Champaign City Council took steps last night to connect the popular downtown district with Campustown by adopting the University District Plan — which was recently updated in 2007 — as council policy for the next ten years.

Along with adopting the plan, the council agreed to an intergovernmental agreement with the Champaign Park District to maintain a park along the Boneyard Creek corridor from First Street to Wright Street.

As development continues on a number of buildings in and around Campustown, the University of Illinois’s skyline begins to take new shape.

Among the construction projects slated for late-summer completion are the Urban Outfitters/office building at 507 E. Green Street and the Burnham310 residences on Springfield Avenue (both pictured).

Bob McChesney, host of the WILL-AM show Media Matters, hosts this semester's Racial & Social Justice Book Club, organized by the YWCA of the University of Illinois. The discussion takes place today at 7 p.m. in Murphy Lounge at the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street in Champaign.

Featured books for the discussion include The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office by David Lindorff and Barbara Olshanksy and Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda by Noam Chomsky.

McChesney, a leading media scholar and activist, is a Research Professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois. He has penned several books on media including his most recent venture, Communication Revolution, released in 2007.

The new dorm at the St. John’s Newman Catholic Center at the University of Illinois has become a significant player in the campus skyline. Set to be completed in July 2008, Newman Hall now has 85% of its brick exterior complete and crews are currently working on the interior. “We lost a little time in the hard winter months,” said Mark Randall, director of advancement at the Newman Center, but he added that the project remains on schedule to welcome new students in August 2008. “We have more applications than we have beds,” Randall said. The official dedication ceremony will be held Sept. 6–7, 2008.

After spending 33 years in Illinois Disciples Foundation’s basement, Common Ground Food Co-op is bursting from the seams. So, they’re packing their bags.

Come July 1, the local grocery store will open doors in its new digs, and although Common Ground is mum about the new address, Jacqueline Hannah, general manager, says the food co-op will set up shop in one of the two downtown regions. Common Ground will announce their new location officially in mid-January.