Focus

From time to time, we like to provide you with an opportunity to ask some basic questions about personal finance. Kevin Waspi, who lectures on finance at the University of Illinois College of Business will answer your queries on money management. Whether you are just starting out and looking for advice on investing, thinking about buying a home, sending your children to college, or planning for retirement, your questions will be welcome.

This Saturday will mark the 25th World AIDS Day. The first such day was established in 1988 to raise awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.

Between 1981 and 2007, more than 25 million people died from AIDS. But more and more people today are living with HIV – research has led to medical regimens that make it more of a chronic disease to be controlled, rather than the almost certain death sentence it once was. Still, globally, an estimated 33 point three million people are H-I-V positive. And AIDS still takes close to two million people each year – more than half of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.

How’s your car running these days? If you’re having problems we’ll try to help. Our guest will be auto mechanic Rick Karch from Rick’s Automotive in Champaign. He stops by on a regular basis to answer questions. Just give us a call…tell us the make and model…and give us a description of the problem. Rick will suggest a solution. We’ll also have some tips on basic maintenance as we head into winter and the holiday travel season.

Over the last 20 years, Americans have discussed, debated, fought over and been divided by the issue of same-sex marriage. The arguments in those two decades haven’t changed very much. Supporters of same-sex marriage see it as a civil rights issue, and that any limits on the ability of two consenting adults to wed are manifestly unfair. Opponents argue the state has always set some measure of restriction on marriage, and fear a slippery slope towards further changes to what they see as ‘traditional’ marriage. What has changed, in recent years, is public opinion, which has shifted from majority opposition to majority approval. This November, voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington voted in support of same-sex marriage. It's the first time such rights have been affirmed directly by voters.

On Tuesday's Focus, we’ll examine the history and politics of same-sex marriage with author and historian Michael Klarman. In his book From the Closet to the Altar, Klarman examines how the issue has been dealt with by the courts, and the political backlash of decisions both for and against same-sex marriage.

Today on Focus, we will talk about women’s health and our guest will be Doctor Suzanne Trupin. She is an obstetrician and gynecologist and is on the faculty of the University of Illinois College Of Medicine. She stops by to talk about recent developments in her field and to answer your questions. On past programs we have covered a wide range of subjects everything from family planning and pregnancy to birthing and breast feeding to osteoporosis and menopause.

A drug court is a specialty court for drug abuse cases, using supervision, drug testing, treatment and sanctions/incentives. The philosophy of a drug court is that while incarceration may be appropriate for some defendants, for many, society is better served by addressing the underlying causes of a defendant's addiction. Research has found drug court programs to be effective in reducing drug use and related crime as well as to be more cost-effective than traditional criminal justice methods. The cost to taxpayers for incarcerating a defendant is approximately $24,000 per year, versus $5,000 a year for the cost of treatment for a Drug Court participant. Drug courts handle more than 120,000 clients per year and have more than a million graduates in all 50 states and 15 countries.

Justice Jeffrey B. Ford founded the Champaign County Drug Court in 1999. The mission of the Champaign County Drug Court is to develop substance-free, productive citizens and break the cycle of criminal recidivism. Caroline Cooper has been a practicing attorney, an assistant public defender, and has written numerous publications addressing a variety of judicial system issues relating to the management of criminal, civil, juvenile and family matters. Her most recent publications have addressed topics relating to drug courts, civil and criminal differentiated case management, and strategies courts are using to manage their caseloads, including the multi-volume reports of the 1997 and 2000 National Drug Court Surveys and Drug Case Management and Treatment Intervention Strategies in the State and Local Courts.

On March 16, 1970, Newsweek published a cover story on the fledgling feminist movement entitled “Women in Revolt.” The  same day, Lynn Povich and other women filed a class action lawsuit––the first by women journalists–– against their employer, the very same Newsweek magazine.

A blimp in flames crashes through the roof of a busy downtown bank; a racial incident at a hot, crowded beach spirals into one of the worst urban riots in American history; a transit strike paralyzes the city; the body of a missing young girl is found, the victim of a gruesome murder. The Great Fire of 1871 holds a notorious place in Chicago history – but these incidents over 12 balmy days in 1919 shaped the city in profound ways and paved the way for the birth of the modern American city.

Did video kill the radio star? If so, it was with a lot of help from MTV. It's hard to remember that the initials MTV, now better known for reality programming, actually stand for "Music Television." In its first decade, MTV lived up to its name - it played music videos all day, the way a radio station played records. Though music videos had been played on television since the 1960s, MTV was the first outlet specifically programmed around music videos. We'll talk with Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, authors of "I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution" about the tumultuous first decade of MTV and the videos that made the 1980s and early 1990s memorable.

Millions of people will fly or drive short and long distances to visit loved ones for the Thanksgiving holiday.  You may have plans to be with an aging parent or parents still in their home or apartment.  When you visit, you might see or hear things that disturb you.  Is it time to have a talk about your loved one’s care and living situation?  If so, how do you do that?   As we age, what are our housing options and when should we discuss them with our children?  What do we do if we don’t have any children or aren’t close to them?

We'll talk with Julie Glawe, Executive Director, Faith In Action in Monticello, IL, and Roxanna Webb from the Family Service Senior Resource Center in Champaign about these questions as well as to help define what the various types of housing really mean and what is appropriate for different situations.