Charlie Schlenker
Senior ReporterWGLT Senior Reporter Charlie Schlenker grew up in Rock Island, Illinois, and graduated from Augustana College. He has spent more than four decades in radio and has won numerous state and national awards for journalism. He lives in Normal with his family.
Contact Charlie at ceschle@ilstu.edu.
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One of the red pandas at the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington has died. The zoo had two red pandas, a male and female both born at the zoo. The male, named Burma, died overnight Sunday, after an illness.
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The union that represents firefighters in the Town of Normal and town administrators say they are trying to move past a rift created in the wake of a no-confidence vote in Fire Chief Mick Humer's leadership.
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McLean County's recycling rate could take a hit after bulk waste hauler LRS Henson Disposal chose not to renew its contract with the City of Bloomington.
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By now, most people know the Rivian story in which a scrappy startup electric automaker brought a mothballed Mitsubishi plant back to life, hired 8,000 people, and has now gone on to make more than 100,000 vehicles. Fewer may know Rivian was not the first electric automaker in Bloomington-Normal.
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In Bloomington-Normal, you’ll see a 95-96% partial eclipse — not bad, but not as good as the 100% totality that will be visible in the 115-mile-wide strip across southern Illinois.
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Mayor Chis Koos said the $5.4 million settlement to end Alan Beaman's civil lawsuit against the town and its police over a wrongful murder conviction is solely related to risk.
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Now that the flap over spending on donor entertainment is over, and trustees have named a permanent ISU president, several interim positions need to be filled. One of those is in the Athletics Department.
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Illinois State University has released summaries of an internal audit of Athletics Department spending and of an external audit commissioned in the wake of questionable expenditures that led to the resignation of Athletic Director Kyle Brennan last year.
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Restaurant workers depend largely on tips. They don’t get a full minimum wage. A bill in Springfield would change that.
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Kent Karraker, who was in his 80s, grew up in southern Illinois and became an executive at the Illinois Farm Bureau. He was elected to the Normal Town Council in 1983 and elected mayor 10 years later.