Illinois Public Media News

Democrat Shirley Bell of Mattoon is running for state representative in the 110th Illinois House District, which runs from Charleston and Mattoon in Coles County, down to Robinson in Crawford County and Lawrenceville in Lawrence County. 

The University of Illinois Student Bar Association is demanding law professor Jay Kesan resign, after a 2017 investigation made public last week by Illinois Public Media found Kesan violated the campus code of conduct.

Illinois suffered a 49-20 loss to No. 23 Wisconsin at Madison on Saturday, allowing the Badgers to maintain hopes of a West Division football title and a return to the Big Ten championship game.

Health care, trade, and the tax overhaul are three of the biggest issues in the race for the 13th Congressional District between incumbent Rodney Davis and challenger Betsy Dirksen Londrigan. Those issues are also where the candidates are getting sloppy with the facts.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned Friday that reforms planned for the Chicago police force could cause a surge in violent crime and pointed to the recent murder conviction of a police officer as evidence that such reforms aren't necessary because officers who break the law are already "prosecuted and jailed."

The tenth annual C-U Folk and Roots Festival got underway Thursday night in downtown Urbana. The headliner for the first Folk and Roots Festival in 2009 was award-winning musician Robbie Fulks. The Chicago-area resident and Pennsylvania native is back to headline this year’s event.

This month marks a year since the Me Too movement went viral as a hashtag on social media (after having first been started in 2006 by Tarana Burke.) This week, we hear from several women in Illinois whose work in government has been affected.

Most states don’t recognize art therapy as a mental health profession. It’s gained more attention recently in Indiana, since Second Lady Karen Pence made art therapy her formal platform, but this growing profession faces a number of  challenges.

A broadcast debate in Urbana between the candidates for Illinois’ 13th Congressional District seat covered issues that ranged from healthcare to preventing gun violence.

On the 21st: Last week during a gubernatorial debate in Quincy, Governor Rauner made his first apology to the families who lost loved ones to Legionnaires’ Disease at the Quincy veterans’ home. We’ll hear more about that debate and the state Attorney General’s criminal investigation into the the way the governor’s administration handled this outbreak. Plus, revisit our conversation with Bloomington writer Judy Valente about how wisdom from the sixth century can apply to today. And, we preview a photography exhibit at the American Indian Center of Chicago about the protests at Standing Rock.