Illinois Public Media News

Gasoline prices have gone down in the past week. The price-tracking website GasBuddy says the average price for a gallon of Regular-grade gas in Champaign-Urbana was $2.74 on Monday, down 20 cents from last week. Across Illinois, the average price was $2.95, down 12-and-a-half cents.

A new state law directs the Illinois Department of Human Services to create an online database with mental health resources that parents and school staff can use to help students. 

A new Illinois law aims to ensure that parents of justice-involved youth who need costly mental health services don’t have to trade custody for treatment for their child.

Illinois was home to several competitive House races last year, and two of them flipped to the Democratic Party. We’ll look at Representatives Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood, and the challengers they might face next election day. Plus, Leland is a village of 900 people in LaSalle County. But it’s recently become home to a dispute between two banks. And, we’ll speak with Adam Ragusea about how went from working in public radio to becoming a Youtube cooking star.

Springfield is the only municipality in the state to run its own coal power plant. But city officials are considering a plan to close three of its four coal generators after a report on CWLP’s future found that the cost to run them is more than what the utility can sell the electricity for on the wholesale market.