News

Yona Stamatis talks with ISO Conductor and Music Director Ken Lam about this weekend's "Magnificent Mozart" concert, featuring Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, Jennifer Higdon’s To The Point, and Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks, inspired by Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.

Friday, January 24, 7:30 PM, at the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield.
Saturday, January 25, 7:30 PM, at the Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington.

https://www.ilsymphony.org/

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a law Wednesday aimed at bringing more young people into the civic conversation.

Our #OscarSpotlight series continues with a look at the most nominated and quite possibly the most divisive film of the year; the 11-time nominee #Joker. In Gotham City, mentally-troubled comedian Arthur Fleck embarks on a downward-spiral of social revolution and bloody crime. This path brings him face-to-face with his infamous alter-ego: "The Joker".

Our #OscarSpotlight series continues with a look at #Netflix's #TwoPopes, the drama no one saw coming and the two nominated performances that power it.

Featuring: Craig McFarland & Ryan Lootens

WATCH THE OSCARS WITH US AT OUR 2ND ANNUAL OSCARS VIEWING PARTY AT THE HOOGLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS.
MORE INFO: https://bit.ly/2Re76mg

The #OscarSpotlight series continues! Martin Scorcese's The Irishman is next up as we re-release our #FullDisclosure review from last year. A mob hitman recalls his possible involvement with the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa.

IMDB PAGE: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1302006

FEATURING: Lou Hare, Erin McCabe & Ryan Lootens

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s personal lawyers are seeking to keep him from having to sit for a deposition in a racial discrimination lawsuit against his campaign.

As the U.S. Senate prepares for President Trump’s impeachment trial, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has a warning for his colleagues.

There is a new president of the Illinois Senate: Don Harmon, a Democrat from Oak Park, won the support of his colleagues during a special meeting Sunday afternoon.

Members of the Illinois Senate will gather in the Capitol Sunday to choose a new president.

The Oscars are here and once again the Front Row Network is giving you comprehensive coverage with our #OscarSpotlight series. Here we'll break down all of the most-nominated films and break down all of the categories. We start it out with Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's iconic novel #LittleWomen.

Featuring: Jeremy Goeckner & Sara Baltusevich

More fallout from the “rape in Champaign” email: Ag Director John Sullivan is out.

Two universities have formally announced a collaboration intended to bring a new higher education presence to downtown Springfield.

As he marked a year in office, Gov. J.B. Pritzker talked with Brian Mackey about several issues facing the state, including his thoughts on marijuana.  

The minimum wage hike that just happened in Illinois also meant a pay boost for those under 18, but they will continue to be paid less than other minimum wage earners.  We have a report.

And Western Illinois University has struggled with enrollment, leading to financial problems.  But the interim President says he believes the dark clouds are lifting.  

That and more on this episode of Statewide.

Officials at Springfield’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, known as the ALPLM, are once again trying to verify the authenticity of a hat once thought to belong to Lincoln.

Tuesday marks one year since J.B. Pritzker was sworn in as governor of Illinois. Since then, the state has raised its minimum wage, legalized marijuana, and passed several other pieces of legislation long sought by Democrats.

Pritzker marked the occasion with a series of interviews, including with our Statehouse reporter.

Yes movie fans, the day has come once again. The nominations for 92nd Annual Academy Awards have been announced and, as always, there’s equal parts joy and anger to go around. I don’t think there’s quite anything in the movie world that inspires so much happiness and head-scratching at the exact same time as the yearly Oscar nominations. Per usual, there’s plenty of snubs and surprises to catalog.

SNUB: Frozen II Left in the Cold

It's the end of the year so it is time once again for the 5th Annual Geek Year In Review crossover podcast extravaganza! This year we welcome back our good friends Jeremie Bailey from the Lincoln's Legends podcast and Mitch Ladd from The Geek Awakens. We cover a wide variety of topics from movies to TV shows to Comics and even some video games. This is always one of the highlights of our podcasting year so a big shout-out to our co-collaborators and of course to all of you! So please enjoy this special episode!

Featuring: Craig McFarland, Mitch Ladd & Jeremie Bailey

This week, WBEZ Chicago reported on a 2012 email in which then-lobbyist Mike McClain priased a former state worker for having “kept his mouth shut on ... the rape in Champaign,” among other things.

In an attempt to relieve Illinois' severe teacher shortage, state lawmakers last year voted to remove a requirement known as the "basic skills test." That test has proven to be a stumbling block, especially for people pursuing the profession later in life, as a second career. This change, enacted just five months ago, has already opened the door for a would-be special education teacher in the East Moline School District. 

Illinois lawmakers did away with a requirement in 2019 that could have a big impact on those who want to be teachers.  We'll hear from one woman who says it has changed her life. 

With college debt skyrocketing, more high schools see the need to teach personal finance to students.  We'll visit one of those classrooms. 

And not many towns have a poet laureate.  We bring you a report from Aurora, a community that just named its first person to hold that title.  That and more on this week's Statewide.

Advocates have ideas being hashed out by a state task force.

Attorney Alexis Mansfield said her clients have told her troubling stories of what happens when small children reach the glass in a jail that separates them from a parent.