Social Science News | University of Illinois

The civil rights movement was never as unified as it often has been portrayed, says University of Illinois professor Clarence Lang.

In discussions of the recent economic downturn by politicians, journalists and their followers, its been next to impossible to dodge the phrase Wall Street versus Main Street. Clich though it may be by now, the phrase is effective in part because of the instant images both locales evoke. But when John Jakle, a professor emeritus of geography and of landscape architecture at the University of Illinois, references Main Street, its impossible for him to see past the one icon still standing in many a downtown across America: the landmark hotel.

Presidential rhetoric expert John Murphy says President Obama's healthcare message so far has been too fragmented. Murphy explains what the president needs to do to turn things around.

Although the recurrence of child abuse and neglect declined in Illinois during 2008, the state is failing to meet federal guidelines in these areas and could lose millions of dollars in federal funding as a result.

When most people think of parks, images of slides and swings, ball fields and basketball hoops, Rollerbladers and moms pushing strollers may come to mind. But in some urban neighborhoods with highly migratory immigrant populations, that image may take on a more ominous tint as the Rollerbladers and stroller-pushing mamas are replaced by gangbangers packing knives and guns, and pushing drugs.