Illinois Public Media News

If Brendt Christensen told his defense attorneys the truth, the remains of Yingying Zhang, the young woman he murdered two years ago, may be in a landfill near Danville.

Almost 16 years ago, three young children died after they were trapped in a car that went into Clinton Lake. Edith Brady-Lunny has been covering the story since that first night. We’ll speak with her about her new book, The Unforgiven. Also, local communities play a big part in the census. But this time, there’s a lot of fear about being counted. Today, we’ll focus on what this looks like in the central Illinois community of Beardstown.

A state mandate requires all pregnant women in Illinois be screened for depression as part of their prenatal care. But new research study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign finds that those screenings may overlook a significant proportion of women who have suicidal thoughts. 

Recreational cannabis will be legal in Illinois on January 1st. But it won’t be legal to sell everywhere, because some cities have voted to ban marijuana businesses in their communities. Plus, candidates running for federal office are now allowed to spend campaign money on childcare. We’ll look at how the culture around running for office and taking care of kids is changing. And Instagram is testing a feed that hides the number of likes on the posts you see. It’s an idea that Illinois artist Ben Grosser has worked on for years. We’ll speak to him about quality over quantity on social media.

Rural areas in America have high death rates from car crashes, hunting accidents and other trauma. But many rural hospitals are only equipped to handle basic emergencies. In one Iowa town trauma experts are helping a small ER prepare for big emergencies.