Illinois Public Media News

June is Pride Month, and you may have seen hundreds of big box stores selling rainbow merchandise. But when did pride become profitable, and where do brands actually stand on LGBTQ issues? Plus, thousands of Illinois patients have been affected by data breaches in the last year. We’ll talk about what hospitals are doing about it and how you can protect your information. And we’re continuing our weeklong series featuring podcasts you can listen to this summer.

Looking at the well-being of Illinois’ children through a racial lens shows big disparities, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual KIDS count report.

Testimony resumes Tuesday morning in Peoria, in the capital murder trial of Brendt Christensen. Prosecution witnesses are continuing to describe their investigation of the disappearance of University of Illinois visiting scholar Yingying Zhang, and the man they believe kidnapped and killed her.

Cars and trucks recently surpassed coal as the number one source of emissions in Illinois. We’ll talk about what led to this shift and what policies Illinois should put in place. Plus, one of the largest earthquakes recorded in the U.S. happened in the Midwest in 1811. So how likely are earthquakes in the Midwest today? And, you might be on the hunt for news podcasts to listen to during your summer travels. We’ve got some recommendations for you during a summer podcast series we’re doing all week.

A new exhibit at the University of Illinois Rare Book and Manuscript Library features the tools that writers have used throughout history to record their words. One of the items displayed at the “Writers and Their Tools” exhibit is a typewriter that belonged to a U of I student named Hugh Hefner.