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Isabel’s afternoon roundup

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Illinois

* South Side Weekly | ICE Detains Illinois Immigrants in Out-of-State Jails: After the Way Forward Act banned ICE from detaining undocumented people in state jails last year, the agency began detaining undocumented Illinois residents in Wisconsin and other states.

* Block Club | Aldermen Want Meetings With CHA Boss After Investigation Revealed Vacant, Decaying Properties: Other alderpeople also expressed concerns after Block Club and Illinois Answers found that nearly 500 of the CHA’s scattered-site properties are empty while more than 200,000 people are on the agency’s waiting lists for housing. After news outlets began asking questions, the CHA announced it plans to spend $50 million in 2024 to rehabilitate 176 of the scattered-site properties.

* WTVO | Illinois AG charges Rockford instructor for falsifying concealed carry certifications: This is the second case of the Illinois Attorney General charging a Stateline man for falsifying documents to obtain concealed carry licenses in the last month. … Reyes ran for the 34th District Illinois Senate seat and was defeated by Steve Stadelman in 2022.

* Tribune | Cook County state’s attorney’s office replaces head of unit that reviews possible wrongful convictions, rebrands effort: Assistant State’s Attorney Nancy Adduci, who previously lead the unit, will remain as a deputy, the release said. She was replaced by Michelle Mbekeani, who joined the office in 2018 as a legal and policy advisor. The office also renamed the Conviction Integrity Unit, now known as the Conviction Review Unit. The shift came as Adduci’s work had come under scrutiny in the past year due to her prosecution of defendants accused of shooting and killing Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis in 2011. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in June dropped charges against two of the three suspects amid accusations from defense attorneys of misconduct on behalf of the police and prosecutors who handled the case.

* Bolts | “I’m Just Another Traffic Stop”: As the department poured resources into the Community Safety Team, Brown pledged their work would be driven by long-term relationships with residents, businesses, religious organizations and neighborhood groups. By the end of 2020, the Community Safety Teams logged over 200 of those community interactions, according to a Bolts analysis of data from the Office of Emergency Management and Communications’ dispatch system, which generates a unique record each time officers radio headquarters to document civilian interactions or routine activities. Those community interactions included food drives, youth sports events and community input meetings, according to a Chicago Police spokesperson. But those interactions were dwarfed by the 48,000 traffic stops the team conducted in 2020—nearly all of that unit’s documented activity that year. In 2021, when the Community Safety Team was at its largest, its officers logged over 150,000 traffic stops—more than twice the number of community engagement activities, the data show.

* Crain’s | Friends of the Parks executive director departing after eight years of ‘good trouble’: Juanita Irizarry, executive director of city park advocate group Friends of the Parks, will be leaving her role after eight years at the nonprofit. Friends of the Parks’ board of directors made the announcement Tuesday, stating that Irizarry was the “face of good trouble” and that her resignation is “regrettable.”

* WBEZ | Personal aides for students are the unsung heroes of special education in CPS: CPS was trying to cut costs and, though aides are not highly paid, assigning a full-time staffer to a small number of children is expensive. Over the last five years, the number of aides has gone up more than any other position in special education, except for case managers, which went from being an extra responsibility for teachers to a stand-alone position. There are now about 6,800 aide positions in the school district, up from 4,500 in 2018. The cost also has nearly doubled, from $150 million in 2018 to nearly $280 million.

* WCIA | Effingham Flex-N-Gate workers return after two-week layoff: Flex-N-Gate Effingham officials said workers returned on Nov. 6 after a two-week layoff. The UAW strikes in Kentucky caused the plant to temporarily let people go on Oct. 12. One worker, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she’s relieved to be back. She said the days off put her and some colleagues behind financially. She said the time away taught her better money management.

* Daily Herald | Another inmate death reported at McHenry County jail: According to the release, the man was found at about 4 p.m. Tuesday in a single-person booking cell. Corrections officers and Woodstock Fire/Rescue personnel attempted lifesaving measures, but the man was pronounced at the scene, officials said. […] It is the third inmate death reported in just two weeks.

* WCIA | Family of Decatur woman killed by speeding trooper gets $2.5M settlement: The 8-year-old and 14-year-old daughters of Kelly Wilson from Decatur will split a $2,591,761.26 settlement after a former state trooper rammed into their mother’s car and killed her. The family originally asked for 10 million dollars from the lawsuit. […] In May 2016, Illinois Trooper Jeffrey Denning was working in Macon County when he received a call about a police officer shot in Mahomet. Denning was speeding over 100 miles per hour to the scene where he crashed into Wilson, making a left turn at the intersection of Oakland Avenue and Harrison Street. He later testified his sirens were not continuous as he should have set them when traveling that fast.

* Daily Herald | ‘A step in the right direction’: Libertyville has new tool to battle electric vehicle battery fires: “The only effective method is to pierce the battery compartment and cool the thermal runaway (reaction) taking place in the battery bank,” he said. To do that, the department in partnership with the Libertyville Fire Protection District invested $30,000 for equipment specifically designed to quickly extinguish fires involving lithium-ion high voltage batteries in electric vehicles.

* Crain’s | Feds provide $95 million toward Union Station upgrades: The funding will come in two buckets: $45 million will go towards track improvements to transform an area previously used for mail service, which has been out of service for nearly two decades, to handle an anticipated expansion of rail service in the Midwest. Another $44 million will fund platform expansions and help pay for ventilation upgrades.

* AFP | Planet tipping points pose ‘unprecedented’ threat to humanity: report: The most comprehensive assessment ever conducted of Earth’s invisible tripwires was released as leaders meet for UN climate talks in Dubai with 2023 set to smash all heat records. While many of the 26 tipping points laid out in the report — such as melting ice sheets — are linked to global warming, other human activities like razing swathes of the Amazon rainforest could also push Earth’s ecosystems to the brink.

* WSJ | Bitcoin Mining Used More Water Than New York City Last Year: Bitcoin-mining operations slurp up billions of gallons of water globally each year. Estimates vary, but the annual footprint is projected to surpass 591 billion gallons of water this year, according to an article published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Reports Sustainability.

* WCIA | Family sells everything, moves to Central IL to help others by opening ‘Monarch’s Haven’: Monarch’s Haven will aim to provide essential services for both the homeless and families facing difficult times. “We want to do a meal ministry and a day center for people to be able to help them with just having a place to hang out,” Jenny said. “If they need help with job applications, applying for assistance, applying for social security, any of those things.”

* Daily Beast | You’ll Never See John Lennon’s Death the Same After This: A new Apple TV+ docuseries, John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, centers almost entirely on the fateful night of Dec. 8, 1980, when Lennon was fatally shot outside his New York City apartment building, the Dakota. Director Nick Holt’s three-part series is mercifully short on cheap theatrics and loopy theories, instead putting us squarely in the middle of a real-life horror story. Narrator Kiefer Sutherland strikes the right tone of equanimity, and while there are aspects of the police procedural, the series doesn’t play like the true-crime docs to which we’ve all become so accustomed and desensitized.

posted by Isabel Miller
Wednesday, Dec 6, 23 @ 2:19 pm

Comments

===Illinois AG charges Rockford instructor for falsifying concealed carry certifications:===

I don’t know what the right face to make in your mugshot is, but that is not it.

Comment by Suburban Mom Wednesday, Dec 6, 23 @ 2:57 pm
The guy charged with falsifying concealed carry applications is running for the State Senate as a Republican.

https://ballotpedia.org/Juan_Reyes_(Illinois)

Comment by Big Dipper Wednesday, Dec 6, 23 @ 3:10 pm
RE: WTVO Story on concealed carry instructors

I wonder if FOID cards were also revoked, and if weapons were removed from the accused.

Comment by H-W Wednesday, Dec 6, 23 @ 3:10 pm
Concealed carry certifications not applications. He falsely stated people had completed the training who had not. What could go wrong?

Comment by Big Dipper Wednesday, Dec 6, 23 @ 3:14 pm
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has filed the state brief in response to the emergency Application (23A486) for writ of injunction filed by National Association for Gun Rights, et al., Applicants

http://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23A486/292465/20231206154102892_Bevis%20v.%20Naperville%20Response%20to%20Renewed%20Emergency%20Motion%20Final.pdf

Comment by Donnie Elgin Wednesday, Dec 6, 23 @ 3:19 pm
Kim Foxx, what are you doing? Name change of a unit? new head, undoubtedly with a big salary. less than one year to go.

Comment by Amalia Wednesday, Dec 6, 23 @ 3:41 pm