Politics
Metro East residents push for radiation exposure compensation
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This story is a collaboration between St. Louis Public Radio and the Belleville News-Democrat.Along the border of Venice and Madison in the Metro East, a 1.4 million-square-foot factory and a former 40-acre dump site sit next to several blocks of homes.From the late 1950s to early ’60s, the factory — owned by Dow Chemical Co. at the time — performed work with uranium and thorium that was used in the nation’s nuclear weapons program. It also used thorium for commercial purposes for most of its history.It wasn’t until 2007, however, that cleanup of the resulting millions of pounds of radioactive waste was finished.“This is the largest radioactive waste site in the state of Illinois — and no one knows it,” said Larry Burgan, who worked at the site from 1989 to 2003 when it was owned by Spectrulite Consortium Inc.Burgan and Calvin Ratliff, who worked at the facility before Burgan and whose childhood home sits directly adjacent to it, separated by a fence, are among a group pushing for federal compensation of residents who have developed diseases they say are a result of their exposure to the radioactive contamination.
Joshua Carter
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Belleville News-DemocratThe Ratliff family house, far left, stands in Venice in front of the former Venice uranium site, now a heavy metal chemical facility.
An informal survey they conducted over several years starting in 2009 found 368 cancer cases among residents in a six-block radius of the site. No government agency appears to have formally documented the cancer rates or health outcomes of residents in the community surrounding the plant.While a related federal program has paid more than $64.5 million to 383 former employees of this facility and another just north in Granite City, area residents have never been eligible for government compensation.Between the two facilities, more than 500 cases of cancer were confirmed to be more than likely caused by workers’ exposure to radiation, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.“These certain cancers were identical to a lot of the cancers that the people in the community have,” Ratliff said. “Now, why would a fence make a difference?”Venice and Madison are not alone in the push to get compensation from the federal government for residents’ health issues.The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act has paid more than $2.65 billion for 41,000 claims since it was created in 1990. That compensation has gone specifically to former uranium workers in western states and residents who lived downwind of a test site.But in recent months, federal legislators, led by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have been pushing to expand RECA’s coverage to include other “downwinders,” as well as communities near facilities where radioactive material was processed, stored and dumped.
Eric Lee
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St. Louis Public RadioU.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, speaks to reporters outside the Senate chambers in April at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Federal legislators, led by Hawley, have been pushing to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include other “downwinders.”
The U.S. Senate passed a bill to reauthorize and expand RECA in a bipartisan 69-30 vote in March, but that effort failed to gain traction in the House. The bill included 21 Missouri ZIP codes in and around St. Louis.U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, wants to add Venice, much of Madison and small portions of Granite City to the legislation after hearing about the plight of residents from Burgan, Ratliff and longtime Venice Mayor Tyrone Echols. Budzinski’s district includes these communities in the 62060 ZIP code.“We really think that this reauthorization is an opportunity for us to really right some of the wrongs and the impacts of our past and the current effects for what they look like for our communities,” Budzinski said. “Including Madison, Venice and Granite City is going to be really important to get my support.”RECA expired June 7, however, and the reauthorization the Senate passed got caught in the political fray of the House of Representatives, as some Republicans expressed resistance to expanding the act due to the potential costs.Legislators on both sides of the Mississippi River recently mobilized a different route to get people across the St. Louis metro area compensation. A bipartisan group, including Budzinski and Missouri House members, submitted an amendment of the annual defense spending bill — with the 62060 ZIP code and many others — to the House Rules Committee. The committee rejected the amendment last week, however, leaving residents again waiting for government aid.St. Louis-area advocates are still urging Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to bring Hawley’s bill passed by the Senate for a vote in the House.
Kay Drey Mallinckrodt Collection, 1943-2006
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State Historical Society of MissouriA photo taken by the Mallinckrodt-St. Louis Sites Task Force Working Group in 1960 of deteriorating steel drums containing radioactive residues near Coldwater Creek in north St. Louis County
History of the siteJust like in St. Louis and St. Charles counties, Metro East facilities processed radioactive elements for Mallinckrodt Chemical Works on behalf of the federal Atomic Energy Commission.From 1957 through 1960, the Venice-Madison site machine-shaped uranium metal and straightened uranium rods for nuclear weapons. It also produced thorium-alloyed magnesium for many decades. Some of that magnesium was sold to the commission in the late 1950s, but it wasn’t until the late 2000s that the government acknowledged having used it.The work with radioactive elements left two buildings with leftover radioactive contamination, government records show. Dust, perched mostly out of sight of workers on the buildings’ rafters, contained both uranium and thorium.After Dow, Consolidated Aluminum Corp. owned the 10 buildings from 1969 to 1986. By the late 1980s, Spectrulite Consortium had acquired the facility.From 1989 to 1992, Dow and Consolidated Aluminum paid for the cleanup of more than 105,000 tons, or 210 million pounds, of thorium-contaminated material from the 40-acre parcel to the east of the facility, according to the cleanup report.Another survey around the same time found “elevated concentrations” of the two radioactive metals inside the factory.The federal government identified the location as needing remediation in 1992 for the uranium-laced dust, according to records. At the time, the Energy Department initially concluded thorium was used just for commercial purposes and not to build atomic weapons — meaning it didn’t need to be cleaned up by the government.The Army Corps of Engineers later removed 60,000 pounds of radioactive dust from the industrial site — but not until 2000. In all, the removal from overhead surfaces, like window ledges, trusses and beams, took 12 days.By 2003, Spectrulite declared bankruptcy. Magnesium Elektron North America, part of the England-based Luxfer Group, is now the site tenant. A representative of Luxfer declined to comment.The Pangea Group of St. Louis, an engineering and surveying firm, finished its cleanup of the thorium-contaminated dust on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers and Spectrulite in 2007.In 2021, a Brooklyn, New York-based company, Grand Landmark, purchased the facility from Cherokee Properties for $10 million, according to Madison County property records.
Joshua Carter
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Belleville News-DemocratLarry Burgan shows a 1980s photo of him working at the Venice site with his feet perched upon a uranium processing machine while speaking to reporters at Jerry’s Cafe in Granite City.
Burgan and Ratliff’s healthAt 42 years old, Burgan thought he was perfectly healthy. But by the time he left Spectrulite in 2003, his health took a turn for the worse. He thought he was going to die.He said he was losing a concerning amount of weight. He found himself struggling to breathe. His eyesight worsened, and his teeth started to fall out.Burgan later found out, after combing large amounts of government documents, that he worked in the most contaminated part of the factory. The proximity also left him with radiation burns.
Joshua Carter
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Belleville News-DemocratLarry Burgan displays chemical burns on his arms that he said he received while working in a Venice processing facility decades ago on May 22. “It never healed,” he said, “That’s the kind of stuff we worked around every day.”
“It looked like someone had taken handfuls of concrete and slapped them on his skin,” said Penni Livingston, the first lawyer who worked on behalf of Burgan and other former workers. “I never saw anything like that in my life.”But Burgan’s health later rebounded. Even though he worked in that facility for 14 years, and he said radioactive-contaminated dust fell on him regularly, he’s never contracted cancer.“For some reason, I’ve been blessed because, perhaps, helping everybody else has been my reward not to develop cancer,” Burgan said. “I’d like to think that. But at the same time, I’m realistic. It’s only a matter of time because of where I worked and how long and what I was exposed to.”His children and grandchildren haven’t been as fortunate.His daughter and daughter-in-law have lost pregnancies at six months. Two grandchildren were born with health complications or birth defects and died as babies, he said.“It’s not in my sister’s or any other part of my family or any other part of my wife’s family. It’s only ours,” Burgan said. “The only common denominator is me bringing home this radioactive dust to [my wife] and my children for all those years.”Burgan hasn’t been eligible for the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, the government program for workers, because he’s never been diagnosed with cancer or an equivalent illness.Ratliff has also never been eligible under that program to receive compensation.He worked at the factory for 10 years, and his doctors diagnosed him with cancer in 2017. Under the workers program, a scientific test must determine a resident’s cancer has a 50% chance of being caused by radiation exposure. Ratliff’s test did not.“I fall in the category of with a lot of other people who, yeah, worked over there and have fallen between the cracks,” he said.
Joshua Carter
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Belleville News-DemocratCalvin Ratliff stands alongside sisters Dianne and Patricia last week in the backyard of his Venice home.
Ratliff and his siblings, some of whom still live next to the factory, have thyroid issues and low white blood cell counts, they said.While Ratliff’s cancer is lessening, if it comes back, he could get tested again to qualify for the workers program.Other former workers in the Metro East have been more successful.At the former Dow site in Venice and Madison, 170 workers have received $25.46 million in compensation and $5.89 million in medical care through the separate program. Just north in Granite City, former employees of General Steel Industries received $31.78 million in compensation and $1.38 million in medical care, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor.Ratliff and Burgan keep a list of former employees to connect them to organizations, like Cold War Patriots and CNS Cares, that can help navigate complex governmental programs. The group also meets every couple of months in Granite City to receive basic medical care and stay in contact.
Joshua Carter
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Belleville News-DemocratLarry Burgan shows documents of where he used to work at the Venice uranium processing site.
‘We’ll keep going’The two have spent the better part of the past 20 years researching and documenting their community’s struggles. While the sickest former employees of the factory have been compensated, the residents haven’t been eligible. Therefore, there’s more work to be done, they said.When they first started their surveying, two area women told them about their children. A 6-year-old developed leukemia, and an 8-year-old had a tumor on his liver.“It has been frustrating, but then I hear stories from the community,” Ratliff said. “The voices, yeah, it gives me strength. So, until we succeed, we’ll keep going.”Echols, the mayor of Venice for 41 years, said he thinks it would be in the federal government’s interest to compensate the many residents for their illnesses.In his eyes, communities of color have had a “rough enough time in this world.” Taking care of this problem could build their trust in the federal government, he said.“It’s amazing thinking about governmental entities and some of the things they did in times of war,” Echols said. “Some of it may be understandable. I guess your back’s up against the wall. You do what you have to do and suffer with the effects afterwards. But they should be aware that they’re responsible. Step up to the plate and do the right thing.”
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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

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A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.
One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”
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Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

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Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.
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As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

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Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.
Dilpreet Raju
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Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.
No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
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