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Greetings: Week of Feb. 20

This week on CU-CitizenAccess.org, a website and social network devoted to coverage and discussion of social and economic issues within Central Illinois:

Taxicab business on the rise in Champaign-Urbana

By Landon Cassman/For CU-CitizenAccess -- Last year Karim Ouzidane opened Black Cab and Limo, adding one more company to what has become a taxi and limo company boom in Urbana-Champaign.

The number of licensed taxis and limousine companies in Urbana-Champaign has more than doubled since 2008, according to the city of Urbana Finance Department, which handles licenses for both cities.

Blog: Fair market rents in Champaign County vs. city of Champaign

By Pam G. Dempsey/Lower-income residents often find hotels and motels an affordable alternative to tradtional housing because they are not required to pay a full month's rent up front.

Check out this interactive graphic to compare fair market rent rates

Follow us on Twitter

To get the latest about what's new at CU-CitizenAccess.org, you can follow us on Twitter under the name @cucitizenaccess.

You can also follow CU-CitzenAccess reporters Pam Dempsey, @pamelagdempsey, and Dan Petrella, @PetrellaReports, and one of the project leaders Brant Houston, @branthouston.

To share information about social and economic issues in Champaign County with us, include the hash tag #cucitizen in your tweets.

For more about connecting with us through Twitter on your computer or cell phone, visit CU-CitizenAccess.org/mobile.

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Greetings: Week of Feb. 13

This week on CU-CitizenAccess.org, a website and social network devoted to coverage and discussion of social and economic issues within Central Illinois:

December sees few failed restaurant inspections

Only two Champaign County restaurants failed public health inspections in December, the fewest in any month since June.

Click the link above to find out which eateries received low marks and to view our updated map of all the Champaign County restaurants that have failed since April 2007.

Blog: Report details challenges facing Illinois children

In an election year, a group that advocates on behalf of Illinois children is calling on officials and candidates for public office to focus on the many issues facing the state's young people.

Voices for Illinois Children says its Illinois Kids Count 2012 report, released Thursday, shows "children are caught in a 'budget crossfire' at both the state and federal levels, while policymakers are neglecting long-term investments in children."

In 2010, one in five children in Illinois were living in poverty, and more than 33,000 homeless children were attending public schools, according to the report.

Events for the week of Feb. 12 by Carletta J. Donaldson

Check out this community group post to see local events in Champaign-Urbana this week, including a National African-American Parent Involvement Day Program at Urbana Middle School and a Teen Valentine’s Day Event at Champaign-Urbana Public Health District.

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Skepticism greets report of 'nearly destroyed' C-U economy

The News-Gazette reports: "Champaign-Urbana was one of five metropolitan areas "nearly destroyed by the recession," according to a story from 24/7 Wall St., a company that produces content for the Web.

"But several local officials and economists, while acknowledging recent job losses, say the writers engaged in hyperbole."

Follow us on Twitter

To get the latest about what's new at CU-CitizenAccess.org, you can follow us on Twitter under the name @cucitizenaccess.

You can also follow CU-CitzenAccess reporters Pam Dempsey, @pamelagdempsey, and Dan Petrella, @PetrellaReports, and one of the project leaders Brant Houston, @branthouston.

To share information about social and economic issues in Champaign County with us, include the hash tag #cucitizen in your tweets.

For more about connecting with us through Twitter on your computer or cell phone, visit CU-CitizenAccess.org/mobile.

'Like' us on Facebook

You can get news and information from CU-CitizenAccess.org straight to your Facebook news feed by liking our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/cucitizenaccess

Greetings: Week of Feb. 6

This week on CU-CitizenAccess.org, a website and social network devoted to coverage and discussion of social and economic issues within Central Illinois:

Campus lacks resources to meet demand for mental health services, safety initiatives

For the past five months, journalism students and faculty have examined the state of mental health treatment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.

Their work was part of an examination of mental health programs conducted by the Investigative Journalism Education Consortium, a network of journalism faculty and students at Midwest universities and colleges that is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation based in Chicago. (Read project here)

In their ongoing review, the students found the campus is unable to meet national standard for the counselor to student ratio. They also found that recommended safety measures following campus shootings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech have not been met or are being slowly implemented.

More than 10,000 students on the Illinois campus seek help from counseling center, which has 20 full-time counselors. Many have serious problems and more than 60 attempted suicide last year.

University campus struggle to meet growing demand for mental health services

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is seeing more demand for mental health services but is struggling to meet that demand.

More of the university’s students are on psychiatric medication and more students are diagnosed with severe issues such as depression and anxiety than in years past.

Lack of evacuation plans leaves students, staff unprepared

By Mary Beth Versaci/ Of the approximately 450 buildings on the University of Illinois campus, only 75 have Building Emergency Action Plans completed or in progress. This means that a little more than 16 percent have evacuation plans in place in the event of an emergency.

Follow us on Twitter

To get the latest about what's new at CU-CitizenAccess.org, you can follow us on Twitter under the name @cucitizenaccess.

You can also follow CU-CitzenAccess reporters Pam Dempsey,@pamelagdempsey, and Dan Petrella,@PetrellaReports, and one of the project leaders Brant Houston, @branthouston.

To share information about social and economic issues in Champaign County with us, include the hash tag #cucitizen in your tweets.

For more about connecting with us through Twitter on your computer or cell phone, visit CU-CitizenAccess.org/mobile.

'Like' us on Facebook

You can get news and information from CU-CitizenAccess.org straight to your Facebook news feed by liking our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/cucitizenaccess

Greetings: Week of Jan. 25

This week on CU-CitizenAccess.org, a website and social network devoted to coverage and discussion of social and economic issues within Central Illinois:

Restaurant inspection failures for December

Our ongoing restaurant inspection map has been updated to include failed inspection reports from December.

Check out our map to see what's new!

Blog: Gingrich prompts look at local food stamp use

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess -- Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has gotten a lot of mileage on the campaign trail by labeling Barack Obama "the food-stamp president."

He repeated that sentiment at last week's debate in South Carolina, saying, "The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history," which drew cheers from the audience.

Have you seen ...?

New website puts law within reach for Spanish speakers

Hispanics in Illinois unable to afford an attorney now have an online Spanish-language resource to help them resolve their legal problems 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The new website, www.AyudaLegalIL.org, developed by Illinois Legal Aid Online and Legal Assistance Foundation (LAF), delivers easy-to-use, free legal information in more than two dozen areas of law.

AyudaLegalIL.org, which is a mirrored version of the award-winning www.IllinoisLegalAid.org, provides zip code-based referrals to local legal services programs across the state and free, plain language legal information and resources for common legal problems. The website makes navigating a confusing legal system easy and free to lower-income Spanish-speakers facing legal issues like domestic violence, mortgage foreclosure, immigration and more.
(Contributed by Illinois Legal Aid Online)

The Atlantic Cities looks at the most and least affordable housing and what drives up prices

Based on this report, the 8th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2012 , Champaign has "moderately unaffordable" housing.

Follow us on Twitter

To get the latest about what's new at CU-CitizenAccess.org, you can follow us on Twitter under the name @cucitizenaccess.

You can also follow CU-CitzenAccess reporters Pam Dempsey,@pamelagdempsey, and Dan Petrella,@PetrellaReports, and one of the project leaders Brant Houston, @branthouston.

To share information about social and economic issues in Champaign County with us, include the hash tag #cucitizen in your tweets.

For more about connecting with us through Twitter on your computer or cell phone, visit CU-CitizenAccess.org/mobile.

'Like' us on Facebook

You can get news and information from CU-CitizenAccess.org straight to your Facebook news feed by liking our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/cucitizenaccess

Greetings: Week of Jan. 16

This week on CU-CitizenAccess.org, a website and social network devoted to coverage and discussion of social and economic issues within Central Illinois:

Blog: Changing neighborhoods

The social architecture of neighborhoods plays an equally important role in quality of life as does physical architecture, one expert says.

Yet neighborhoods everywhere are undergoing changes both socially and physically as more and more families move away from their homes due to foreclosure and the economy converts once owner-occupied areas into transitional ones.

Over the next few months, CU-CitizenAccess.org is exploring housing in Champaign and Vermilion counties. To share your thoughts on your neighborhood, email us at hello@cu-citizenaccess.org or visit SkyChalk to find your neighborhood and write something about it.

Have you seen ... ?

News-Gazette: Changes in poverty and how schools are affected

Changes in poverty mean new challenges for school districts, local officials said, because students who live in poverty face obstacles like lack of medical and dental care. They may also move around more, have obligations to watch younger siblings after school and may not have access to homework help or a quiet place to study after school.

UI professor tackles obesity, diabetes in immigrant communities

Obesity is hitting Latino children in the United States harder than any other demographic, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Angela Wiley, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is trying to curb that trend in immigrant communities living in Illinois. She heads the Up Amigos project, which looks at how biological, social, and environmental factors affect rates of obesity and diabetes. Illinois Public Radio's Rachel Otwell talks with Wiley about her research.

Follow us on Twitter

To get the latest about what's new at CU-CitizenAccess.org, you can follow us on Twitter under the name @cucitizenaccess.

You can also follow CU-CitzenAccess reporters Pam Dempsey,@pamelagdempsey, and Dan Petrella,@PetrellaReports, and one of the project leaders Brant Houston, @branthouston.

To share information about social and economic issues in Champaign County with us, include the hash tag #cucitizen in your tweets.

For more about connecting with us through Twitter on your computer or cell phone, visit CU-CitizenAccess.org/mobile.

'Like' us on Facebook

You can get news and information from CU-CitizenAccess.org straight to your Facebook news feed by liking our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/cucitizenaccess

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SeaBoatCU1 RT @4seasongarage: RT @cucitizenaccess: The number of taxi and limousine licenses in Champaign-Urbana has more than doubled since 2008....

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:08:51 +0000

patrick_wade RT @CUCitizenAccess The number of taxi and limousine licenses in #chambana has more than doubled since 2008. http://t.co/dw9t2OA0

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:47:20 +0000

cucitizenaccess The number of taxi and limousine licenses in Champaign-Urbana has more than doubled since 2008. http://t.co/qswZJchW

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:41:31 +0000

cucitizenaccess The number of taxi and limousine licenses in Champaign-Urbana has more than doubled since 2008. http://t.co/OslbNTup

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:31:32 +0000

cucitizenaccess Interesting graphic and article from Crain's Chicago Business on long-term unemployment in Illinois and other states. http://t.co/QgsPqdCc

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:37:47 +0000