'It's going to be a task, this storm'

CHAMPAIGN – It's only the second hour of John McKinney's 12-hour workday, and it's already a doozy.

Wind whips sheets of icy snow across the windows of the snowplow McKinney loops around the roads north of Interstate 74 in Champaign, his truck's giant shovel sending waves of white powder into the increasing drifts as he goes.

Also on this date

• Family hires attorney for UI player Smith
• Champaign schools closed Thursday; Urbana schools open
• C-U facing extra costs with storm
• Hotels fill up fast with stranded travelers, employees
• UI students, staff make most of first snow day since 1979
• Stuck in the snow
• 35 people arrested or ticketed in checks
• Seventh flight to Chicago to be added April 10
• Bismarck-Henning students mourn classmate's death
• Obituaries

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