I like that the Champaign News Gazette gives a balance of political Illinois, Chicago, national and then University of Illinois news. Frequently, the paper writes more about the inner workings of Illinois politics than the Chicago Tribune or the Sun-Times. There is a nice arts section with the events in Champaign-Urbana for the week and high school sports are good. I could do without George Will's column and some of the super conservative letter writers. I actually like the obituaries. Nice to see that so many strong people live long lives here.
The ONE STAR review is earned by the Horrid Mugshot section. I have never seen mugshots combined with arrest charges published in any paper and hope never to do so again. When the Champaign News-Gazette drops the Mugshot section is when I give it 5 stars and go back to respecting it.