WGLT's Sound IdeasOn today's episode, a critical funding source for McLean County students facing housing insecurity has dried up for the fiscal year. Hear how advocates plan to help students and families anyway. A new defibrillator could change the landscape for treating children with heart conditions. Former IL House Speaker Michael Madigan takes the stand in his defense, and WGLT remembers acclaimed opera singer and Bloomington native John "Jack" Waddell.
Critical funding from McLean County Students in need has dried up and can't be renewed until summer. I'm going to have this lack of ability to provide housing support. I want to make sure that I'm trying to be proactive and help them in any way that I can. Coming up on WGLT's news magazine Sound Ideas.
Good afternoon. I'm Lauren Warnecke. Also on today's show, a new device could be a game changer for saving the lives of children with heart conditions. It's also groundbreaking in that it reduces the disparity in healthcare available to children who need it across the globe. Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan takes the stand. There was no clue that this was going to happen. And a look back on the storied life of an opera singer from Bloomington, WGLT remembers Jack Waddell.
All that coming up after a Bloomington Normal news update. This is Sound Ideas on 89.1, WGLT and WGLT.org, part of the NPR network.
From the campus of Illinois State University in Normal, this is WGLT's news magazine Sound Ideas. I'm Lauren Warnecke. The school year is only halfway done, and primary and secondary schools in the area are already running out of grant money to support unhoused families or those who are at risk of losing their homes. WGLT's Melissa Ellin reports in some cases, funds have
Already been spent. School districts and educational institutions annually seek funds that can help with everything from finding permanent supportive housing to getting clean clothes. Often grants are restrictive, allowing spending for one purpose and not another.
Money for rent and utility assistance is constantly in short supply, and as of a few months ago, the Regional Office of Education's funds have dried up. Kayla Arnolds is a homeless liaison at the office. We received $80,000 last year and I was still able to support families from July through June. So that was great that we were able to.
Offer support throughout the entire school year. This year that just won't be the case. In 100 days, Arnolds says her office spent all the money it received from a specific rent and utility assistance program through the state, more than $100,000. And another area organization that received the same funds says they're almost out too.
For people like Arnolds working to help students and their families, speedy spending is a catch-22. Arnolds says 182 families got help across 4 counties that she serves, but there's hundreds more in need. The calls don't stop. Families still need help. So it's really difficult at the end of
December, roughly 600 students were considered unhoused or precariously housed in DeWitt, Livingston, Logan, and McLean counties. Just under half came from McLean County alone. And for the first time in several years, the number of students identified for housing support in Unit 5 outpaced District 87.
This is something Regional Office of Education homeless liaison Kayla Arnolds says is neither wholly good or wholly bad. She says in Unit 5's case, they are partnering with families to help them.
And that's the kind of thing that families talk about. Yeah, the district was there for me. They helped me. Unit 5 has also recognized the increasing demand for services to meet that need, they recently added a homeless liaison to staff. Claye Vogelsang, who was already working for the district in a similar role, is now providing greater support to families with housing hardships.
Dr. Crystal Shelvin heads housing support efforts in Unit 5. She says Vogelsang has filled a critical gap for us. It's not just about money because oftentimes we don't have money to give out to families, but it is about being certain that we can do something connecting and connecting and connecting. Vogelsang himself says much of his job is about building relationships with community partners and most importantly,
students and their families, he says there are always people waiting for services. And yes, it can seem like it's a downer, but that's this is the world we're living in right now and we just have to focus on the small wins and the fact that we're helping. Vogelsang says he and others in the district are also being creative about helping families without financial backing. He says a great tool has been social media, where Unit 5 can post about a resource they're looking for,
And the community donates goods and support. But we're not going to stop doing what we're doing. We can't. People are depending on us just like other agencies they're depending on them too, but they're depending on the school as well. Homeless liaison at the Regional Office of Education, Kayla Arnolds says she's creating a database that will help schools find agencies to refer families out to when they can't help. I'm going to have this lack of ability to provide housing support. I want to make sure that I'm trying to be proactive.
And help them in any way that I can. In a world where schools don't get unlimited funds for student housing support, educators say these are the actions that count. I'm Melissa Ellen. Coming up tomorrow, WGLT's Melissa Ellin checks in with Holly Wayland-Hall, a few months into her new role as executive director of the Community Healthcare Clinic. That'll be on WGLT's Sound Ideas tomorrow--and later this week, what does composer Stacy Garrop have in common with George Frideric Handel?
They both wrote songs based on a baroque painting of fireworks. Garrop's spectacle of Light is the featured piece for Illinois Symphony's concert next weekend. I'll preview that concert Friday on this week's datebook.
It's sound ideas on WGLT and WGLT.org. I'm Lauren Warnecke. Heart doctors in Central Illinois have come up with an innovative procedure that will make it easier to detect irregular heartbeats in children.
A team of doctors at OSF Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria implanted a new type of defibrillator in a 2 year old with a rare genetic heart defect. The device was previously only used in teenagers and adults. The procedure was successful. Doctor Sunita Ferns is director of pediatric and adult congenital electrophysiology at the Children's Hospital of Illinois.
Mark Plunkett is chief of pediatric and congenital heart surgery at the Children's Hospital. In the latest edition of WGLT's Sound Health, they tell Tim Shelley from sister station WCBU why the minimally invasive device could be a game changer for saving the lives of children with heart conditions. The options were limited in the past for treating these uh um malignant uh rhythm issues in um smaller children, um.
And the um solutions to that were devices that were much larger, uh, and required um
Um, more extensive operations like stronotomies and thoracotomies, actually opening the chest to implant them in or around the heart. And, um, and so that's, uh, those were the options in the past. Now that we've shown that this can be implanted safely and effectively in a child this young and this small, we've now um shown that uh even children can benefit from this uh very new technology.
Um, there's evidence that this technology is much better than any of those older and, uh, uh, larger devices.
Is this something for the, for the child, uh, I guess maintaining this, is this something they'll need for the rest of their life? Will it be something that, you know, they'll gradually be another solution as they get older?
I guess we can start with Dr. Ferns, yeah.
Absolutely this, once you have an ICD usually get it because you've tried to die once and there's no way we're going to let that happen again. Uh, it's a syndrome they live.
With and have with them for the rest of their lives. So this child will always have an ICD. That being said, it doesn't mean in any way that it will detract from the quality or even his life span, and I expect him to be able to live like any normal toddler growing up and doing all the things little kids do.
Uh, but certainly, uh, having a timely diagnosis, having a protective mechanism to prevent him from a life threatening arrhythmia, that is key. So to answer your question, uh, every decade or so, the battery will come up for replacement, and that will be changed out, but he will have an ICD implanted in him for the rest of his life.
Looking forward, I mean, we've talked about how this is kind of, uh, this sets a new precedent, right, in terms of this can be done safely and effectively with other children and hopefully save the lives of other children, um, you know, in similar situations,
correct?
Yes, that's, uh, I think that's the magnitude of what we've accomplished uh here is shown that this device can be used safely in the pediatric population, and that, uh, while the device was, uh, initially designed for adults or adult sized patients, um, we've shown that uh that we can uh safely implant it.
Uh, in a pediatric, uh, uh, patient, uh, a very small child, and, uh, and have it function, uh, effectively. So, um, it's now become, uh, um, essentially a pediatric device as well, and, and will save, uh, countless children's lives, uh, in the future.
Were there any uh parting thoughts from anybody or anything that I perhaps neglected to ask about that you wanted to talk more about? I guess we can start with Doctor Ferns, yeah.
Sure, I, I mean, I think it's groundbreaking and not just that it allows much younger children to have access to this device, but it's also groundbreaking it in that it reduces the disparity in healthcare available to children who need it across the globe. Doctors uh Tenian and Plunkett are very uh specialized cardiac surgeons to do.
Very complex surgery for children not just in Illinois but that come to them from across state lines and on a, you know, magnitude of how complex the surgery is, this is a minimally invasive procedure that doesn't need a very complex cardiac surgical team such as the one we have at OSF and in many parts of the world that's not readily available.
And so, uh, application of this minimally invasive procedure to a child this small has huge implications in say, third world countries where children might have to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to get access to a pediatric cardiac surgeon. That was doctors Sunita Ferns and Mark Plunkett from Children's Hospital of Illinois speaking with.
WCBU's Tim Shelley. Ferns says the case of the 2 year old who received that defibrillator implant is also a reminder about parents knowing how to perform CPR. They say it may have saved their child's life. Support for WGLT health coverage comes from Carle Health. You can count on Carle as your partner in healthcare information at Carle.org.
The Washington National Cathedral hosts a funeral service for former President Jimmy Carter before his final journey home to Plains, Georgia. Other presidents will be on hand, and we will bring it all to you on your radio, on your phone. I'm Steve Inskeep. Join us for live special coverage Thursday morning from NPR News.
Listen tomorrow morning at 8:30 on 89.1 WGLT.
Originally from Delhi, the Indian rock band Peter Cat Recording Company has been DIY from the start. I remember taking on multiple roles. It's now just a necessity to be a producer if you're a musician. They joined me to talk about their highly inventive new album Beta. It's Peter Cat Recording Company on the Next World Cafe. Listen for
World Cafe tonight at 7 on WGLT, Bloomington Normal's Public Media. Next up today on Sound Ideas, the federal corruption trial of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan took a dramatic and surprising turn when Madigan himself took the stand in his own defense. Reporter Dave McKinney was there and joined Melba Lara.
WBEZ yesterday from the Dirksen Federal courthouse. Here's McKinney. Coming into the day today, there was no clue that this was going to happen, but almost immediately today we noticed that there was something unusual going on. All of Madigan's kids, including former Attorney General Lisa Madigan, showed up to court. Uh, everyone in the courtroom knew something was up, but we didn't know what. And so shortly after lunch, Madigan takes the stand and was on, on, uh, the witness stand all afternoon and.
You know, it was interesting watching him, uh, make direct eye contact with jurors when he was answering questions from one of his lawyers and of course, you know, really undercutting the government's case or trying to. It's a high risk gambit. Uh, we've seen defendants in similar corruption trials like the comEd case a couple of years ago take the stand in their own defense, but it didn't work. Uh, maybe jurors will buy into what what Madigan was saying all afternoon and, and likely tomorrow, but his appearance now means prosecutors are gonna get their shot at him.
And anything will be fair game, so buckle up. It sure will. What did Mike Madigan talk about on the stand today? Well, I mean, first off, his attorneys went right for the jugular, what the prosecution's case has been all about. I mean, getting Madigan to go through kind of a point by point rebuttal to what the feds laid out against him during the past 4 months. Uh, you know, for example, did you ever trade your public office for private gain? No.
Did you ever demand a thing of value in exchange for a promise to take official action? No, I mean that's the flavor of some of the questions. I mean, what was really fascinating though was hearing Madigan talk in depth about his childhood and his early career, uh, rising to become the, the powerful House Speaker that he was.
You know, Dave, to that point, we haven't heard from Madigan himself much over the years despite being the longest serving speaker in history. What did we learn about his personal life? You know, Melba, he talked about growing up in a household in Marquette Park that he said was not nurturing. He said his parents never hugged or told him that they loved him. Uh, he said his father was an alcoholic who gave up alcohol but still had anger issues, and he recalled one instance where his dad smacked him because as a young man, Madigan had been out drinking.
Uh, at the same time, Madigan said his dad instilled in him the value of hard work and attention to to toward detail, which is something Madigan took with him later in life, and was instrumental in getting him a, uh, his first job in government, which included working in the back of a city garbage truck. From there Madigan went on to, uh, work in the city's law department and got to know the first mayor daily, uh, and then he got himself elected to the Illinois House of Representatives.
The heart of this case against Madigan is related to this scheme that CoEd and AT&T of Illinois allegedly lined up some no work jobs for his allies in exchange for Madigan's support in Springfield. What is his defense to those accusations?
Well, I mean, the defense went through each person who had one of these subcontracts you're talking about with utility companies, deals that paid in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars over multiple years. Uh, Madigan acknowledged he tried helping each one of, uh, these people land jobs, but, but here's here's the key. He, he said he turned the request over to co-defendant.
Michael McClain, it was almost sort of like a subtle way of shifting blame to his longtime friend McClain. Madigan denied knowing that, uh, these people were not doing any work for the company and went so far as to say that that, you know, that the fact that these were basically no show jobs, that that was wrong, and he was angry to learn that that that was what was going on. um, these were sequences, uh, that I noticed in the courtroom where jurors were actually taking notes of Madigan's responses, so it seemed to be a message that at least the the jury was listening to.
And Dave, before I let you go, what does all this mean for the prosecutors? What did they get to do with Madigan now that he's on the stand?
Well, we don't know when they're going to get their first crack at him, but, but, you know, as I mentioned before, I mean, once the defense is done, it's pretty clear, uh, that, that, you know, it's no holds barred for, for the prosecutors. They've been investigating Madigan for a decade now, and they know, I mean they know his every move. They've, they've they've listened to all the the phone conversations, uh, many of them that that he had with McLean and, and Danny Solis, the government mole, even mundane calls with his family members and analysis of where he went out to eat. So I mean they know they know the book on him.
And with all this evidence they're going to try to paint him, I think, as as a liar to the jury. So stay tuned. That was WBEZ's Dave McKinney speaking with Melba Lara.
Finally today on WGLT Sound Ideas, Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus and acclaimed classical vocalist John Jack Waddell has died.
WGLT's Colin Hardman has this remembrance. Waddell's career spanned 50 years of singing, theater, and television in the United States and Europe, in addition to mentoring others on their paths to creative success. For Waddell, recognition as a vocal talent began at Bloomington High School, where he graduated in 1959. Last year, Waddell told his story at a panel of African American musicians at the McLean County Museum of History.
A member of the football team for all his 4 years, Waddell recounted an exchange with his coach on his early musical instruction. Now what else?
Are you gonna play football or you're gonna sing?
Because I was a member of the a cappella choir and my mentor, Mary Stone, she appeared.
And said he's going to do both. After high school, he was excited at the prospect of joining a new African American community choir. Henry Charles, then a vocal professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, was behind the idea of the choir, but soon found Waddell the only one showing up to rehearsal. That gave Charles a different idea. Jackie said, How would you like to take private voice lessons? I think you have what it takes.
I said, really? I said, well, heck, I have to be quite frank, I can't afford to pay for private voiceless.
And the hank said, well, no.
I've got windows to be washed. I've got lawns to be mowed. I said, I'm in. I'm still there. From voice lessons and odd jobs, Waddell went on to earn a scholarship to Illinois Wesleyan, at the time, one of the few African Americans to attend. He earned his bachelor's in 1963 in performance and also began teaching other young vocalists. Waddell said when he expressed his desire to
opera as a career, he received a friendly laugh and was advised it was unlikely to work out. Few opera singers were men or black, let alone both. The unavoidable reality of racism was one Waddell knew well. Touring the American South with his choir mates after college, he was even threatened at gunpoint by a state trooper while doing laundry. We have just crossed the Mason-Dixon line. Would everyone turn their clocks back.
100 years in search of a stage where he and the art of opera would be given a better chance, Waddell decided Europe was an opportunity. I said I'll go to Germany.
And everybody laughed, included Hank.
Enter self-determination.
Never let anyone define you, never let anyone tell you what you cannot do, if you don't speak German.
What are you going to do? Well, I'll, I'll learn how to speak German. Waddell flew to Germany, learned the language, and started performing. His breakout success came in 1968 in Munich. I did a memorial concert for Doctor Martin Luther King.
All Negro spirituals. It took off. It was my big break. From there, Waddell performed throughout the continent from Holland to France, and found himself successful back in America as well. He lived in New York City for 20 years before moving back to Bloomington, performing.
And mentoring others all the while at the recent history panel, Waddell was asked by a teacher what can be done to better welcome African American students into the arts. He expressed a hope that telling the truth and breath of history would be the first step. My answer was that we must get to the point where we talk about American history, not black African American history, not native history.
History, a history no doubt more inspirational, entertaining, and instructive for the presence of Jack Waddell. WGLT, I'm Colin Hartman. Jack Waddell died on New Year's Day at his home in Normal. He was 83 years old.
Thanks for choosing WGLT's sound ideas made possible in part by Bloomington Normal Audiology. I'm Lauren Warnecke. Story help today came from WGLT's Melissa Ellin, WCBU's Tim Shelley, WBEZ's Dave McKinney, and WGLT's Colin Hardman. Bren McMonigal edits the show. You can find all our sound ideas interviews and stories at
WGLT.org and you can subscribe to sound ideas on the NPR app and wherever you get your podcasts. We want to know what you think of sound ideas, comment on our Facebook page. We're WGLTFM at WGLT News is our handle on Instagram, threads and TikTok. This is 89.1 WGLT and WGLT.org, part of the NPR network.
