ILLINOIS STATE NEWS BRIEF (02/09/2024)

(SPRINGFIELD) Workers at the Illinois Department of Transportation could soon be going on strike. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has announced that its over 3,800 members overwhemingly voted to authorize a strike, with 95% voting in favor. A Teamster spokesperson says the primary roadblock to getting a new contract is that the state wants to switch workers to a different healthcare plan, something the membership is against.

(SPRINGFIELD) An oil industry analyst says the temporary BP Oil Refinery shutdown in northwest Indiana will impact prices even at non-BP gas stations. The BP Refinery in Whiting, one of the largest in the nation, suffered a power outage late last week and it appears that it will be off-line for at least another two weeks. Officials with GasBuddy.com say given the loss of hundreds of millions of gallons of gasoline from the downtime, pricing impacts could spread not only around the Great Lakes region, but across the country.

(SPRINGFIELD) The Illinois State Museum has its newest exhibition on display in Springfield. Entitled Presidential Illinois, the exhibit displays artifacts highlighting the four U.S. presidents who have called Illinois home, including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. For more, go to illinoisstatemuseum.org.