Local Headlines

CHICAGO (AP) — The University of Illinois Chicago has received a $6 million from the federal government to test a potential drug to treat COVID-19. Researchers say the drug candidate, called VT-109, has been shown to help restore function to damaged lungs, among other things. The drug will be

SPRINGFIELD – Winnebago county has been added to the USDA Secretarial natural disaster designation for drought conditions impacting the growing season, allowing producers to access emergency USDA loans as they recover. Winnebago joins Boone, Cook, DeKalb, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties,

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois officials are set to begin accepting permit reservations for the pheasant hunting season. The online reservation systems opens Monday. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources will run 16 hunting sites and 2 additional sites will be run by a private

URBANA, Ill. (AP) — A Champaign man has been arrested in the death of a 14-year-old boy whose body was found Friday in a roadside ditch by passersby. Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz says 55-year-old Daryl Vandyke is charged with the first-degree murder in Steven Wayne Butler

CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is promising changes after continued long lines at facilities focused on driver’s licenses and identification cards. White said Friday in a statement that 16 facilities in the Chicago area will begin requiring an appointment to apply

CHICAGO (AP) — Two endangered shorebirds that birding enthusiasts have tracked for years along a Chicago beachfront have lost two chicks in their second nesting setback this year. Two of the piping plovers’ four chicks recently vanished from Montrose Beach Dunes and are presumed dead.

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A California law taking effect Jan. 1 could make pork harder to find and more expensive. Voters in 2018 overwhelmingly approved the law, which requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal

CHICAGO (AP) — Morton Salt has cut 40% of the staff at the 173-year-old company’s downtown Chicago headquarters following its recent purchase by a California investment firm. The company laid off about 120 of the roughly 300 employees at its Chicago offices this past week. Morton Salt

An Illinois tax agency has ruled that former President Donald Trump is due a $1 million refund on the 2011 tax bill on his downtown Chicago skyscraper, but local officials are trying to block the refund. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that at issue is the Cook County Board of Review’s