Illinois Public Media News

Charlie Wheeler has been covering Illinois government for 50 years. As he retires from leading the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois Springfield, he reflects on the decline of the Statehouse press corps, the threat that poses to democracy, and the rays of hope in non-profit news.

Enrollment at the University of Illinois’ Urbana-Champaign campus has topped fifty thousand for the first time, according to preliminary fall enrollment figures released Thursday.

Champaign-Urbana is the site of dozens of events celebrating the contributions of immigrants, during National Welcoming Week, beginning Friday.

Ten candidates are on stage for the three-hour event hosted by ABC News and Univision, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

A gathering this weekend in Champaign will bring together people from various faith communities and organizations to grieve for those who have died from gun violence. The Interfaith Vigil of Remembrance begins at 3 pm Sunday at the Randolph Street Community Garden in Champaign. It will be led by local clergy, in coordination with the CU chapter of Moms Demand Action, a group that advocates for stricter gun laws.

We learned about Illinois' first ever twins database. And, the world of AI is getting more sophisticated all the time. These days, many companies are using AI to help look for job candidates. Plus, there’s a group of companies that make predatory academic journals. Investigative journalist Svea Eckert found them by submitting a paper with random, computer generated words. And they actually got printed.

There are now less than five months to go before the first votes are cast in the Democratic presidential nominating contest. So the spotlight is going to be even hotter on the 10 candidates who made the cut for Thursday's debate in Houston.

This June the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its plan to move two of its research agencies out of Washington, D.C., to the Kansas City area. Most of the people working at the agencies have since quit, leaving gaping holes in critical divisions.

Climate change advocates will be presenting a report in Normal that they say presents a stark choice: make major efforts to reduce greenhouse gases or watch temperatures rise to dangerous levels.

Continuing our science and technology encore week, we spoke with Illinois scientists and doctors about their research on working to prevent life-threatening food allergies. Also, a new generation of evangelical Christians is hoping to move the needle on climate change action within their congregations, including at Wheaton College. Plus, we spoke with researchers about gravitational waves detections that helped shed light on entire populations of black holes.