Illinois Public Media News

Illinois was home to several competitive House races last year, and two of them flipped to the Democratic Party. We’ll look at Representatives Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood, and the challengers they might face next election day. Plus, Leland is a village of 900 people in LaSalle County. But it’s recently become home to a dispute between two banks. And, we’ll speak with Adam Ragusea about how went from working in public radio to becoming a Youtube cooking star.

Springfield is the only municipality in the state to run its own coal power plant. But city officials are considering a plan to close three of its four coal generators after a report on CWLP’s future found that the cost to run them is more than what the utility can sell the electricity for on the wholesale market.

The American Civil Liberties Union sent letters to eight Illinois municipalities last week — including Danville — urging them to repeal their panhandling bans. The nonprofit organization warned of legal action if community officials don't heed their warning.

Democratic congressional candidate Betsy Dirksen Londrigan said the president’s racist rhetoric about four members of Congress is “very worrisome” in part because it prevents “real issues” like health care from being addressed.

The federal government plans to cut funding to clinics that provide abortion referrals. But in Illinois, any clinics that lose that funding can get grants from the state.

The authors have taken a fresh look at the story of Illinois’ first capital city in a new book published by Southern Illinois University Press called “Kaskaskia: The Lost Capital of Illinois.” They’ve put together what they say is a comprehensive account of the town, complete with historical photos, maps, and even tales of a centuries-old curse. 

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.