Illinois Public Media News

Rauner says his proposal- to place current state workers into a lesser plan going forward or giving them the option of taking a payout, then converting to a defined contribution plan - is better whatever Illinois' Supreme Court decides.

Hill was to have given the keynote address at the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy conference next month at the Urbana campus. She was also scheduled to give a lecture.

The Fighting Illini begin play in the NIT Tuesday evening, with a game against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, while the ISU Redbirds hosts Wisconsin-Green Bay Wednesday evening in NIT play.

In an interview with Rachel Otwell, University of Illinois journalism professor Matt Ehrlich says the media was publishing silly items about cats long before the Internet, although they weren't always so favorably disposed towards the animals.

Chemistry professor and medical doctor Martin Burke's machine aims to do for chemistry what 3-D printing has done for engineering.  His team has built a machine for assembling small molecules.

Bryan Lewis, who currently works in North Carolina's retirement systems, starts April 6, taking over the retiring William Mabe.  SURS has about 227,000 members.

The heads of EIU, SIU, and WIU warned a House panel of what Gov. Rauner's suggested 31-percent cut in state support would mean to their schools.

Illinois' new comptroller was hand-picked by Gov. Bruce Rauner, who made the appointment with the intention of keeping a Republican in that office for as long as possible. But Comptroller Leslie Munger hasn't been the doormat some Capitol-watchers had expected her to be.

In what may have been Illinois' worst game of the season, they managed to shoot only 37.3 percent.  Malcolm Hill led the team with 13 points.  The Illini now await word of a possible NIT bid on Sunday.

Startup costs of the engineering-based school are estimated at $100 million.  At their meeting Thursday in Urbana, U of I Trustees also announced that President-designate Timothy Killeen will start May 18.