Jelani Day’s phone has been found

A missing piece in the Jelani Day death investigation has been found. The LaSalle County Sheriff’s department confirmed to WGLT that Day’s cell phone has been located. Sheriff Adam Diss said the phone is being sent to the FBI for “further forensic analysis.” Day, an Illinois State graduate student, was reported missing from Bloomington on […]
Pritzker signs electric vehicle manufacturing incentives into law

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law a tax incentives package Tuesday that state lawmakers hope will help Illinois become a manufacturing hub for the budding electric vehicle industry. The Reimagining Electric Vehicles in Illinois, or REV, Act, passed the General Assembly with near-unanimous bipartisan support during the recently concluded fall session. It provides […]
Illinois Census racial data at the national, state and county level

Jury begins deliberating at Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial

KENOSHA, Wis. — The jury has begun deliberating at Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial after two weeks of testimony in which they were given starkly different portrayals of his actions the night he shot three men on the streets of Kenosha. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse was a “wannabe soldier” who provoked a confrontation, while the defense says […]
Illini football coach Bret Bielema will miss the Iowa game after testing positive for COVID-19

CHAMPAIGN — University of Illinois football coach Bret Bielema has tested positive for COVID-19, the program announced on Tuesday. Bielema will miss this Saturday’s game at Iowa, where he played football in college, per team COVID protocols to help limit spread of the virus. In a statement, Bielema says he developed “mild symptoms” on Monday […]
217 Today: Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021

Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021 Today’s headlines: Governor JB Pritzker has signed into law a ban on so-called dark money in judicial elections in Illinois. Students and faculty at the University of Illinois and the University of Waterloo in Canada launched a satellite into orbit last month called CAPSat. Illinois Public Media’s first News Brews and […]
Addressing gun violence requires everyone’s help, say News Brews & Beatz speakers

CHAMPAIGN – The rise in gun violence in Champaign-Urbana and elsewhere can be traced back to the trauma young people of color are experiencing. And addressing it effectively requires a united effort from the entire community. Those were takeaways from the discussion Monday night at the Pour Brothers Craft Taproom in downtown Champaign. The event, […]
Turnovers doom Illini in a 67-66 loss at Marquette

MILWAUKEE — The Illini men’s basketball team faltered during crunch time Monday night in Milwaukee. Marquette’s defense denied Illinois a field goal for the final seven minutes of play, overcoming a 12 point deficit to nip the 10th-ranked Illini 67-66. Illinois head coach Brad Underwood was aghast at his team’s failure to close out the […]
A giant investment firm paid a university to study one of its biggest assets — farmland

TIAA-CREF invests heavily in farmland, so it paid a university to research it. Read Part I and Part III of this series. CHAMPAIGN — In 2013, mammoth U.S. investment company TIAA-CREF gave $5 million to the University of Illinois — to study an area of investment where the company has made a, sometimes controversial, name […]
Pritzker signs law banning dark money, out-of-state contributions in judicial campaigns

SPRINGFIELD — Campaign contributions from out-of-staters and so-called dark money groups will be banned in Illinois judicial campaigns beginning in January under legislation Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law Monday. Several states have enacted laws forcing disclosure of funders to nonprofits — including social welfare groups [501(c)4s], labor unions [501(c)5s] and industry trade groups [501(c)6s], […]