Lincoln's Challenge Academy class begins quest for new life

RANTOUL – Lasante Sutherland, a 16-year-old high school dropout, stepped off the bus on a hot and humid July morning onto the former Chanute Air Force Base.

Lasante is one of 413 boys and 109 girls, all high school dropouts, embarking on a new way of life at Lincoln's Challenge Academy, a military-based school run by the Illinois National Guard on the base.

Also on this date

• Longtime friends remember close-knit Urbana neighborhood
• Calabrese not backing down from 'Goliaths' in election
• Area districts still waiting for revised ISAT results from state
• Champaign murder suspect arrested in western Chicago
• Champaign County Habitat for Humanity celebrates 50th home
• Feeling the pinch: Some young drivers switching back to bikes
• Obituaries

» More