Health

Seeking a Cure: The Quest to Save Rural Hospitals

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A seven-state news investigation revealed plenty of problems facing rural patients but also a variety of creative attempts to solve them. The head of the National Rural Health Association puts it this way: “Everyone realizes we’re at a crisis point.”

Watchdog Watch

Gun violence in downstate Illinois in four maps

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At least 100 people died from gunfire over the past three years and at least 500 were wounded, according to data obtained from a sample of police departments of eight small cities in downstate Illinois. Here's a look at where gun violence occurs.

Watchdog Watch

‘No Taxpayer Dollars’ for coaches at the University of Illinois? It’s a lie

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While taxpayer money doesn’t technically go to pay the coaches’ actual salary lines, taxpayer money does pay for the salary packages for most every UI coach, trainer, and full-time athletic department staff member. That’s because UI athletic department employees are UI employees, so they receive the same “standard university benefits” as all other UI employees.

And benefits for UI employees – health, dental, etc. – are paid for by the state of Illinois. In other words, the taxpayers.

Watchdog Watch

Despite hazards, push to open public roads to off-road vehicles in high gear

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ATVs are common in farming operations. As Fair Warning reports, officials in small towns and rural areas around the country, at the urging of riding enthusiasts, have been approving the use of ATVs — and other off-road machines known as recreational off-highway vehicles, or ROVs — on public roadways. Safety advocates have pushed back, but they are losing more fights than they win.