Many unions have had trouble getting and keeping members. The Laborers union in central Illinois is not one of them with a record high membership of 500,000 people. There is a shortage of young women in technical fields that State Farm wants to help fill. If Samsung locates its electric vehicle battery plant in Normal it will need water to make precursors to make lithium oxides and as the solvent to make graphite electrodes. Hear what else goes into that industrial process. And an ISU graduate fulfils a family legacy disrupted by 1920s racial discrimination.
WGLT Senior Reporter Charlie Schlenker has spent more than three award-winning decades in radio. He lives in Normal with his family.