Penny Bradford

https://ipmnewsroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Samuel-Hall_Interview.mp3 Rantoul Mayor Samuel Hall took office more than 100 days ago. He defeated the former incumbent, Chuck Smith, by a margin of 34 votes during the April 1 election. Hall has been reflecting on that narrow victory, emphasizing that he’s been focused on listening to the community in the time since then.

Note: This segment of “Dialogue” features content from an episode of “The 21st Show,” which originally aired on August 19, 2025. Jelani Day, a Danville native who was studying speech pathology at Illinois State University, disappeared on August 24, 2021. He was last seen at a store in Bloomington, and two days later, his car was found in the woods near Peru, Illinois. Eleven days after his disappearance, Jelani’s remains were recovered from the Illinois River. The circumstances are still unknown.

“We need to take serious beauty. It’s not just the body policing about having spaghetti straps… but it is how we use beauty to prepare ourselves to move through the world.” ~ Brittney Miles, PhD This week on “Dialogue,” we talk with a scholar about how Black women and girls use beauty to empower themselves and push back against the world’s expectations. She shares what her research uncovered about how beauty connects to identity.