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Deane Geiken, of Champaign, was only a year old when the original Star Trek debuted. He, like so many other fans, discovered the show in reruns. Now, he's celebrating the cultural phenomena with his teenage daughter, a third-generation Trekkie.
University of Illinois trustees have approved a contract with football coach Lovie Smith that will pay him at least $21 million over six years. At their meeting Thursday, trustees also signed off on a $100,000 performance bonus for President Tim Killeen. Under his contract, the bonus was the maximum Killeen could have received for reaching performance goals.
On the 21st: Insurance rates are expected to rise for many Affordable Care Act plans. We dug into why this is happening, how people are coping, and what this means for the future of Obamacare. Plus, we learned what you should do if you discover a bat in your home.
Enrollment figures released Thursday show U of I enrollment from a year ago went up 1.2 percent from last fall, enrolling 77,073. That figure is expected to top 81,000 when factoring in online students. Figures in Urbana show the number of new students went up 1.8 percent, including the largest freshman class in campus history, at just under 7,600.
The Champaign-based sandwich chain has announced it's sold a majority stake in the company to Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital Group. There will be no changes to management, as founder Jimmy John Liataud will continue to remain as chairman of the company's board and the largest individual shareholder. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
