Illinois Public Media News

There's a long-running fight over whether the fluoride in our drinking water is good for us. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called it “an industrial waste” and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has fast-tracked a review of the chemical’s safety for drinking water. And Florida and Utah aren’t waiting — they’ve already banned it from water supplies.

Meanwhile, the American Dental Association is sticking by its recommendation in favor of fluoridated water — and worth noting 98 percent of Illinois residents have that.

We’re not going to settle that debate in the next 15 minutes of the show — and that’s fine, because my next guest wants to move the conversation somewhere else.

Her question is not whether fluoride is safe. Her question is: If Illinois was to take fluoride out of the water supply, is the state ready for what comes next?

Dr. Helen Lee is a pediatric anesthesiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago. And she’s the author of a new policy brief from the Institute of Government and Public Affairs — the University of Illinois System’s in-house think tank.

Illinois aid-in-dying law is set to take effect in September. It’s meant to give terminally ill patients a medical way to end their lives. But opponents call it “assisted suicide,” and they’ve joined with disability advocates trying to block the law in court. We’ll hear from people on both sides of that debate.

It’s been a wild couple weeks for severe weather in Illinois. We’ll talk with reporters who’ve covered the aftermath of storms in Effingham and Charleston. We’ll also hear from an organization that’s been scrambling to place dozens of dogs and cats with foster homes after a tornado tore the roof off an animal shelter in Springfield.

Then, the bigger picture with a group of climate scientists. Illinois has had a record number of tornadoes this year, and the figure is still growing. They'll talk about what's behind that, and whether it's our new normal.
 

Illinois-natives Rafael and Whitney are a husband and wife duo known for their soul and R&B vocals and music. They will be performing at this year's Juneteenth festival at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, Illinois. 

As Juneteenth approaches, the debate continues about whether descendants of enslaved Black Americans should receive reparations. In 2022, the city of Evanston, near Chicago, made history as the first U.S. city to implement a publicly funded reparations program for Black Americans. But should the relief go even further... perhaps, statewide?