Statewide: The Radium Girls; COVID-19 In Southern Illinois

This week, the story of women who worked at the Radium Dial Company factory in Ottawa, using radium-laced paint on glow-in-the-dark clocks and watches. Unaware of the health risks, many died from radium poisoning. Their case became a landmark moment in the workers' rights movement.

Also, we'll hear about the stress on health care facilities in southern Illinois amid the latest COVID-19 surge.

Those stories and more on Statewide.

Our lineup:

* Caroline Kubzansky talks with the sponsor of a new data privacy law. It's designed to protect data captured on smart devices, like Amazon's Alexa or the Ring doorbell.

* Author Tara McClellan McAndrew recounts the tragic story of the Radium Girls.

Len Grossman, Jr.

* Yvonne Boose explains how a Freeport Theater is bringing the women's story to the stage.

* Christine Herman with Illinois Newsroom speaks with the Acting Medical Center Director at the V-A Illinois Health Care system in Danville. The V-A hospital has begun providing care to a limited number of non-veteran patients to help with the COVID caseload.

* Sean Crawford talks with Jennifer Fuller, WSIU News Director, about how the coronavirus continues to overwhelm hospitals in southern Illinois. This week, the region ran out of available ICU beds.

* Peter Medlin of WNIJ updates us on a partnership between Rockford public schools and Northern Illinois University.

* WGLT's Sarah Nardi talks with a relative of a World War Two veteran killed in action. His remains were only recently identified. He was brought back home to Illinois this month, where he was laid to rest.

* As the fallout continues over the exit from Afghanistan, Kevin Boucher talks with a veteran of that war.