AM-580 News Features

Johnson fought persistently -- some would even say abrasively -- for racial equity. The former Champaign city councilman was best known for his lawsuit against the Unit 4 schools that led to a consent decree, paving the way for the elimination of elementary district boundaries and more assistance to African-American students.  Johnson died March 23 at the age of 64, nearly three months after surgeons removed a 37-pound tumor from his abdomen.    

Listen to a portion of an interview Johnson (left) gave to middle school students Markisha Motton and Tamika Lee as part of an AM 580 project on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education in 2004

Learn more about Johnson in his own words

Champaign school officials and their supporters say they'll spend time studying and listening, to learn why voters soundly rejected a nearly $66 million bond referendum.  Nearly two thirds of those voting rejected a property tax increase to pay for three new grade schools and the renovation of existing ones.  AM 580's Jim Meadows reports.

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Get cumulative results of all issues and primaries in Champaign County

Indiana will get nearly four billion dollars to complete a range of major highway projects – it’s getting the money by leasing the Indiana Toll Road to a group of private firms based in Australia and Spain. It’s the most controversial component of Governor Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves highway plan, and its narrow passage closed the Indiana General Assembly’s session this week. Columnist Brian Howey covers the Indiana Statehouse for his newsletter, the Howey Political Report. He tells AM 580’s Tom Rogers the package passed despite opposition from many Hoosiers who didn’t like the thought of the Toll Road in foreign hands.

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Only one Champaign County Board District has a contested county board race in next week’s primary. But its outcome could affect the leadership of the county board. AM 580’s Jim Meadows reports on the board’s chairman and vice chairman, and the two challengers who accuse them of disloyalty to their party.

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The candidates for governor will spend these last few days of the campaign shaking hands and speaking at rallies -- and aside from a few party-sponsored dinners, most of those rallies will be in or around Chicago. The focus leaves some people in large stretches of downstate Illinois wondering if they count for much in statewide races. AM 580's Tom Rogers reports that’s not necessarily the case.

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UI employee Jim Long (left) boards a bus home to his Southwest Champaign subdivision.  With recent growth in the city, the local Mass Transit District is choosing to expand with it. But many in Southwest Champaign claim they were forcibly annexed, and don’t want to pay taxes to support a bus service they won’t use. Those residents have petitioned to form their own mass transit district and block out the Champaign-Urbana MTD. AM 580's Jeff Bossert previews the referendum and the legal battle that will likely ensue regardless of the outcome.

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Next week’s primary ballot will ask voters in Champaign, Savoy and Bondville to approve nearly 66 million dollars in school building bonds. Unit Four school officials are seeking a property tax increase that would add $42 a year in taxes on a $150,000 home. The money will finance school construction and renovations that officials say are needed to serve a growing community, including a building to replace the aging Dr. Howard School (left). But critics say the district is asking for too much, too soon. AM 580’s Jim Meadows reports.

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A pro-referendum website

In the 1920s, when Vaudeville and silent films made up much of the entertainment scene, Champaign-Urbana offered five venues for such purposes.  Today, just one of those facilities still serves its intended purpose.  The Virginia Theatre almost closed in the early 90s, but the efforts of the city of Champaign, local business leaders and many volunteers allowed it to survive.  AM 580's Jeff Bossert looks at the recent past of the nearly 90-year old theater as it prepares for another generation.

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A committee of 12 historians and researchers has chosen from 39 players and executives from baseball’s Negro Leagues for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Among those voting was University of Illinois history professor Adrian Burgos (below left), who also served on a group that selected the finalists for this one-time vote. AM 580’s Jeff Bossert spoke with Burgos, whose own research focuses on Chicago White Sox hero Minnie Minoso (above left) and other Latino players who participated in the Negro Leagues.

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Listen to interview as heard on Friday's Afternoon Magazine

Several Illinois lawmakers and many colleges students are wondering if Governor Rod Blagojevich will use his state budget address to propose selling off the state's portfolio of student loans.  The governor's budget office says selling off the portfolio could produce $300 million to $500 million in revenue for the state.  But critics ask whether the sale could lead to increases in interest and fees.  AM 580's Jim Meadows reports.

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New Jersey-based American Water owns water utilities in 20 states.  But leaders of some Illinois cities think their local utility should be in municipal hands.  They've been exploring ways to get American Water and its Illinois-American subsidiary to sell their local facilities to their local city.  Their reasons -- and their strategies -- for doing so are the subject of two reports from AM 580's Jim Meadows and Illinois Public Radio's Jonathan Ahl.

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Last fall, former Illinois governor Jim Edgar laid to rest talk of another bid for the seat he held for eight years. Although he didn’t watch the first televised debate among the four major GOP primary candidates, Edgar is far from detached from the race. He’s thrown his support behind state treasurer Judy Baar Topinka. But Edgar is still concerned about how his party will handle the primary and a November showdown with incumbent Democrat Rod Blagojevich. Edgar sat down to talk to AM 580’s Tom Rogers about his views of the race and his party’s status as it approaches what could be a bitter primary.

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Americans are called to reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership in the civil rights movement and his use of nonviolent resistance, strongly influenced by the teachings of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.  Reverend Chester Berryhill is the director of the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence at the University of Memphis.  He told an audience at a Martin Luther King celebration in Urbana (left) that King was introduced to Gandhi's teachings while he was a seminary student in Pennsylvania.

Listen to a portion of Berryhill's speech

AM 580's Jim Meadows talked to Rev. Berryhill about King, the Gandhi Institute and the principles of non-violent resistance

WILL-TV is airing a three-part PBS documentary that follows the lives of Cody Perkins and Chris Johnson (left, top) as they near graduation from an alternative school in a small, poor mining town in Kentucky. They’ve battled family problems, poverty and the urge to drop out. We showed previews of the series to students and adults in the central Illinois town of Hoopeston, and they see striking similarities between what the two Kentucky boys go through and what happens in their lives. AM 580’s Tom Rogers reports on their reactions and how the Hoopeston community tries to help their young people succeed. (left, bottom: Joshua Pierce and Skylar Pickett join others to discuss the series at school)

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WILL-TV's Country Boys website

A lifelong engineer will switch between two of the nation’s premier engineering institutions this spring. Linda Katehi (left) was tapped last month to be the next provost at the University of Illinois’ Urbana campus. She leaves the dean of engineering post at Purdue University. Katehi is a native of Greece, and as she tells AM 580’s Tom Rogers, she’s excited about taking a top position in a school that excels in areas beyond engineering.

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