United States
I work as a full-time fundraiser for the nonprofit Community Health Care Clinic in Normal, IL, where I also contribute to NPR member station WGLT as a part-time news correspondent. I'm a 2015 graduate of the Illinois State University School of Communication, where I majored in journalism and minored in civic engagement.
WGLT
Illinois State University administrators fended off criticism and debunked myths surrounding COVID-19 on campus during a virtual update to the Board of Trustees on Saturday. ISU Associate Professor of English Brian Rejack told trustees the university has downplayed the seriousness of the outbreak on campus.
Last spring students at Illinois State University led a crowd of least 250 in a march through Uptown Normal to demand governments take action to fight climate change. That summer, the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) had successfully lobbied the Town of Normal to require that leasing companies provide onsite recycling at their rental properties. And in February the newly-formed Divestment Campaign was putting pressure on the university's administration to examine its...
McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage has said he does not plan to release inmates at the McLean County jail in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. But the team of McLean County organizations leading a grassroots response to the crisis isn't taking no for an answer.
For Ky Ajayi, it hasn't just been a long week. It's been a long three years. That's how long Black Lives Matter BloNo has been working to dismantle systemic racism in the community. "Here we are in 2020, still talking about the same stuff," Ajayi said. "I'm done."
Real-feel estimates topped out at a sweltering 120 degrees Thursday; the day before, at 114 degrees. If you struggle to remember many days like that when you were a kid, your memory isn't failing you, speakers at a climate change panel Thursday warned; it is getting hot in here.
Cries of "Fossil fuels have got to go" rose into the air Friday afternoon as students in bright orange vests held up traffic, waving on at least 250 climate strikers marching through Uptown Normal. Students at Illinois State University organized the event, one of hundreds of youth-led climate strikes taking place across the globe.
Prairie State Museums Project
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. For more stories about the effect of COVID-19 on museums, please visit the Prairie State Museums Project at PrairieStateMuseumsProject.org . It's a Monday afternoon with nothing to do. Your other plans have been rained out, so you decide to pay a visit to the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
This is the second of two stories exploring how the Peoria Riverfront Museum has adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. For more stories about the effect of COVID-19 on museums, please visit the Prairie State Museums Project at PrairieStateMuseumsProject.org.
AdaptBN
This piece is the first in a three-part series "Wind Turbulence" exploring why some rural McLean County residents oppose the planned wind energy developments near their homes. With two existing wind farms, and two more underway, McLean County is shaping up to be a giant of wind energy.
This piece is the second in a three-part series exploring why some rural McLean County residents oppose the planned wind energy developments near their homes. When State Farm offered Larry Ryan a management position at its corporate headquarters in Bloomington in the late '70s, the lifelong Ohio native and his wife made the journey to begin a new chapter of life in Central Illinois.
This piece is the third in a three-part series exploring why some rural McLean County residents oppose the planned wind energy developments near their homes. When Carlock farmer Larry Ryan testified during a public hearing for Invenergy's proposed McLean County Wind Energy Center earlier this year, county zoning board members asked if Ryan had sought reparations for the flooding in his basement and other effects tied to the turbines surrounding his home.