AM-580 News Features

The day after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, a medical team from Illinois was ordered to help out. A doctor and nurse from Urbana say the ten days they spent treating evacuees was harrowing but a valuable experience they can draw upon in future emergencies.  AM 580's Jeff Bossert reports. (Left: A member of Illinois' medical relief team catches some sleep at LSU's Maravich Center in Baton Rouge, which doubled as a field hospital.)

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Imagine getting a call telling you that a private foundation admires your work – and you’re admired so much that the foundation is giving you $500,000 to keep working, no strings attached. University of Illinois chemistry professor Todd Martinez (left) got that call last week – and today Martinez is being announced as one of 25 recipients of the half-million dollar MacArthur Fellowship grants. AM 580’s Tom Rogers talked to him.

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This year’s observance of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington were low-key in Champaign-Urbana. University of Illinois law students planted small flags on the lawn outside their building. Meanwhile, before a small audience at Smith Hall, faculty members of the School of Music improvised on the hymn “Amazing Grace” for exactly 17 minutes -- the time between the two attacks on the World Trade Center. AM 580's Tom Rogers talked with Karl Kramer, director of the UI School of Music, and musicians Chip Stevens, Ron Bridgewater and Chip McNeill.

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Rebuilding New Orleans seems like a daunting task when America is still trying to get its head around the enormity of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. But a University of Illinois urban planning professor says plans have to start now, even before the area’s residents eventually begin to stream back into the city. AM 580's Tom Rogers talked to him.

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EXTRA: Rob Olshansky on the need for public input

Champaign Native Survives Hurricane Katrina

A Champaign native attending college in New Orleans is back home, after surviving Hurricane Katrina and making his way out of the flooded city on foot. Am 580's Jim Meadows talked with Kevin Causley.

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It’s often called the Super Bowl of Agriculture – but that might not be the most accurate name for the annual Farm Progress Show, now at its new semi-permanent home just outside Decatur. As AM 580’s Tom Rogers reports, it’s more like a three-day crossroads of the ag industry’s movers, shakers, thinkers and growers.

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AM 580's agriculture site provides comprehensive coverage of the FPS

Agriculture experts wrap up their annual tour through the nation’s corn belt – and while they’re estimating slightly smaller crops in Nebraska and Ohio, expectations drop off sharply in Illinois. As AM 580's Tom Rogers reports for NPR, that’s because many Illinois farmers have suffered through what could be called a spot drought, the worst in nearly two decades.

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The earth turns -- but some parts of the earth turn faster than others. An article in the latest issue of the journal Science provides evidence that the earth’s core is rotating at a rate faster than the rest of the planet. AM 580's Jim Meadows talked with a University of Illinois scientist who co-authored the study.  Xiaodong Song (left) says their findings end a nine-year debate on the question and provide more information about the earth’s magnetic field.

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the article in "Science"

Professor Song's website

There’s no prerequisite for setting up a web log, or blog… except having a computer and having something to say. Many have joined in, in hopes that others will see their blogs and weigh in. Many bloggers say they need to update readers on the latest in politics or take the media to task, while others simply like writing for writing’s sake. AM 580’s Jeff Bossert introduces us to some local bloggers and why they do it.

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Jeff featured the following local blogs: Scribal Terror, Swag Blog, IlliniPundit, It's Matt's World

 

The balance between cars and pedestrians is tough to achieve. Some cities have turned to a new generation of street design techniques known collectively as traffic calming to keep speeds down and walkers safe. As AM 580's Tom Rogers reports, those changes meet with mixed results, and drivers and neighbors aren't always happy with them.

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Learn more about traffic calming concepts

It's now estimated that 60 percent of Illinois students get their first state of higher education in the state's community college system, and enrollment is increasing.  At the same time, state funding for community colleges has been declining.  Danville Area Community College president Alice Jacobs is the new head of the Illinois Council of Public Community College Presidents, which represents 39 schools across the state -- she tells AM 580's Dan Simeone about the challenges and opportunities Illinois community colleges face.

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Beyond the steroid scandal, multimillion dollar salaries and lucrative product endorsements, baseball is still a game -- one that many who now make the big bucks played for fun the same way many of us did when we were kids.  Some Chicago cubs and St. Louis Cardinals heroes of the 80's recently took to the diamond at Joliet's Silver Cross Field (left) expressly for that purpose.  AM 580's Jeff Bossert was among the spectators.

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Social Security was a recurring issue at a recent town hall meeting held by 15th district Congressman Tim Johnson of Urbana.  People who oppose the concept of private, personal Social Security accounts got the Republican to voice his his opposition as well -- but only with a careful qualification.  AM 580's Jim Meadows reports.

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Gasoline is expensive. Diesel fuel is even more so. But there's a substantially cheaper motor fuel on the market, and the cars that run on it
are readily available. But this alternative fuel is not a panacea. Jim Meadows reports on the pluses and minuses of E85 fuel.

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Urbana’s Carle Foundation Hospital will build a new institute dedicated to the research and treatment of breast cancer, thanks to the biggest single gift in the hospital’s history.
The $10 million donation comes from Linda Mills, who has coped with breast cancer for more than 13 years. Mills, a board member of Busey Bank, deferred comment to her husband, First Busey Corporation CEO Doug Mills, who says their ordeal began on the last day of 1991 when Linda was first diagnosed.  The Institute is expected to open in 2008.

Listen to a portion of Doug Mills' speech

Modern technology has allowed for editing of movies on DVD without the consent of studios.  One service called CleanFlicks distributes edited versions of films, while another, CleanPlay, sells software that allows parents to filter out content they don't want their kids to see.  Attorney Carrie Beyer, who wrote about the subject for the University of Illinois Law Review, tells AM 580's Jeff Bossert that both services have become the subject of legal battles over who has the right to remove or alter a film's content.

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Shortly after the journalist and author committed suicide at the age of 36, the curator of a museum in Nanjing, China -- a city Chang wrote extensively about -- came to her gravesite to pay his respects.  His organization now plans to fund two statues of Chang, one to be placed in a museum in Nanjing and the other to go to her family in the US.  AM 580's Jeff Bossert spoke with Shau-Jin and Ying-Ying Chang, who'll decide where a statue on American soil will best honor Iris' memory and inspire others.

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A young journalist's learning experience often involves covering a nearby school board or house fire.  But for a group of Illinois students, their beat was a foreign country with an unfamiliar language.  The ten students are back from three weeks in Peru, where they talked with government leaders, poor villagers, alleged terrorists and ordinary Peruvians.  The result is a two-hour documentary, "Assignment: Peru", which aired July 2 on AM 580.  Tom Rogers talked to two of the student reporters and the professor who oversaw their South American trip.

(LEFT:  Reporter Adam Jadhav interviews Peruvian sociologist Pilar Arroyo)

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Hear Assignment: Peru

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Hour 2