During our Friday reporter roundtable, we're talking about stories making headlines in Bloomington-Normal, including how Illinois State University is planning to directly pay its athletes and a major settlement involving the McLean County Jail. 

Every year, a ‘dead zone’ of water, starved of oxygen, forms off the Gulf Coast. It can kill fish and marine life. It turns out it’s mostly caused by pollution from here in the Midwest. Plus, health care that meets the cultural and social needs of patients can actually improve health outcomes. We’ll hear about the independent, black-owned pharmacies that are providing that kind of care. And a state law is being used for the first time in McLean County. It allows a judge to take away guns from who someone might be a danger to themselves or others, at the request of police or family members.

Vermilion County Board Chair Mike Marron is appointing a bipartisan ad-hoc committee to investigate whether the county would function under a part-time chairman and professional administrator, the same leadership structure used in Peoria and McLean Counties. He says the county has expanded to where it may need someone with more experience in public administration.

Anyone who forgot to register to vote beforehand will be able to do it that day. That's thanks to a law that was intended to be in place for the first time for next year's elections. McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael and others had asked legislators to delay the law until then. It never happened.