Illinois Public Media News

Ben Johnston doesn't follow the rules of music. Sure, the retired University of Illinois music professor has degrees from two colleges and a conservatory. But from an early age, Johnston heard music differently. When he was growing up in Georgia, he questioned the standard scales he was taught in school. "I played by ear and I invented my own chords," he says.

With the dysfunction in Illinois politics, state government this year is projected to spend as much as $13 billion more than it will collect in taxes. And the situation could be getting worse.

The state still doesn’t have a budget. A stopgap spending plan, which was approved over the summer, will end on January 1, leaving social service agencies, institutions of higher education and others in the lurch. But, in the past year, legislators did approve hundreds of pieces of legislation, which the governor signed. Nearly 200 laws will go into effect at the start of the new year — close to the number that went into effect at the start of each of the past three years.

On this encore edition of The 21st: Pulitzer Prize winning writer Margo Jefferson’s new memoir is about growing up in Chicago’s black elite in the 1950s and 1960s. Plus, we talked with writer and anti-war activist Bill Ayers about this political moment.

Illinois is 1-1 in the Big Ten after a 75-70 win over Ohio State at State Farm Center in Champaign.  The Illini lost a 15-point lead before recovering to get the win on New Year's Day.