Illinois Public Media News

In December 2021, there was written evidence from former White House lawyers and the former chief of staff to then-President Donald J. Trump about attempting to use the military to overturn the results of the election and keep Trump in power. The 21st was joined by a political scientist and professor to tackle the question of why the U.S. has been characterized as a "backsliding democracy" and if it can be saved.

The National Weather Service confirms four tornadoes in Illinois on Friday night. One storm in the Metro East area struck an Amazon warehouse, killing at least six people. To talk about the effects of these storms and increasingly severe weather, we were joined by a reporter from the Metro East and a climatologist. 

As of the week of December 6, Champaign-Urbana has seen 348 gun incidents and 23 homicides so far in 2021. Illinois Public Media's "News, Brews and Beatz" is bringing together people to talk about stopping gun violence. We previewed the upcoming discussion on December 13 at 6:00 p.m. at Pour Bros. Taproom in Champaign.

Two women in Peoria have taken the idea of “going out for a walk” to a whole new level. The two childhood friends from Peoria set out in November of 2019 to traverse all 1,639 streets in Peoria, and they joined us to talk about why they set out on this journey and what it did to their relationship. This segment originally aired November 4, 2021.

In November 2021, President Joe Biden signed the $1-trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. To talk about how the bill will specifically affect Illinois and what it could do for diversity, we were joined by a reporter and the executive director of a pre-apprenticeship carpentry program in Chicago.