Illinois Public Media News

The man convicted of murdering University of Illinois visiting scholar Yingying Zhang will spend the rest of his life in federal prison “without release”. That was the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Jim Shadid Thursday, after a jury spent about nine hours deliberating before determining they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the death penalty for Brendt Christensen. 

A former University of Illinois doctoral student was spared the death penalty Thursday and sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and killing of a 26-year-old scholar from China. Her parents, disappointed he was not sentenced to death, publicly begged for the killer to reveal where her remains are so they can be returned home.

50 years ago, an Illinois engineer named Barbara Crawford Johnson helped land astronauts on the moon. We learn about her life, and what it was like to work on the space program all those years ago. Plus, there are many reasons why people don’t drink alcohol, and those numbers of people continue to grow. We talk about how bars and restaurants are starting to cater cocktails to the sober set. Also, a new study finds that just half of collegiate level sports programs follow the medical model of care for student athletes. 

Efforts to restrict abortions are playing out in state legislatures and courts across the Midwest. But often an important voice is missing from the conversation –- people who have had abortions themselves. 

Jurors received Brendt Christensen’s capital case for a second time about 1:40 P.M. Wednesday. A few weeks earlier, the same jury found Christensen guilty of the 2017 kidnapping and murder of University of Illinois visiting scholar Yingying Zhang. This time, the question is the sentence for Christensen’s crime: life in prison or death by lethal injection.

Betsy Dirksen Londrigan pledged to not take any money from corporate political action committees, or PACs, in her second run for Illinois’ 13th Congressional District.

Springfield-based Land of Lincoln Goodwill is backpedaling on its recent decision to lay off a number of workers with disabilities. The move by CEO Sharon Durbin sparked broad criticism this week.

Fifty years ago this week, the first man walked on the moon. A new book tells the story of an airplane engineer from Illinois some consider to be an unsung hero in making that happen.

The Land of Lincoln Goodwill, which runs 15 locations throughout Illinois, decided to lay off dozens of disabled workers. Plus, Gov. Pritzker wants local communities to report flood damage so Illinois can qualify for federal aid. Also, we'll talk about how marine biologists in Illinois are helping to care for the increasing number of sea lion pups that are washing up on California shores. And, emoji have become a common form of communication on keyboards around the world, but are these little symbols as diverse as the people who use them?

Illinois — and the rest of the country — could soon start seeing more days of extreme heat. That’s according to a report released Tuesday, “Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days”— authored by the Union of Concerned Scientists.