Illinois lawmakers are digging deep on data centers, with a House committee hearing from mayors, labor groups, and agriculture representatives about the facilities’ local impacts in the first of three planned meetings. Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, the chair of the House Executive Committee, said she wanted to hear about the benefits and challenges of data […]
Nikoel Hytrek
Posted inNews
Lawmakers seek measure to make small-scale plug-in solar panels available to renters
A bill to make solar power more accessible to renters and others who face barriers to the alternative energy source is moving through the Illinois Senate. The plug-in solar bill allows people to install small solar panel systems that can be plugged into normal wall outlets for personal use. Instead of a rooftop, the panels could be […]
Posted inNews
Lawmakers seek to regulate new data centers’ power, water usage
Amid concerns about data centers’ impact on prices, electricity supplies and the environment, two Illinois lawmakers have introduced a bill to regulate new projects in Illinois. The bill, called the POWER Act, establishes comprehensive environmental, water and energy regulations for “hyperscale” data centers. State Sen. Ram Villivalam is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, and […]
Posted inNews
Illinois joins WHO global outbreak network after U.S. withdraws
Illinois will join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, or GOARN, to counterbalance the federal government’s withdrawal, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Tuesday. The network monitors disease outbreaks across the globe and prepares countries to respond to those outbreaks. As a member, Illinois will have access to research, timely alerts and information […]
Posted inNews
Child care funding freeze could worsen shortage in Illinois, providers say
Pamela Franks, owner of Playful Steps Child Care, has been taking care of low-income children and their families in her Springfield home for more than 30 years. Franks has a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in early childhood education, and she’s made child care her career. Now, she takes care of […]
Posted inNews
Providers say feds’ new rural health care grants to Illinois won’t cover Medicaid cuts
Illinois will receive $193 million for each of the next five years to expand health care access for the approximately 1.9 million people in rural areas — or about $101 annually for every rural Illinoisan. The money comes from the $50 billion federal Rural Healthcare Transformation Program fund, which Congress created to offset federal Medicaid […]
Posted inNews
Illinois, 4 other states targeted for $10B child care funding freeze win restraining order
llinois and the four other Democratic-led states that were subject to the Trump administration’s freeze on $10 billion in federal funding for child care and family services secured a restraining order on Friday in their lawsuit seeking to block the move. The restraining order, issued by Judge Arun Subramanian in the Southern District of New York, means […]
Posted inArts Features
The Laramie Project at UIS
Ten actors playing more than 60 characters will tell the real-life story of how the community of Laramie, Wyoming, reacted to the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, in 1998. The Laramie Project, a play by Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project, opens Nov. 7 at University of Illinois Springfield. “It […]
