Lauren Bennett, who was shot twice, is among a group suing a gunmaker over the shooting. “Anything that could help prevent this,” she said. HIGHLAND PARK — Three months after the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Lauren Bennett stood before a bank of cameras and described what it was like to feel two bullets…
One 27-year-old Guatemalan woman said she had no other option but to give birth while holding a garbage can at a Southern California Border Patrol station. A Nicaraguan mother said agents denied her 6-month-old son medical care while he suffered from respiratory problems that caused pneumonia. These are two cases that the American Civil Liberties…
SPRINGFIELD – Much of the talk from supporters of the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform has in recent days centered on how it will or won’t be amended before Jan. 1, when cash bail will be abolished in Illinois as part of a provision known as the Pretrial Fairness Act. Everyone from Gov. JB Pritzker to…
URBANA — Congresswoman Robin Kelly is up for re-election in Illinois’ 2nd congressional district. She’s running against Republican challenger Thomas Lynch. Illinois Newsroom’s Harrison Malkin spoke with Kelly about ways to curb gun violence, the Green New Deal, and a range of other policy issues. Malkin: First, I wanted to ask you a little bit…
The utility has also entered into a so-called deferred-prosecution agreement with U.S. Attorney John Lausch’s office, similar to the deal cut by ComEd when the feds charged it with bribery more than two years ago. CHICAGO — A federal grand jury has leveled an additional criminal charge against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan as…
CHICAGO — The attorney general’s race rarely grabs front-page headlines — but experts and advocates across the political spectrum say the position is one of the most essential in the state. In addition to the hot-button issues of crime and criminal justice reform, Illinois’ next attorney general could play a key role in everything from…
Culture of cover-ups at facility led to investigative dead-end This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Lee Enterprises, along with Capitol News Illinois. ANNA, Ill. — The disturbing 911 call began with sounds of a struggle, then a voice that sounded like a child’s cried out, “Let me go.” When the police…
CHAMPAIGN — University of Illinois researchers published a new database last week on police use of force across the state. The SPOTLITE database – short for “Systemic Policing Oversight Through Lethal-Force Incident Tracking Environment” — includes twice as many incidents as Illinois police previously reported. “When we rely solely on administrative reporting by policing agencies,…
CHAMPAIGN — In an exclusive interview with Illinois Public Media, Republican Regan Deering, the 13th congressional district candidate, made this claim: “I do think that unfortunately, a lot of the communities that are experiencing gun violence across the country do have very strict gun laws on the books.” “Correlation is not causation,” Dr. John Jackson,…
CHAMPAIGN – Nearly four months ago, Champaign officials began installing cameras around town to take pictures of license plates on passing cars. According to Kevin Olmstead, Champaign police’s interim deputy chief of operations, 28 of the department’s 46 license plate readers have been positioned on Champaign streets as of September 15. “It gives us basically…
Tisha Bryson has been shackled, hospitalized and shoved to the ground by central Illinois law enforcement officers more times than she can count while experiencing a mental health crisis. “I try not to hold grudges,” Bryson said, a resident of Hammond in Piatt County, about 40 miles southwest of Champaign. “But some of the ways…
When Calvin Duncan was 19 years old, he was arrested for a murder he didn’t commit. “I was in Angola for 24 years,” he says. He heard the same story over and over from other inmates: “That they was innocent, that they didn’t commit the crimes that they was in prison for.” Not everyone was…
An independent expert who has monitored the mental health care was terminated reducing the transparency around an often failing system. CHICAGO — The Illinois Department of Corrections has long faced accusations of abuse and violence toward people with mental illness and has continually failed to fill positions for mental health care workers. Now for the…
SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Emil Jones III pleaded not guilty in federal court Friday to three felony counts stemming from an alleged bribery scheme involving a red light camera company. Jones, 44, is a Chicago Democrat who has served in the Senate since 2009. He is also the son of former Senate President Emil Jones…
Governor JB Pritzker signed the SAFE-T Act into law in 2021. On January 1, 2023, the Act will end cash bail in Illinois. In a cash bail system, the ability to pay bail determines if a person is released or remains in jail after an arrest. Illinois Republicans are warning that New York’s bail reform,…