Statewide

Illinois passed a school cellphone ban this year. Some parents and administrators are also rethinking how much students laptops.

Some are wary of the measles vaccine, which had nearly wiped out the disease. More cases are beginning to show up.

In 2021, Illinois passed a law requiring every public elementary and high school teach a unit of Asian American and Pacific Islander history. Five years later, many schools have yet to fully implement it.

The official Illinois insect has suffered habitat loss. But some states, including Illinois and Iowa, have embraced an effort to boost the monarch.

The Trump Administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement campaign resulted in arrests, protests and violence. Through it all, reporters were on the scene to document what was happening.

About 300 people died when the ship sank in Lake Michigan, near what is now Highland Park and Highwood, Illinois.

Speech language pathologists trained in autism evaluation would be allowed to diagnose children under age 3 who are enrolled in Illinois Early Intervention Program. We hear from experts and parents.

Advocates hope a couple of new laws will bring improvements.

Back in 1984, the final stretch of U.S. Route 66 in Arizona was bypassed by an interstate. The Mother Road officially became a ghost road the following year.

The Women's Professional Baseball League is playing all of its inaugural season in Springfield.

The Joliet Treatment Center, designed to treat people with serious mental illness, repeatedly failed to prevent or respond to fires despite two deaths, an investigation by The Marshall Project, WBEZ and the Sun-Times found.

Financial stress and a lack of mental health resources in rural areas contribute to the problem.

There is a growing interest to split Illinois and create a 51st state. What's behind the push?

The American Library Association tracked thousands of books challenged in 2025.

On this episode, we listen to a series that examines how schools across the country, including in Illinois, hand out suspensions to Black students at a higher rate than for white students.

Even safety advocates are in disagreement on how old is too old to drive.

Development of large-scale data centers is booming. As some communities unite in opposition, local and state governments are trying to catch up on how to regulate the new development.

As this week was the centennial of Marilyn's birth, we remember the day she came to town as we listen back to a previous conversation with Pat Tieman, who bought the house where the icon stayed.

Mental health courts have expanded in Illinois. There are 31 of them in 25 counties. But a new report finds about two million Illinoisans are left out.

Biographer Ron Chernow talks about the Hannibal, Missouri native who became a literary giant.

When beekeepers saw widespread honeybee die-offs last year, researchers at the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center stepped in to help. The Trump administration now plans to close the facility, sparking concern among beekeepers and scientists.

Some have taken to the streets to protest. Others take it a step further by not paying their taxes as a form of civil disobedience.

Local governments across the country are having to decide if the promise of economic benefit with large scale data centers offsets environmental and consumer concerns. Several projects are proposed across Illinois, while the state already has dozens of the facilities.

A conversation about vaccines and the current status of diseases like COVID-19 and measles.

The president was killed 161 years ago this week. An author takes us back to the scene of the crime.