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IL Upgrades Child Abuse Hotline

Wikimedia Commons

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has a new computerized child abuse hotline after receiving complaints that the old system failed to handle the large number of calls. Last year the department had more than 250,000 calls, but a majority of callers had to wait for a child abuse expert to call back. The new DCFS director Richard Calica says the problems with the old hotline were unacceptable since it delayed investigations. The hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Whitney grew up listening to Car Talk to and from her family’s beach vacation each year, but it wasn’t until a friend introduced her to This American Life that radio really grabbed her attention. She is a recent graduate from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., where she studied journalism. When she’s not at WKMS, you can find her working on her backyard compost pile and garden, getting lost on her bicycle or crocheting one massive blanket.
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