US House Office of Photography
In his fifth run for Congress in Illinois’s 13th District, Rodney Davis’s congressional campaign spent just about $5 million. This is a $928,201 increase…
Google Maps Street View
Recently released data on employee salaries of the City of Champaign and City of Urbana show that Urbana pays substantially less than Champaign and that the pay gap between the two cities has actually increased over the past two fiscal years, according a CU-CitizenAccess review. When the data for employees receiving under $75,000 a year is included, the number of employees increases to 315, more than double the 145 employees included in the compensation report the City of Urbana publishes.
Danielle Sheppard
Prices for Ebertfest tickets soared this year with passes increasing between 35% and 50% from 2020 to 2021, depending on the type of pass. The annual film festival started by the late film critic Roger Ebert in Champaign-Urbana in 1999, was scheduled for September 8 to 11 at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, but was delayed again because of concerns about COVID-19 pandemic. The festival had previously been called off in the spring of 2020 due similar concerns about COVID-19, but returned this fall with the price increases.
Darrell Hoemann
In 2014, the police staff in Champaign was 88% white and Urbana’s police staff was 84% white, CU-CitizenAccess reported at that time. Almost seven years later, those numbers are virtually unchanged, despite pledges by both cities to diversify their police forces.
Illinois Department of Public Health
Influenza-like illness (ILI) activity has decreased compared to previous years in Illinois. The highest ILI rate was in mid-February of 2020 at 7.4%. That is a 93.2% decrease to 0.5% of ILI activity in February of 2021 compared to 2020.
The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced details about the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a program established under the American Rescue Plan Act Congress passed…
Champaign residents erupted on social media in early March about the excess litter in the Champaign area, especially North Prospect, with some claiming they have never seen the city so polluted before. In late spring this year, resident Michael Chrasta expects “a revival” of the Loving Our City cleanup initiative that was cancelled in March 2020 as COVID-19 entered the community.
In recent years, Urbana billionaire Shahid Khan has added to investments by quietly purchasing farmland through a company he owns called Baloo Enterprises LLC. A spokesperson for Khan confirmed earlier this month that Khan has purchased roughly 24,000 acres of farmland in central Illinois.
A fourth-year international Ph.D. student who was dismissed from the University of Illinois for COVID non-compliance in the fall 2020 semester has been readmitted after public outcry. Now, he has proposed solutions to create a more “transparent and humane” policy.
Among the most trending topics locals discussed on Facebook and Twitter were the highest rate of COVID-19 vaccination in Illinois, the first UK variant of COVID-19, Pritzker tour, Market Place Mall looter’s guilty plea, mysterious Walmart fight and, of course, the weather.