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Negotiators for the Champaign school district and its teachers’ union return to the bargaining table Wednesday afternoon, to continue efforts to reach a new contract agreement for some 800 teachers.
In 1979, Liz Pryor lived in a wealthy Chicago suburb when she found she was pregnant. Her parents decided to keep this a secret forever. Now she's telling her story in a new memoir, which we discussed with the author. Also, we spoke with Sophia Byrd, one of the four teenage women who organized yesterday's Black Lives Matter protest of more than 200 people at Millennium Park. Finally, Pokémon Go — it's a phenomenon everywhere. We heard from people playing it on college campuses, as well as from Jennifer Golbeck, Director of the Social Intelligence Lab at the University of Maryland.
The agreement that made possible the reopening of the Illinois State Museum in Springfield also allowed the state of Illinois' Dickson Mounds Museum to reopen in the west-central part of the state. Both had been put on a nine-month hiatus, due to the state budget impasse.
We talked with law professor and author Daniel Hatcher about his new book on America's "poverty industry" and spoke with an Illinois lawmaker about a proposal to protect money earmarked for foster children. Plus, in our weekly look at state politics, we spoke with the Peoria journalist who finally shaved off his "budget beard."
Kadeem Fuller organizes community engagement for the Black Lives Matter chapter located in Champaign-Urbana. He says the time for educating white people on the cause has passed - now is time for action. Numerous events were held in Central Illinois throughout the weekend after the shootings of African-Americans in Minnesota and Louisiana, and the sniper shootings of officers in Dallas.
