Illinois Public Media News

"A lot of people need to do a better job, including me," said Illinois coach Lovie Smith, following Eastern Michigan's impressive last-second 34-31 win over the Illini on Saturday at the State Farm Center.

UPDATE on September 13, 2019: Urbana Police say they’ve found no evidence to support allegations of inappropriate contact between a staff member and a student at Thomas Paine Elementary School. The allegation that such an incident occurred during recess at the school playground came to light earlier this week and led to a hotline call to the state Department of Children and Family Services.

 Restoration work is finally underway on a northern Illinois landmark known as the Black Hawk statue following weather-related delays.

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.