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Champaign’s vacant properties can languish for years without correction; Fines increased in past two years
Kiran Bond / For CU-CitizenAccess
/ April 23, 2024
Seven07 pipe burst displaces residents
Gwyn Skiles / For CU-CitizenAccess
/ March 27, 2024
Over one year later, no detached housing built following Champaign ordinance
Zeno Jo / For CU-CitizenAccess and Nour Longi / For CU-CitizenAccess
/ March 4, 2024
About Us
CU-CitizenAccess is an online newsroom devoted to community and watchdog reporting by journalism students at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
The newsroom focuses mostly on Champaign County and central Illinois, but produces occasional regional, national and international stories.
NEW TOOL: Click here to search Champaign County property by owner name — a feature removed by county officials
Latest News
February 29, 2024
ByMichal Szczepaniak / For CU-CitizenAccess and Gwyn Skiles / For CU-CitizenAccess
Rental property and nuisance complaints have soared in Urbana over the past few years, records show. The records, obtained via Freedom of Information Act Request, show a total of 1,002 complaints were...
Neighborhoods
Building paint is peeling, junk litters the property and “no trespassing” signs sporadically adorn fences surrounding the approximately 330,000 square feet of property of the mostly vacant C.S. Johnson factory in Champaign. ...
The night Monica Milanowski returned to her apartment at Seven07, a 14-story high-rise in Champaign, after going home for winter break in January, her apartment was flooded with four to six inches...
Some residents expressed concern about a negative impact on neighborhoods when the city of Champaign passed a June 2022 ordinance to build additional, detached housing on their properties. But over one year...
Neighborhoods
Building paint is peeling, junk litters the property and “no trespassing” signs sporadically adorn fences surrounding the approximately 330,000 square feet of property of the mostly vacant C.S. Johnson factory in Champaign. ...
The night Monica Milanowski returned to her apartment at Seven07, a 14-story high-rise in Champaign, after going home for winter break in January, her apartment was flooded with four to six inches...
Some residents expressed concern about a negative impact on neighborhoods when the city of Champaign passed a June 2022 ordinance to build additional, detached housing on their properties. But over one year...
Recent News
The state of Illinois Liquor Control Commission has made enforcing and documenting underage drinking on its website a priority since 2021 — and enforcement of liquor laws at...
This story is part of a partnership focusing on police misconduct in Champaign County between the Champaign-Urbana Civic Police Data Project of the Invisible Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit public accountability journalism...
This article originally appeared on IPM Newsroom on January 29, 2024. This story is part of a partnership focusing on police misconduct in Champaign County between the Champaign-Urbana...
Despite an all-time high in the number of Illinois residents possessing a firearm ownership card, the number of gun dealers and businesses registering guns throughout the state has...
The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and local group Advocates for Aging Care have launched a survey to help identify the state of senior services in Champaign County. Champaign...
Last year, as of late November, 10 restaurants in Champaign County were closed and received a red placard because of failed health inspections. But 75 failed an inspection...
Justice
This story is part of a partnership focusing on police misconduct in Champaign County between the Champaign-Urbana Civic Police Data Project of the Invisible Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit public accountability journalism organization, and IPM...
This article originally appeared on IPM Newsroom on January 29, 2024. This story is part of a partnership focusing on police misconduct in Champaign County between the Champaign-Urbana Civic Police...
Listen to WILL’s coverage for interview audio and hear from the reporters on The 21st Show. Just months before he planned to retire, 66-year-old Robert Dautel was killed in an...
Champaign has been using automated license plate readers (ALPR) in an effort to reduce gun violence — and its police department is looking to not only continue usage, but to...