CHAMPAIGN – City of Champaign police made a case for why their department should be allowed to purchase 25 Tasers – a device that shoots two electric darts to incapacitate its human target with a 50,000-volt charge – at a community forum Monday night at a north Champaign church.

But few in the audience of more than 50 people, most of them black, seemed convinced that Tasers are an effective new "less lethal" police technology that can substantially reduce suspect and officer injuries, as Champaign Police Chief R.T. Finney described them.

MONTICELLO – Preschool students at Monticello's White Oaks School know exactly where space is, they know what's up there and they know how to get there.

And just in case there's a shortage of space food or a delay in their flight, they've designed space ships that dispense M&Ms and other snacks.

CHAMPAIGN – At the end of the 2003 football season, a 1-11 Illinois football team staggered off the field. Literally and figuratively.

The physical wounds have mostly healed. Receiver Lonnie Hurst (broken leg), running back Pierre Thomas (broken leg) and quarterback Jon Beutjer (back surgery) opened spring practice Monday on the field instead of the bench.

For a change, Illinois is on the other side of an off-court distraction.

One of the top players on Murray State''s Ohio Valley Conference champions will miss Friday''s 11:25 a.m. game against Illinois, the school announced today, after he and a teammate were arrested last Saturday.