Charlie Schlenker
WGLT Assistant News Director Charlie Schlenker grew up in Rock Island, Illinois and graduated from Augustana College. He has spent more than three decades in radio and has won numerous state and national awards for journalism. He lives in Normal with his family.
-
The American Farm Bureau Federation has kicked the Illinois Farm Bureau out of the federation in a dispute over member dues. The bureau responded by saying it is challenging the move in court. -
Volkswagen has increased its planned investment in the electric automaker Rivian through a joint venture that officially launches Wednesday. The first Volkswagen models made with Rivian’s technology are expected to launch in 2027. -
State Farm Insurance is removing electric vehicle charging stations from its parking decks at Corporate and Corporate South headquarters in Bloomington, and at hubs throughout the nation. -
Two Champaign-Urbana area lawmakers said they will introduce legislation to ban carbon capture in region served by the Mahomet Aquifer. -
You don't usually find Democrats picking up the gauntlet to weaken provisions of a law originally intended to prevent the concentration of capital into hereditary wealthy elites. But State Sen. Dave Koehler of Peoria said there's a sound economic development reason to do so. -
A decision Tuesday by the Illinois Supreme Court means the end of cash bail in the state. Cash bail will officially end on Sept. 18 of this year, making the state the first in the nation to entirely eliminate cash bail. -
Illinois State University President Terri Goss Kinzy has resigned after less than two years on the job. No reason was given for Kinzy’s abrupt resignation. -
A major central Illinois cultural institution is losing its music director. Ken Lam has left his conducting post with the Symphony of Illinois. -
Pontiac residents and community leaders are worried. The Illinois Department of Corrections moved 171 medium-security inmates from the Pontiac Correctional Center to other prisons early this year, and the fear is the rest of the prison built in the 1870s will shut down, too. -
The announced closure of Lincoln College is an example of a challenging time in higher education, says the president of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. Georgia Nugent used to work at the Council of Independent Colleges, a group of about 700 mostly smaller and liberal arts institutions that has tracked a half century of issues facing largely private liberal arts colleges.
