By Dave Dahl SPRINGFIELD – During this Pride Month, Illinois’ child welfare agency is highlighting a restructuring meant to provide more support for the LGBTQI + community. LGBTQI + stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer / Questioning, Intersex, and more. The chief of this newly constituted division, Marla Courts, says while life has improved…… MORE
If you’re having a bumpy ride of it today, we hear you.… MORE
With President Joe Biden signing legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, Gov. JB Pritzker announced that state government offices will be closed Friday, June 18 in accordance with the new federal law.… MORE
The state is announcing a new COVID-19 vaccination lottery with $10 million in prizes.… MORE
By Neil Doyle SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Public Health has confirmed the first mosquitoes to test positive for West Nile virus this year. The North Shore Mosquito Abatement District collected a positive mosquito batch on June 9 from Skokie, Illinois in Cook County. No human cases of West Nile virus have been reported…… MORE
By WJBC Staff SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation Wednesday declaring June 19, Juneteenth, an official state holiday. To commemorate the abolition of slavery throughout the United States and its territories in 1865, Juneteenth will be recognized as National Freedom Day in Illinois. “Just as Illinois led the nation as the first state to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment,…… MORE
President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting is set to be the event of the week on Wednesday.… MORE
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin is calling for an investigation in Congress and the Department of Justice Inspector General to produce materials relating to a decision in the Trump-era DOJ.… MORE
At the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering, students and a professor are cranking out children’s books.… MORE
The damage the pandemic did to the travel industry depends on whom you ask.… MORE
By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year. It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …
By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city. Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…
By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…
Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University. We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk. Going to work every day for some people means…