Almost 16 years ago, three young children died after they were trapped in a car that went into Clinton Lake. Edith Brady-Lunny has been covering the story since that first night. We’ll speak with her about her new book, The Unforgiven. Also, local communities play a big part in the census. But this time, there’s a lot of fear about being counted. Today, we’ll focus on what this looks like in the central Illinois community of Beardstown.

The National Weather Service says multiple tornadoes touched down in central Illinois, damaging dozens of structures and injuring at least 20 people.

Barns are practical. They store equipment, keep animals safe, and speak to our agricultural impact. And now Illinois Public Media is bringing you the story of these iconic structures that dot our landscape with the new documentary Barns: An Illinois Story, featuring barns in Champaign, Piatt, McDonough, and Peoria counties.

One of the early season highlights of birding in central Illinois is the widespread return in March of a bird called the American woodcock.

People who go looking for beauty in the woodlands of central Illinois tend to get excited about the months of April and May, when showy beauties like Virginia bluebells carpet the woodland floor. But if you wait until April to get out, you may already be a month late for the emergence of the first flower of spring.