Saturday marked National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is advocating for more funding to address the disease.

The weekend is upon us, and there are plenty of things to do and see across central Illinois. Here are a selection of events, markets, concerts and more happening Friday, Feb. 6, to Sunday, Feb. 8.

Make sure to tune into WAND for Super Bowl coverage beginning at 11 a.m. CT! The big game is set to kick off at 5:30 p.m. CT.

Democrats are focusing on health care in the November elections and making it a key issue. Republicans have cut Medicaid through new work requirements and they've declined to extend COVID-era subsidies.

Make sure to vote for your favorite play of the week. The winner will be announced tonight!

Illinois women's basketball starts a three-game home stretch with a matchup against the red-hot USC Trojans.

ICYMI: Over 200 cars participated in a drive-by parade that passed the home of Kaitlynn Eller's family, with riders hoping to show support for the family amidst loss.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday about American talks with Iran, his office said Saturday.

The 2026 Winter Games are off to a promising start for host nation Italy with gold, silver and bronze on the first day of medal events.

President Donald Trump's administration can continue to detain immigrants without bond, marking a major legal victory for the federal immigration agenda and countering a slew of recent lower court decisions across the country that argued the practice is illegal.

Washington Post publisher Will Lewis said Saturday that he’s stepping down, ending a troubled tenure three days after the newspaper said that it was laying off one-third of its staff.

Savannah Guthrie told the potential kidnappers of her mother Nancy Guthrie on Saturday that the family is prepared to pay for her safe return, as the frantic search for the 84-year-old Arizona resident has entered a seventh day.

Illinois women's basketball starts a three-game home stretch with a matchup against the red-hot USC Trojans.

Jeremy Fears scored 26 points, including a tiebreaking three-point play with 1:47 left in overtime, and had 15 assists to help No. 10 Michigan State hold on for an 85-82 win over No. 5 Illinois on Saturday night.

#5 Illinois' 12-game win streak comes to an end in an overtime loss to #10 Michigan State. David Mirkovic scored 18 points and Andrej Stojakovic had 17, but it wasn't enough to boost the Illini past the Spartans.

https://www.wandtv.com/news/illinois/firefighter-injured-while-battling-barn-fire-near-springfield/article_3cc1e8a7-1d8a-479b-8d69-587dadd24472.html 

The U.S. has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal to end the nearly four‑year war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters, as Russian strikes on energy infrastructure forced nuclear power plants to cut output on Saturday.

Over 200 cars participated in a drive-by parade that passed the home of Kaitlynn Eller's family, with riders hoping to show support for the family amidst loss.

Make sure to vote for your favorite play fo the week. The winner will be announced Sunday night!

A Mexican immigrant whose skull was broken during his arrest by immigration officers last month in Minnesota says the beating was unprovoked.

Illinois heads to East Lansing with a 12 game win streak on the line for another top 10 matchup.

https://www.wandtv.com/news/illinois/no-injuries-after-decatur-home-catches-fire-cause-under-investigation/article_38da7ab2-879e-4b48-81b2-27cf7e249a90.html 

It's been a week since “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie's mother disappeared from her home in Arizona in what authorities say was a kidnapping. Here’s what to know about the case.

President Donald Trump plans to convene the first meeting of his Board of Peace this month in Washington to raise money for the reconstruction of Gaza.

bit.ly/4bHIfRA 

bit.ly/4bHIfRA 

Congrats to this weeks WAND Athlete of hte Week Clinton's Carly Anderson!

For many immigrant families in Minnesota, sending a child to school each day requires faith that one of the thousands of federal immigration officers deployed around the state won’t detain them.

Illini expert Mark Tupper discusses the football program's offseason coaching changes after head coach Bret Bielema spoke to the media earlier this week.

Lai, the 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, could face up to life in prison in the case that has stirred criticism from some foreign governments.

ICYMI: Check out all the actoin from a jam packed night of overtime games and buzzer beaters!

Illini expert Mark Tupper says Illinois must not change a thing against Michigan State this weekend, who have lost two straight.

Looking for something to do this weekend? Here are a few things happening across central Illinois!

Thursday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people.

#5 Illinois men's basketball will play in a top-10 road game for the third straight weekend as they head north to take on #10 Michigan State.

Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, released a letter to Timothy Mynett, a former Democratic political consultant who is married to Omar, requesting records related to a pair of companies that had a substantial jump in value between 2023 and 2024.

Documents obtained by The Guardian and The Associated Press undermine Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s testimony during his Senate confirmation hearings that the 2019 trip he took to Samoa before a devastating measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.”

Pope Leo XIV, an avid tennis player and sports fan, marked the start of the Winter Games on Friday by extolling the positive values of sport and fair play while warning that the pursuit of profits and performance risked corrupting sport entirely.

A deputy chief of Russia's military intelligence agency was shot and wounded in Moscow on Friday in an attack that follows a series of assassinations of senior military officers that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.

Nearly 20,000 customers remained without power in northern Mississippi on Friday. That is down from about 180,000 homes and businesses without power in Mississippi shortly after the storm struck late last month.

The negotiations, while praised by Iran and Oman, appeared to be a return to the starting point on how to approach discussions over Tehran’s nuclear program after multiple rounds were held last year before Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran.

Super Bowl Sunday is this weekend, and for many Americans, that means getting the last few ingredients for their snacks.

An alleged participant in the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, has been taken into custody to face prosecution for the rampage that killed four Americans and emerged as a divisive political issue.

https://www.wandtv.com/news/crime/man-injured-in-decatur-stabbing-thursday-night/article_ab916244-12bc-4c7d-a787-710ef8b29545.html 

Decatur police are responding to a shooting on the city's north side Friday night.

Download the WAND Now app to catch an extra FIFTEEN minutes of new sports content that airs right after Friday Frenzy. The Frenzy 15 has exclusive interviews, plays, and highlights 🏀 Download the app here --> wandtv.com/watch_now/wand-apps  https://wandtv.com/watch_now/wand-apps

The repeated Russian aerial assaults have in recent months focused on Ukraine’s power grid, causing blackouts and disrupting the heating and water supply for families during a bitterly cold winter.

A jury has found former major league outfielder Yasiel Puig guilty of obstruction of justice and lying to federal officials investigating an illegal gambling operation.

The Olympics have officially started in Italy, but students at Parsons Elementary School in Decatur had their own medal ceremony to celebrate.

39% of new HIV diagnoses in Illinois are Black people, who only make up 14% of the state's population. The Black Leadership Advocacy Coalition for Healthcare Equity in Illinois said it's time the state budget includes significant investments to tackle the disease in Black communities.