The University of Illinois says it's receiving a $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to help local communities hit hard by cuts in defense spending. The grant is from the federal agency's Office of Economic Adjustment.
Five regions will be initially targeted. They are Peoria, the Quad Cities, Rockford, Metro East and Chicago.
The idea is to collect data about Illinois' defense sector and help communities by putting the data to work. Among other things, the money will be used to map defense assets.
