Today is Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020. Here are local news reports from 100, 50 and 15 years ago: In 1920, the local Salvation Army corps was planning to send out 200 Christmas baskets at an average cost of $4 each ($53 in todayâs dollars). The four Christmas kettles distributed about Champaign-Urbana in the previous week had raised about $200 ($2,700 today) thus far. In 1970, Champaign City Council member Robert Pope joined incumbent Virgil Wikoff and Melvin Mitchell as candidates for mayor of Champaign. In 2005, the Civil War-era Solon House, one of the few remaining Italianate structures in Champaign-Urbana, was donated to the Preservation and Conservation Association. It was designated a landmark by the Champaign City Council in 1998, three years after the last of Francis Solonâs children, John Solon, died.