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Senate Approves Use Of Drones For Music Events, State Fairs

Illinois lawmakers want to prevent a shooting similar to the one that happened in Las Vegas last year. A proposal, approved by the Senate, addresses security concerns around large-scale events.

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Methodist College students take a break between classes at the campus in Peoria, which is a former furniture store.
Mary Hansen / NPR IllINOIS | 91.9 UIS

Outside The Big Box: Repurposing Vacant Space In Illinois

As more retail chains shut down, cities across Illinois figure out what to do with millions of square feet of empty space.

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Piush Dahal via flickr / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Urban Farm Tax Credit Plan Gets Illinois House Approval

Education Desk

Teachers across the country are pushing for better pay and increased school funding. They consistently make less than other college graduates with comparable experience — even though, for many teachers, working with students is more than a full-time job.

There are long days in the classroom, clubs and activities, planning and grading, and the many after-school hours spent with students.

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Statehouse

via Illinois Central Management Services

lllinois' 3 million Medicaid users will soon have more access to mental health and substance abuse treatments. Officials in Washington, D.C. ok’d a new state program that sets aside about $2 billion in Medicaid funds for the services.


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Health+Harvest Desk

Flickr: Brianna Laugher / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The Illinois General Assembly is considering a proposal to expand birth control access. 

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Arts & Life

Rachel Otwell / NPR Illinois

Last week, Springfield's Iles Elementary School got a surprise when a musician and speaker who travels the world made a stop in town for the day. His message helped inspire acts of kindness and compassion.

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Equity

Rachel Otwell / NPR Illinois

Now retired, Lea Joy became part of the Springfield Police Department in 1983. She had three children and had been a social worker, but she felt too powerless in that role. She wanted to make things better.

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Illinois Economy

Flickr: Bret Arnett / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Several Illinois legislators are pushing to bring more construction jobs to the state. A plan under consideration in the House would award tax credits to companies that put up new buildings or improve existing structures. 

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A new report out from The Information says that investigations into Uber’s fatal semi-autonomous car crash earlier this year might have been caused by a software malfunction. Elsewhere in tech, Elon Musk has bought millions of dollars of Tesla stock to fight against shortsellers, and the annual Google I/O conference begins Tuesday.

Inside West Virginia's Key Republican Primary

49 minutes ago

Tuesday’s Republican U.S. Senate primary in West Virginia is a key race. There are six candidates including 3rd District Congressman Evan Jenkins, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson speaks with Dave Mistich (@davemistich), senior reporter for West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

American artist Zoe Leonard’s work has been shown in and collected by major institutions around the world. But she’s never had a career retrospective in an American museum until now. The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City is showing about 100 works dating from the 1980s to today. Across all of it, Leonard has engaged her times: She’s taken on AIDS, immigration, feminism, gender and the presidency.

Leonia, New Jersey, is close to the George Washington Bridge, and during the morning and evening rushes, its residential streets were being clogged with commuters using apps like Waze to avoid backups on the highways to and from New York. So the borough banned nonresident drivers and those without destinations in Leonia from its residential streets.

President Trump today announced he will pull the U.S. out of the 2015 deal with Iran that gave the country relief from economic sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

Three weeks ago, things in Armenia were proceeding roughly as expected.

Serzh Sargsyan had just followed his two terms as president by winning election as the country's prime minister, largely on the strength of his ruling Republican Party. He had been in power for a decade, and recent constitutional changes to boost the premier's authority had made the office an enticing way to retain that power while still observing term limits.

Filmmaker siblings Jay and Mark Duplass grew up making movies using their father's VHS camera, but it wasn't until they were in their mid-to-late 20s that their artistic vision really fell into place.

Jay remembers one day in particular, when he was "pushing 30" and feeling frustrated with his desire to do the "impossible artist thing." That's the day his brother Mark announced that he was going to the store to buy tapes for their dad's video camera. Jay had to come up with an idea for a movie before he returned.

Liminal space can be both a beginning and a transition — it's the threshold that floats between worlds. When you just need to drift into nothingness from the aches of daily life, that unending quality makes for good ambient music, no?

Fair housing advocates are suing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to compel it to follow a rule meant to help prevent segregation and comply with the Fair Housing Act. The suit, which also names HUD Secretary Ben Carson, was filed Tuesday morning.

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Brian Mackey / NPR Illinois

'Who Ruined Illinois?': Interview with Daniel Vock

Mounting pension debt, persistent cash flow issues, and political gridlock – Illinois has a lot of problems. But it wasn’t always this way. In a recent article for the magazine Governing, Daniel Vock examines how the state got here .

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Featured

U.S. Voting System Remains Vulnerable 6 Months Before Election Day. What Now?

As America heads toward the 2018 midterms, there is an 800-pound gorilla in the voting booth. Despite improvements since Russia's attack on the 2016 presidential race, the U.S. elections infrastructure is vulnerable — and will remain so in November. Cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier laid out the problem to an overflowing room full of election directors and secretaries of state — people charged with running and securing elections — at a conference at Harvard University this spring. ...

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Illinois Issues

Jaclyn Driscoll

Reporter Finds Carrying A Gun Carries Weighty Responsibility

In the wake of mass shootings comes the debate around gun laws. This week, I explore a different angle: the personal responsibility of carrying a firearm.

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Politics

Republicans in Indiana and West Virginia will settle two bitter Senate primary fights today, with hopes that the nominees will not be too battered to take down vulnerable Democratic incumbents in November and secure the slim GOP Senate majority.

Candidates in both parties seem to agree on one thing: President Trump is the issue in 2018. While Republicans compete to prove who is most loyal to Trump, Democrats insist it's a tactic that will backfire come November, motivating more Democratic voters than Republicans.

Political ads in Georgia's Republican gubernatorial primary this year may be the most charged of any intraparty battle around the country, especially when it comes to guns.

One ad shows former state Sen. Hunter Hill at a shooting range loading one gun, eyes steady on the camera, and firing another.

"We don't need a carry permit," Hill says, "the only thing we need as Americans is the U.S. Constitution. And as governor, I won't give an inch on our Second Amendment."

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has opened an investigation into the allegations against New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Following a New Yorker article published Monday evening in which four women accused him of nonconsensual physical violence, Schneiderman said he will step down at the close of business on Tuesday.

Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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PodCamp

The X | 91.9-3 HD

The Sistine Chapel Gets Its Own High-Tech Spectacle, With Music By Sting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IbAeb4NTyA One of Rome's must-see sights is the Vatican's Sistine Chapel — but it's usually so packed, visitors have a hard time absorbing the majesty and beauty of the frescoes painted by Michelangelo. Now there's a new spectacle in town, where visitors can sit comfortably in plush theater seats and feast their eyes on every detail of the Sistine's masterpieces. On a Saturday afternoon in April, the Auditorium della Conciliazione just off St. Peter's Square...

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NPR Illinois Classic | 91.9-2 HD

What Does Life In An Orchestra Get You? In The U.K., Not Enough To Live On

Aspiring orchestral musicians have long known that the road to a professional career is arduous and paved with risks. But new research from the U.K. shows that even attaining the brass ring of an orchestral job does not necessarily provide financial security. In fact, even with salaried, full-time employment, many British orchestral musicians are struggling to pay their bills. On Wednesday, the Musicians' Union (MU) in the U.K. published research showing that orchestral players — including...

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