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Statewide: Cities of the future

NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS | By Sean Crawford

Published January 25, 2024 at 12:11 PM CST

Students show their skills at the Future city competition. — Sean Watson, 13, a seventh grader at Senn-Thomas Middle School in Herculaneum, left, prepares final touches on his team’s model city, Five Point City, as Brooke Propst, 12, a sixth grade classmate, right, sets up a backdrop to her team’s city, Ulia Pele, during the 2023-24 Missouri Future City Competition in Rolla.

Young people will inherit the world's problems, including ways to create sustainable energy for communities. Some of them are getting a head start. We visit a competition for middle schoolers on creating cities of the future.

Also:

* Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford discusses tornadoes. Illinois led the nation last year with 120 tornadoes.

* Washington, Illinois Mayor Gary Manier explains how his town became a "dementia-friendly city."

* We hear from a man who wrote a memoir tracing his father's journey across Europe during the Holocaust.

* Jonathon Ahl reports on the Future City Competition.

*Will Bauer has details on the U.S. ag deficit, showing the country imported more agricultural products than it exported.

* Reporter Tim Novak of the Sun-Times joins us with details on the Chicago White Sox looking at a location to build a new stadium.

* Esther Yoon-Ji Kang reports on home-based daycare providers, who help the state offer free or affordable childcare to low income families, asking for better pay and benefits.

* Normal Mayor Chris Koos, a new member the Amtrak board, explains his focus in that role.

* Peter Medlin talks with experts about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.