Owners Doc and Susan Richardson opened their family restaurant in Edwardsville, Illinois, and served pork, steaks, ribs, burnt ends, burgers, and a selection of fine desserts all under one roof. It’s become a bit of a local legend, with over 300 awards in the barbecue circuit.

Doc’s has also been named among the Best of the Best Barbecue by National Barbecue News, an extremely prestigious title to hold. To be eligible for recognition, a restaurant must be taste-tested, without notice, by an affiliate of National Barbecue News multiple times throughout the year.

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In the 1930s and 1940s, big band “swing” music increased the popularity of jazz music in the United States. Blues and jazz music were first brought to Illinois in the early 20th century by African Americans such as Louis Armstrong, coming to Illinois from the Deep South during the first great migration. Described as the “King of Swing,” Benny Goodman led one of the most popular bands of the WWII era and was a symbol of the successful immigrant narrative.

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A NASCAR Cup Series auto race is coming to southwestern Illinois in 2022! The 1.25 mile World Wide Technology Raceway will be in Madison Sunday, June, 5 2022.

NASCAR events have been staged at the track, but this will be the track’s first race in NASCAR’s top division. From 1997-2010, the Xfinity Series ran 15 races at the track. In addition, the Camping World Truck Series competed there from 1998-2010 and from 2014 to present day.

Curtis Francois, owner of World Wide Technology Raceway, has worked to rebuild the track and expand its racing schedule since he purchased the facility nearly ten years ago.

Visit World Wide Technology Raceway’s website to see upcoming events.

At the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign immediately began to work on a solution to keep the campus open while keeping students safe and healthy. Quickly, a simple saliva COVID-19 test was created that is now not only being used by students on campus, but organizations across the state.

With the spread of COVID-19 being primarily by droplets from the nose and mouth, scientists decided analyzing saliva seemed logical. At the time of the initial creation of the saliva test, many other tests weren’t publishing results for days. However, the U of I saliva test shows results in mere hours because, the contents are subjected to a molecular chain reaction test to show the presence of COVID-19.

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