The local chapter of the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America marked the fifth anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre with a vigil at the Champaign Public Library Thursday night.

After last year’s historic violence in parts of Chicago, a group of state legislators are once again pushing for tougher gun possession laws.

It's time to talk about ballot measures. Or rather, those other things voters are deciding on Nov. 8. This November, there are 156 measures being voted on in 35 states and the District of Columbia. California is in the lead, with a whopping 17 measures on its ballot.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) says president Barack Obama’s executive actions to expand background checks on gun sales has popular support, and was something he and 23 other senators had asked the president to do back in November. But Illinois Republicans say the actions violate the 2nd Amendment and will not survive a court challenge.

While the Vietnam War raged on, 18-year-old Thomas Boaz from Decatur, Illinois was living as an exchange student in post-WWII Germany.  Required by law to register for the draft, he did so as a non-combative conscientious objector and later became a nonpolitical pacifist.