Rock Island native advances to Australian Open semifinals

Madison Keys, a 19 year-old tennis player native to Rock Island, Illinois, advanced to the Grand Slam semifinals at the Australian Open yesterday after beating legendary tennis player Venus Williams.

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Illinois-educated YouTube founder reinvests in home state

Steve Chen, one of the co-founders of YouTube is helping make sure that Illinois stays at the forefront of education and technology by investing $1 million in the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora.

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Forbes 30 Under 30 list includes several with University of Illinois ties

Four University of Illinois alumni and one professor are among those named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list, an annual list highlighting young game changers, movers and makers in 20 different fields.

Millennials who are making a difference in fields ranging from Art & Style and Music to Social Entrepreneurs and Law & Policy were selected by a panel of A-list judges before being included in the rankings.

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Illinois metro areas lead job market improvement trend

In a report largely overlooked when it was published on December 30, a Vox.com story analyzed the U.S. Labor Department’s year-to-year unemployment rate changes for metro areas. The total U.S. unemployment rate shrank 1.1 percentage points. The ten metro areas with the fastest-shrinking unemployment rates ranged from 2.8 to 4.3 point improvements.

Illinois claims four of the top five spots. Decatur leads with 4.3, along with Danville’s 4.1, Kankakee-Bradley’s and Rockford’s tie at 3.3 point drops.

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