Bipartisan effort seeks stricter measures to protect sexual assault victims in schools 

Bipartisan effort seeks stricter measures to protect sexual assault victims in schools 

The bill would amend the Illinois School Code to implement a mandatory one-year expulsion for any public school student who is determined by that district’s school board to have committed sexual assault, sexual harassment or engaged in a sexual activity without the consent of the other person.

Child Welfare Agency Failed Repeatedly to Produce ‘Critical’ Reports After Child Deaths, Injuries

Child Welfare Agency Failed Repeatedly to Produce ‘Critical’ Reports After Child Deaths, Injuries

The state agency responsible for keeping Illinois’ most vulnerable children safe has failed to produce legally required public reports after examining what went wrong in hundreds of cases of child deaths and thousands of serious injuries.

man starring in courtroom

Jury finds Illinois landlord guilty of murder, hate crime in 2023 attack on Palestinian American boy

A jury has found a 73-year-old Illinois landlord guilty in a hate crime attack that left a Palestinian American boy dead and injured his mother. Joseph Czuba faced murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen, in October 2023.

President Biden meets with woman
|

Mother of Palestinian American boy slain in suburban Chicago hate crime testifies at trial

Prosecutors say a suburban Chicago landlord took a knife from a belt holder and attacked a Palestinian American woman before fatally stabbing her young son 26 times in 2023. The landlord, Joseph Czuba, is accused of fatally stabbing 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and wounding his mother Hanan Shaheen on Oct. 14, 2023.

Three people sit at a desk with microphones. Behind them is a screen that says Urbana Police. The center person is wearing a police uniform.
|

After week of violence, Urbana police department promote plan to prevent, neighborhood by neighborhood

URBANA — Darnell “DJ” Wicks was 7 and loved Spider-Man. Sherman McCraney was 18 years old. Melvin Braxton was 43. Richard Meek was 70. Each was killed in Urbana this week. Three of the incidents were unrelated except for the common thread of domestic and gun violence, according to the Urbana Police Department. “Our commitment…

Champaign County Jail Begins Tracking and Reporting Use of Restraint Chairs to the State for the First Time

Champaign County Jail Begins Tracking and Reporting Use of Restraint Chairs to the State for the First Time

Champaign County Jail updated the way it documents, tracks and reports use of restraint chairs after an Illinois Answers Project investigation raised questions about the facility’s record-keeping practices and failure to report incidents to a state oversight unit.

Karina's law
|

Pritzker signs ‘Karina’s law’ to remove guns from domestic violence situations

House Bill 4144, also known as Karina’s Law, clarifies that local law enforcement must temporarily remove guns from a person who has an order of protection against them when the alleged victim successfully seeks firearm removal as a remedy in court.