Illinois Public Media News

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?

High school classes can be hard — and so are the first couple years of college. A group of teenagers in southern Illinois did both at the same time —  and simultaneously earned high school diplomas and associate’s degrees.

The U.S. and Iran say they've reached a deal to end nearly four months of war — a war the president said was meant to end Iran's nuclear program, gut its missiles, cut off its proxies, and topple its government.

"None of those have been achieved,” says Rachel Bronson, who closely follows the region from her base at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

“I think we’re in a much worse situation, and now we’re just trying to figure out how to stanch that bleeding and to figure out what this next stage looks like.”