal judge in Chicago has imposed the same 14-year prison term for Rod Blagojevich at the former Illinois governor’s resentencing hearing in his corruption case. He may again appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

News Local/State

Last week, Illinois Public Media reported on how PACE, an Urbana-based agency for people with disabilities, was protesting the loss of state funding for one of its programs. Now, state officials say the program was the unfortunate casualty of new rules for judging funding applications.

News Local/State

An Urbana man who set out to cycle across the country last year after being diagnosed with ALS has died. Ray Spooner was injured on that ride, but was determined to finish. Last November, he dipped the front wheel of his bicycle into the Atlantic Ocean and crossed one more item off his bucket list.

News Local/State

Voters in Champaign County could be asked this fall to support a 1/4-cent sales tax to address facilities needs. County Board Chair Rick Snider says priorities include closing the downtown Urbana jail, and expansion of the satellite site, as well closing the Brookens Administrative Center to move county government to downtown Urbana. The county board would have to approve the plan by August 18 for the question to appear on the November ballot.

News Local/State

A Downers Grove doctor and a pregnancy center in Rockford are suing to overturn Illinois' newly updated right-of-conscience law.