http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/ Prairie Fire on WILL-TV en barrinea@uiuc.edu Copyright (C) 2008 University of Illinois 2008-04-25T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-24-a/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-24-a/#When:01:30:00Z For 6,000 years people have been practicing yoga. Its roots are religious, but outside of India, most people practice it as a form of exercise. Producer Virginia Steffen examines this ancient practice and learns that it’s something anyone can do. Hobbies, Champaign 2008-04-25T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-24-b/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-24-b/#When:01:30:00Z Nestled along the bluffs of the Mississippi River, Collinsville, Ill., is home to the world’s largest catsup bottle. The bottle, formerly a water tower for a local catsup bottling plant, had become a bit of an eyesore by the late 1990s. The company that owned it was reluctant to do upkeep and maintenance. By 1993, the plant and the bottle were up for sale. After a community outcry, the town saved the famous bottle. Historical Landmarks, Illinois Culture/History, Collinsville, Villa Grove 2008-04-25T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-24-c/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-24-c/#When:01:30:00Z Yuki Okinaga Llewellyn of Champaign, Ill., spent three years during World War II interned at the Manzanar Assembly Center in California.  Llewellyn and her 23-year-old single mother were evacuated from Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, to Manzanar in Lone Pine, Calif. The now famous 1942 National Archives photo, taken by Clem Albers and showing Yuki sitting on a suitcase in the train station, became representative of that period. A retired assistant dean of students at the University of Illinois, Llewellyn returned to Manzanar last fall for the first time since she and her mother left it in October 1945 with $25 and a pair of government-issued bus tickets. Producer Denise La Grassa talks to Llewellyn about living in Block 2 inside the internment camp where she shared a 20 x 20 room with her mother and another family. Ethnicity/Culture, History, World War II, Champaign 2008-04-25T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-17-c/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-17-c/#When:01:30:00Z John O’Connor of Champaign served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He was chosen as lead pilot with the first experimental flying unit aboard the B-24 Liberator. He flew 50 missions and also used his skills as a trumpeter and band director. Flying back from a mission, John and his crew would often pull out their instruments and play. O’Connor later became a member of the Medicare 7, 8 or 9 Jazz Band, performing around the country. History, Music, World War II, Champaign 2008-04-18T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-17-b/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-17-b/#When:13:30:01Z A group of baseball players in Macon County is preserving the old days of baseball. The Rock Springs Ground Squirrels play the game by 1860s rules, which don’t allow swearing or gloves. Producer Julius Bolton takes viewers to the Macon County Conservation District to enjoy a bygone era from our national pastime. History, Hobbies, Illinois Culture/History, Sports, Decatur 2008-04-17T13:30:01-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-17-a/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-17-a/#When:13:30:00Z The mission of 40 north/88 west is to nurture artists in Champaign County by fostering collaboration, and keeping them informed about opportunities and events. Producer Virginia Steffen introduces some of the artists who are part of 40 north and the work they are creating in central Illinois. Arts/Culture, Champaign, Champaign County, Urbana 2008-04-17T13:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-10-a/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-10-a/#When:01:30:00Z China is one of the fastest growing nations on Earth. China is changing in many regards. The economy is booming. China is becoming a more vital part of the world—politically and economically, positively and negatively. Air pollution from China drifts half way around the world. Some Chinese are becoming more affluent and more Western. John Paul produced this feature report about China as part of his graduate studies in journalism. John was part of an international reporting class, taught by Professor Nancy Benson, that took 10 University of Illinois students to China in May 2007. Each student reported on a different aspect of China—from its growing economy to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the increasing amount of electronic waste sent there from America. The students produced a two hour radio documentary titled “Beyond the Great Wall,” which aired on WILL-AM 580. This story for Prairie Fire gives the viewer a glimpse of the China the students saw—from the Great Wall to Tiananmen Square and the streets of Shanghai. It also tells what it’s like to report in China. Travel, University of Illinois 2008-04-11T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-10-b/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-10-b/#When:01:30:00Z The Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya borders the famed Serengeti, where the wildebeest migrate. Recently named one of the seven tourist wonders of the world, this territory was once a favorite hunting ground for big game. The elephants, lions, buffalo, hippo and leopards are now protected. But the Maasai tribespeople say they need protection, too. They are being attacked by the increasing numbers of wild animals that roam outside the game reserves. This story takes you on safari to Kenya where you will hear from the Maasai. University of Illinois journalism professor Nancy Benson traveled with U of I law professor Patrick Keenan who is working with the Maasai to write new laws designed to provide compensation when a life, or crop, is lost. This story provides one example of what is happening in many developing countries where tourism is big business. Livestock/Animals/Zoology, Travel, University of Illinois 2008-04-11T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-10-c/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-10-c/#When:01:30:00Z In World War II, soldiers from Decatur, Ill., served in North Africa, Italy, the Philippines and Germany. Local volunteers rolled bandages, collected food, and recycled bales of paper and heaps of scrap metal. Citizens planted victory gardens and bought war bonds and savings stamps. Dan Guillory’s book, “Wartime Decatur: 1832 & 1945” documents the vigorous wartime culture based on community involvement and a strong sense of patriotism. Prairie Fire talks to Guillory about his stories of service both on and off the battlefield. Then producer Denise La Grassa recounts the experiences of Decatur’s Carl Mocabee, who was a master sergeant in the Army stationed in the Philippines and New Guinea. He received a Purple Heart and Silver Star during his service. History, Military, World War II 2008-04-11T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-03-a/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-03-a/#When:01:30:00Z By producer Alison Davis Wood I first met Chad Dunn when I was producing a story on another band that he plays with called Desifinado. After talking to him, I quickly realized that Chad should be his own story for Prairie Fire. His talents include hand crafting instruments that are used by Sting and members of Paul Simon’s band, and he teaches Brazilian percussion to young and old. But Chad is also a lover of trash. He looks at old bottles and paint drums and hears music. What also is incredible is that he inspires others to do the same. Chad’s musical mission of keeping things out of landfills led to him forming Recycled Rhythms. The band is unlike anything you’ve seen before. It is part musical group, part perfomance art, part environmental activism. But most of all the band is fun to watch. You can’t help but move to the beat and maybe even join the band on stage with a pair of “dancing hands” (empty boxes with scrap paper attached). Chad’s vision for the future of the band is that Recycled Rhythms will do extensive workshops within communities across the country. The group would help organize a community “clean-up” with a local school. Then Chad would work with school children to turn the items collected into musical instruments. They would teach the kids how to play tradtional Brazilian rhythms on the new instruments. All the work would result in a performance between the school children and Recycled Rhythms after which the instruments would be donated to the school. I hope this story inspires people check out a performance of Recycled Rhythms or possibly make their own instruments. Maybe you will think twice before you throw something away ... there could be music in that old cereal box or coffee can. You just have to let it out!  Arts/Culture, Music, Champaign 2008-04-04T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-03-c/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-03-c/#When:01:30:00Z A friendship during World War II helped George Kitterman of Bloomington survive fierce conditions during the Battle of the Bulge. In this Prairie Fire story, Kitterman describes being pinned down in a foxhole with his friend Joe Spencer, covered with snow with only a bazooka and one shell between them. They wondered what they would do if a German tank came over the ridge. Producer Denise La Grassa begins with Kitterman learning about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when he and his pals were finishing a game of touch football and turned on a car radio to hear the Chicago Bears score. “We follow him through much of his war experience, but the centerpiece is this friendship that was so important to him,” La Grassa said. History, Illinois Culture/History, World War II, Bloomington 2008-04-04T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-03-b/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-04-03-b/#When:01:00:00Z The goal of Habitat for Humanity’s Champaign ReStore is to keep gently used furniture out of the landfill and also help people in need.  Business, Environment, Housing and Urban Renewal, Champaign 2008-04-04T01:00:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-c/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-c/#When:01:30:01Z Theodore Freeman of Rantoul was a steward, serving officers in the mess hall on the USS Missouri. But when the enemy struck, he had to man his position on a gun mount and defend the ship. He was on board the USS Missouri when a Japanese kamikaze pilot crashed his plane into the ship very near to where Freeman was standing. He talked with WILL-TV producer Denise La Grassa about the challenges he faced as an African-American on board ship and about the conflict between his life as Pentecostal pastor before Pearl Harbor and his life as a sailor pledged to defend the country. History, Military, World War II, Rantoul 2008-03-28T01:30:01-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-b/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-b/#When:01:30:00Z Yuki Okinaga Llewellyn of Champaign, Ill., spent three years during World War II interned at the Manzanar Assembly Center in California.  Llewellyn and her 23-year-old single mother were evacuated from Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, to Manzanar in Lone Pine, Calif. The now famous 1942 National Archives photo, taken by Clem Albers and showing Yuki sitting on a suitcase in the train station, became representative of that period. A retired assistant dean of students at the University of Illinois, Llewellyn returned to Manzanar last fall for the first time since she and her mother left it in October 1945 with $25 and a pair of government-issued bus tickets. Producer Denise La Grassa talks to Llewellyn about living in Block 2 inside the internment camp where she shared a 20 x 20 room with her mother and another family. History, World War II, Champaign 2008-03-28T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-d/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-d/#When:01:30:00Z Jill Pitts Knappenberger of Champaign, Ill., was one of three women serving on the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Working for the Red Cross operating a refitted truck dubbed a “clubmobile,” she passed out donuts, coffee and cigarettes to weary soldiers. She talks to WILL-TV producer Denise La Grassa about being trapped for eight days during the Battle of the Bulge, surrounded by the enemy. Her brother, John Joseph Pitts III, an Army captain, was in the heat of battle only a few miles away. Knappenberger, shown at left with the clubmobile, said she joined the Red Cross effort because she was itching to get into the action of World War II. The soldiers taught her how to use a gun and she even got a few shots off at the Germans. History, World War II, Champaign 2008-03-28T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-e/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-e/#When:01:30:00Z Sparky Songer of Danville, Ill., served in the infantry in Europe and was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. He spent six months in German camps before escaping as the war was winding down and finding his way to American lines, thanks to the help of an English-speaking German guard who was a graduate of the University of Michigan. Songer talks to WILL-TV producer Denise La Grassa about his escape and his experiences in the German camps, where he subsisted almost almost entirely on rutabaga soup. He weighed under 100 pounds when he reached safety. Songer is curator and president of the Vermilion County War Museum. History, Military, World War II, Danville 2008-03-28T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-f/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-f/#When:01:30:00Z When World War II broke out, Iris Nigg Lundin of Champaign left her small town in Minnesota and joined hundreds of other women in the newly formed Marine Corps women’s Reserve. She became one of the first four female navigation instructors. Producer Denise La Grassa said that in her conversations with Lundin, she was impressed by the strength of this woman who left a secure life in Minnesota to join the ranks of the Marines, the toughest of the tough. “This was the first time many of these men who were her students had encountered a female instructor and she really held her own,” said La Grassa. “When I listened to her stories, I was moved by her description of how she went to bat for African-Americans on the military bases where she worked. She was brave enough to tell a higher-ranking officer that he shouldn’t be treating a steward in a demeaning manner. Later in her life, equality was very important to her.” History, Military, World War II, Champaign 2008-03-28T01:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-a/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-03-27-a/#When:13:30:00Z When the USS Indianapolis was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in 1945, only 317 of 1,196 men on board survived. Three of those survivors live in central Illinois. Art Leenerman of Mahomet, Don McCall of Champaign, and Earl Riggins of Oakland got together with WILL-TV producer Denise La Grassa to talk about how they survived four and a half days in the water waiting to be rescued while battling sharks, cold and hunger. About 600 men died in the water after the ship sank. All three central Illinois survivors were brought up on farms, and were accustomed to hard work, long days in the sun and difficult conditions. They think it was a factor in their survival. “They had grown up learning to keep plowing along, no matter how tough things got. And that’s basically what they did in the water,” said La Grassa. History, Military, World War II, Champaign, Mahomet, Oakland 2008-03-27T13:30:00-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-02-21-c/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-02-21-c/#When:01:30:01Z Producer Denise La Grassa talks with Tuskegee Airman Col. Elmer Jones, one of six original aviation cadets for the Tuskegee Airmen trained at Chanute Field in Rantoul. Jones, who became ground crew commander, was proud to serve his country in aircraft engineering during World War II, even though he served in an all-black unit. He maintains that being in a segregated unit provided an unexpected opportunity for the Tuskegee Airmen. They were able to prove their abilities at a time when people questioned whether African Americans should be allowed to fly and maintain planes. “They proved they were as good as white fighter pilots,” said LaGrassa. “World War II was really the beginning of the civil rights movement.” Illinois Culture/History, Military, World War II, Rantoul 2008-02-22T01:30:01-06:00 http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-02-21-a/ http://will.atlas.uiuc.edu/prairiefire/segment/pf2008-02-21-a/#When:01:30:00Z By host and producer Alison Davis Wood I first heard about Prairieland Community Supported Agriculture from my co-worker Kimberlie Kranich. She was in the WILL lunchroom talking about how she had signed up for a share and was now enjoying amazing, locally grown produce. I was convinced to sign up. Now four years later I’m still enjoying the quality and the variety of the food grown on the Moore farm. I’ve gotten to know them a bit over the years by talking to them at the Urbana Farmer’s Market and buying their eggs and meat, so it was an easy decision to feature them on Prairie Fire. The Moores welcomed us to their farm on a warm summer day. Wes started up the tractor and we all piled on a flatbed trailer and toured the farm.  Jim and Diann talked to me about how and why they made the switch from conventional farming. They remembered how hard it was during the early years when their sons were young. And they remember the people who laughed and said they would never make it.  We got to meet all the animals including chickens, turkeys, sheep and pigs. Their system of crop rotation and incorporating the animals made complete sense. It left me pondering over how much the agriculture industry has changed. It also left me with a great appreciation for the Moores business and how they’ve made it work despite current trends in agribusiness. I really hope this story encourages folks to eat locally or at least to think about where their food comes from. If you are ever at the Urbana Farmer’s Market be sure to stop and say hello to Jim and Diann. You’ll probably hear the news about how the turkeys are shaping up for Thanksgiving or when they are expecting the first tomatoes. If you purchase something, take a minute to thank them for their work. Then as you enjoy that delectable melon or farm fresh egg, you’ll definitely be glad you did. Agriculture/Agribusiness, Watseka 2008-02-22T01:30:00-06:00