Illinois Public Media News

An earthquake centered in Oklahoma has rattled a swath of the Great Plains.

The county's first case of Zika virus was confirmed Friday by Champaign-Urbana Public Health Administrator Julie Pryde. But she could not confirm whether that case involved a female University of Illinois student that reportedly sought treatment at McKinley Health Center after returning from a Zika-infected area.

A judge is encouraging Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration to keep bargaining its contract with AFSCME, the state’s largest government union. Rauner's attorneys have been asking the state’s labor board to declare negotiations at an impasse, which could potentially lead to a strike of state workers.

On the 21st: We discussed the upcoming college football season with reporters Jeremy Werner and Zach Pereles, who cover Illinois and Northwestern. Plus, we talked with Chicago musician Sir the Baptist about his spiritual roots and rising success.

In an era of political gridlock, one of the few topics on which there's been hope of bipartisan cooperation is on the issues of crime and punishment. Politicians have traditionally been averse to doing anything that could get them painted as being "soft on crime." It's an easy attack, and one that's been frequently deployed in the past. But this year, criminal justice reform advocates are fighting back, as in the case of an Illinois Democrat facing scare-mongering ads about criminal justice reform.