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Federal courthouse in Peoria.
Tanya Koonce/Illinois Public Media

Jury Begins Deliberations On Life Sentence Or Death Penalty For Brendt Christensen

Jurors received Brendt Christensen’s capital case for a second time about 1:40 P.M. Wednesday. A few weeks earlier, the same jury found Christensen guilty of the 2017 kidnapping and murder of University of Illinois visiting scholar Yingying Zhang. This time, the question is the sentence for Christensen’s crime: life in prison or death by lethal injection.

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Goodwill Lays Off Disabled Workers, Then Reverses Decision; Flooding And Federal Aid; Shedd Aquarium Rescues Sea Lions; Emoji Inclusivity

The Land of Lincoln Goodwill, which runs 15 locations throughout Illinois, decided to lay off dozens of disabled workers. Plus, Gov. Pritzker wants local communities to report flood damage so Illinois can qualify for federal aid. Also, we'll talk about how marine biologists in Illinois are helping to care for the increasing number of sea lion pups that are washing up on California shores. And, emoji have become a common form of communication on keyboards around the world, but are these little symbols as diverse as the people who use them?

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