For UIS grad staring down rare cancer, 'every day is a blessing'
The following story was published by The State Journal-Register on May 11, 2023.
"LaNise Kirk has come to terms with the enemy.
In April 2022, Kirk, a 46-year-old mother of three from Roodhouse and a graduate student at the University of Illinois Springfield, learned that a rare form of cancer she had contracted four years earlier had returned.
This time, doctors told her it was metastatic and Stage 4.
They gave her a year or less to live.
How these local standouts mesh on the University of Illinois Springfield softball team
The following story was published by The State Journal-Register on May 10, 2023.
"University of Illinois Springfield softball coach Shannon Guthrie appreciates local talent.
They can draw a good crowd to be sure, but it’s more imperative that they produce.
Chatham Glenwood’s Carolyn Franke, Williamsville’s Danielle Dennis and Rochester’s Reagan Miles certainly hold their own in the cauldron of NCAA Division II. They particularly form a strong nucleus in the infield: Franke at first base, Dennis at second and Miles as the starting pitcher.
New research finds small, mid-size Illinois cities have higher per-capita gun homicide rates than Chicago
The following story was published by the Chicago Sun-Times on May 8, 2023.
"Small and mid-sized Illinois cities have surpassed Chicago’s gun homicide rate in recent years, mirroring a national trend, a new analysis of city-level firearm violence data found.
Magic Wade, a political science professor at the University of Illinois Springfield, studied firearm homicide and injury data from the Gun Violence Archive for small, mid-size and large cities nationwide from 2015 to 2021.