Journalism Genius. That's what a former student calls Charlie Wheeler, who soon will retire as director of the UIS' storied Public Affairs Reporting program.

Illinois Press Foundation Director Jeff Rogers reached out to Charlie Wheeler's former students in the University of Illinois Springfield Public Affairs Reporting program, seeking their thoughts about Wheeler or for some comments about what the PAR program has meant for them. Here are their responses.

The Illinois Associated Press Media Editors and the Illinois Press Association are following 2018’s Illinois Bicentennial series with the Illinois Important Dates series for 2019. This series will include about 10 stories related dates and events - Labor Day, Memorial Day, Black History Month, D-Day, Pearl Harbor, Martin Luther King Day, Veterans Day, 1969 Moon Landing, 9/11, Fourth of July - most newspapers write about.

Thanks to Illinois Press Association lobbying efforts, a new state law does not contain a requirement that news organizations remove or expunge coverage of certain criminal record information, free of charge, within 30 days after a request by the subject of that information.