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.
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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.
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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.
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A major central Illinois cultural institution is losing its music director. Ken Lam has left his conducting post with the Symphony of Illinois.
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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.
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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.
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The mayor of Lincoln said Thursday the loss of Lincoln College is a "devastating blow" to the Logan County community. After 157 years, the college will close in May at the end of the school, while Lincoln Christian University is reducing its footprint by going mostly virtual, said Mayor Tracy Welch.
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State lawmakers are going public with concerns about the future of the prison in Pontiac and another in Vandalia in southern Illinois.
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Exelon has completed the spin off of its nuclear power plant division into a separate company. Constellation is publicly traded on the NASDAQ, and Exelon owners received one share of Constellation stock for every three shares of Exelon they have.
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The State of Illinois closed the year with about 333,000 people out of work and looking for a job. The state Department of Employment Security said Friday that's down by nearly a third from December 2020.
