Illinois Public Media News

On The 21st: The Farm Bill affects food, agriculture and rural America. It’s a gigantic law that will cost $867 billion. Plus, a new report says that some Department of Corrections officers are abusive with mentally ill inmates. Also, we catch up with the students working on the CubeSail satellite. And, this year Amazon is delivering real Christmas trees right to your door. Are more traditional tree retailers worried about this?

The satellite known as CubeSail is actually two cube-shaped satellites, each weighing less than a five-pound bag of sugar and not much larger in size. It's expected to launch from a rocket at a site in New Zealand Wednesday night. 

One of three alleged Illinois militia members accused of bombing a Minnesota mosque last year has pleaded not guilty to hate crime and explosives charges, and a second member is expected to make a court appearance on Wednesday.

On The 21st: The federal government could be headed for yet another shutdown over the issue of immigration. We'll speak with Senator Dick Durbin about this and other news. Plus, a new generation of evangelical Christians is hoping to move the needle on climate change action within their congregations. The University of Illinois’ women’s volleyball team is headed to the Final Four! We’ll check in on that and some of the latest pro sports news in Chicago.

It's the last scheduled week that the Senate is in session, the 2018 Farm Bill came out Monday night, and our leaders need to agree on a spending plan by Dec. 21 before the government shuts down again. Sen. Dick Durbin joined The 21st to talk about all this and more on Tuesday morning.