This newscast aired at 5:04pm on 6-18-2025 on WGLT.
From the WGLT newsroom, I'm Ben Howell. It's possible airlines may not want potential high-speed rail service from Chicago to East St. Louis. The State High Speed Rail Commission is trying to gauge whether people want 220 mile an hour service by doing a variety of surveys online and in person. Rhett Fussell is a transportation engineer with the consulting firm.
USP Fussell spoke at a commission meeting last month. O'Hare and Midway, um, those both agencies refused, uh, the airport lawyers refused to allow us to do surveys. High-speed rail advocates say 220 mile an hour service might help the airlines reduce the number of short haul flights and free up capacity for longer flights.
Dave Stutzman was on his farm in Lexington, May 16th as a major dust storm blew through central Illinois on its way to Chicago. Stutzman says his experience was mild. He was safe inside his tractor, but his mind wandered the public reaction to his profession. It is, uh, somewhat sad just because you know that people are gonna think that it's all farmers' fault. Climatologists say dust storms naturally vary in frequency decade by decade, and there's no data to link the recent increase to climate change.
A big road project in East Bloomington is underway. GE Road in Bloomington is getting a new surface from Veterans Parkway to Tawanda Barnes Road. City of Bloomington Engineering director Jim Karch says the ridability of the road was poor. We were starting to see the joint failures that caused more of a traditional hump that caused a lot of consternation for.
Koch says construction will likely finish by the beginning of August. The Democratic challenger for Republican Darren Hood's US House seat is focusing on restoring cuts made by the Trump administration. Joseph Albright is an associate professor of economics at Peoria's Bradley University.
We're going to start making plans as to how we can appropriately regain.
Some or all of
that
back. The district is historically red, and Heartland Community College has a vacancy on its governing board. The college says board of trustees member Cecilia Long has resigned with nearly 4 years remaining on her term. Long says she is stepping down to pursue professional and personal opportunities outside of the district. Heartland is accepting applications for the board seat. I'm