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How Champaign County residents organized an AI data center resistance

Longtime Champaign County residents Ruth Yontz and Antonia Herbstreit had never met before organizing what would become an AI data center resistance group. Yontz, a former faculty member at the ...
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Philo Road pharmacy access remains a challenge for vulnerable residents

Restrictive covenants associated with the former Walgreens property prevent another pharmacy from operating near the Philo Road corridor.
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One year, four accidents at Archer Daniels Midland’s Decatur, Ill. headquarters; company fined over $400,000 in past 10 years

An explosion in September at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) plant in Decatur, Illinois injured eight workers, but federal work safety data shows it was only the latest in series of safety incidents ...
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Champaign County nursing home fines, violations soar as planning of new facility continues

In just one year, state and federal fines against the four nursing homes in Champaign County nearly tripled from $117,401 to $334,015, according to Medicare and the Illinois Department of Public ...
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University of Illinois campus trying to address safety concerns over e-bikes and e-skateboards; Accidents not being tracked

Almost two years ago, Illinois State University administrator Adam Peck was hit by a bicycle. Four days later, he died of his injuries. Peck, the assistant vice president for student affairs, was ...
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Concerns about brain cancer cases in Piatt County grow, but Illinois public health agency yet to investigate

Lessie Ann Patterson lived in Monticello, Illinois, for 25 years before dying in 2015 from glioblastoma, a rapidly advancing brain cancer with an average survival time of 12 to 18 months. Belinda ...
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Champaign’s road quality slightly decreases overall, but poorer quality roads see improvement

About one in six road segments, defined as parts of streets, in Champaign were graded very poor, serious or failed in a study conducted by the city’s Public Works department, which concluded most ...
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Champaign County Sheriff’s Office knew Norman Meeker had an alcohol problem for a decade. Why did it take a flipped truck and a DUI for Meeker to leave the force?

This story is part of a partnership between the Invisible Institute and CU-CitizenAccess exploring police misconduct in Champaign County. Champaign County Sheriff’s Sergeant Norman “JR” Meeker had a ...
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Roofing contractors appear to often work without licenses; State regulators count on public to alert them to illegal operations and safety issues

Over the past five years, federal workplace safety officials inspected about 1,800 roofing contractors in Illinois. But a CU-CitizenAccess review found no state records that showed that 1,200 of those ...
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Toxins in the air: Central Illinois factories and plants release millions of pounds of risky chemicals

The Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) facility in Decatur, which processes grain products into food ingredients and ethanol, released 2.7 million pounds of toxic chemicals in 2022, including one that can ...
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Champaign residents warned the county about a nursing home operator. Now, four senior facilities are closed.

When the Champaign County Board sold the Champaign County Nursing Home in May 2018, the board members expected the new owners to care for seniors for the next ten years. But just five years later, the ...