Illinois

Illinois Set To Become First State To Bar Police From Lying To Minors

June 3, 2021 Zack Linly, The Root. Create! Illinois, Police, Police abuse, Youth

The state of Illinois is on its way to becoming the first in the nation to bar police officers from lying to minors during interrogations. In an effort to prohibit the manipulative tactics cops often use to coerce confessions that often turn out to be false confessions—to which people under the age of 18 are especially vulnerable—the Illinois General Assembly passed in a near-unanimous vote a bill that would make incriminating statements from minors inadmissible in court if investigating officers provided “false information about evidence or leniency” while interrogating their underage suspect. USA Today reports that Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming weeks.

Race, Poverty, Farming And A Natural Gas Pipeline

April 28, 2021 Brett Chase, Inside Climate News. Educate! Farming, Gas Pipelines, Illinois, Racism

Five years ago, the mayor of Hopkins Park, a Black, rural community in Kankakee County, Illinois, argued for building an immigration detention center there to boost the economy. The people who lived there said: No, thanks. Mayor Mark Hodge now has another idea for new development in his town and the surrounding, historic farming community of Pembroke Township, south of Chicago. He’s backing a proposal for a pipeline, built by the utility Nicor, that would run through the area and, he hopes, bring with it natural gas and a boost to taxes and the local economy. And again, some residents are not pleased. “People here love the earth,” said Dr. Jifunza Wright-Carter, who farms 45 acres with her husband in Pembroke Township and promotes sustainable agriculture.

How The First US City To Fund Reparations For Black Residents Is Making Amends

March 2, 2021 Ashley Brown, Emilie de Sainte Maresville, and Allie Yang, ABC News. Create! Housing, Illinois, Reparations, Systemic Racism

Evanston, Illinois, is like a lot of American cities. The city just north of Chicago appears picturesque, updated and grand on one side -- but not far away, one can see the signs of economic and racial segregation, despite the city's proud, diverse and liberal reputation. What sets Evanston apart from other cities, however, is its groundbreaking plan to address the impact of that segregation and Black disenfranchisement: reparations. The impetus for the city's reparations resolution, first passed in 2019 and spearheaded by 5th Ward Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, is rooted partially in Rue Simmons' experience growing up Black in Evanston. "Early in my childhood I was invited to have a play date," she recalled. "My white friends never had a play date at my home."

COVID-19 And Democrats’ Indifference Killed My Husband In Jail

February 10, 2021 Cassandra Greer Lee, Current Affairs. Educate! COVID-19, Democrats, Illinois, Prisoner rights

In February 2020, my husband, Nickolas Lee, was incarcerated in Cook County Jail in Chicago. The judge didn’t offer him bail. So even though he was presumed innocent, he had to await his trial in jail. When the coronavirus seeped into the facility, he was sleeping in a dormitory with 50 other men, including those with active COVID-19 symptoms. Nick and the other men had no ability to social distance. Although the sheriff’s office claimed to be “clearly leaders in the Country on dealing with the pandemic [sic],” Nick was denied even basic sanitary products, like sanitizer or a mask. He had to use his shirt to cover his nose and mouth.

Students Continue To Pressure Northwestern University To Abolish The Police

January 31, 2021 Binah Schatsky, Daily Northwestern. Resist! Abolish Police, Campus Police, Illinois, Student Activism

After several months of continuous pressure on Northwestern administration to abolish University Police and divest from policing and other militarized entities, NUCNC is continuing their work into the new quarter. Since their campaign of more than 30 days of consecutive actions, the group has not held any mass protests or demonstrations, but they continue to pressure the University and practice mutual aid — a core tenet of prison-industrial complex abolition. “Prisons are the biggest social service we have,” NUCNC member Eliza Gonring said. “So poor people, homeless people, Black people are just getting funneled into prisons and if we want that to stop, if we don’t want people to get preyed upon, we’re going to need to start supporting people.”

Students Push To Remove Police

November 9, 2020 Claudio Rivera, Stephanie Knezz and Shawn Smith, Truthout. Resist! Higher Education, Illinois, Police Abolition, Youth Activism

Student movements have always raised our current conception of justice and equity. From the civil rights movement and Vietnam War protests, to the anti-apartheid movement and calls to abolish the police, student protests on college campuses have a context and history linked to substantial change in U.S. policies and practices. This is a rite of passage from which we all benefit. So, it is perplexing that Northwestern University (NU) President Morton Schapiro fails to recognize this as NU students demand a different and better sense of campus safety in their demand to abolish the police...

Judge Approves Extradition Of Kyle Rittenhouse

October 31, 2020 Michael Tarm, AP News. Educate! Extradition, Illinois, Rebellion2020, right wing militia

Waukegan, IL - An Illinois judge on Friday ordered a 17-year-old accused of killing two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to be extradited across the border to stand trial on homicide charges. The ruling came several hours after a hearing at the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan, where defense lawyers sought to persuade Judge Paul Novak to block their Kyle Rittenhouse’s transfer to Wisconsin. At the hearing began, Rittenhouse’s lawyer said he’d had a change of heart since notifying the court that he planned to call witnesses, including Rittenhouse’s mother.

Graduate Workers: ‘Reopening Endangers Students, Highlights Racial Inequalities’

August 28, 2020 Northwestern University Graduate Workers, Daily Northwestern. Organize! COVID-19, Graduate School, Higher Education, Illinois

It is less than a month before Fall Quarter begins, and despite daily warnings against doing so, Northwestern insists on proceeding with the harmful and dangerous plan of reopening campus. The current fall reopening plan expects students to return to campus while holding most courses remotely. Despite Northwestern’s assurances that they are following best practices, the current return to campus plan will inevitably result in COVID-19 clusters among students, faculty and staff that will lead many to get sick and will only deepen the virus’s spread across the Evanston and Chicago region.

‘Just The Beginning’: Illinois Gov. Pardons Over 11,000 On Eve Of Recreational Cannabis Legalization

January 2, 2020 By Jessica Corbett, Commondreams.org Create! Decriminalization, Illinois, Marijuana

"This is just the first wave of Illinoisans who will see a new world of opportunities emerge as they shed the burden of their nonviolent cannabis-related convictions and records." On Tuesday, just one day before "equity-centric" legislation legalizing sales and adult use of recreational marijuana took effect in Illinois, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker granted pardons to more than 11,000 individuals with low-level cannabis convictions. Pritzker, who signed the bill in June, announced the pardons during an event at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side...

New York Took On The Real Estate Industry And Won. Illinois Could Be Next.

September 9, 2019 Max Budovitch, Inthesetimes.com Create! Affordable Housing, Illinois, New York (NY), Reform, Rent

On June 14, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law new housing legislation that guarantees the “strongest tenant protections in history,” extending rent regulation from New York City and adjacent counties to the entire state, finally closing rent control loopholes and eliminating the “vacancy bonus” that allowed landlords to hike rents once tenants moved out. Some form of rent regulation has been in place in New York City for nearly a century. But the laws that were meant to keep housing affordable and tenants in place by limiting rent increases had been run through with loopholes because they had to be re-legislated...

Victory In Illinois: Coal Plant Found Guilty Of Polluting Groundwater With Coal Ash

June 26, 2019 Ruth Milka, Nationofchange.org Create! Coal Mining, Illinois, pollution, Water Pollution

“Today is a huge victory for Waukegan residents who have fought for years to see corporations like NRG Energy held accountable for the toxic waste that has been illegally dumped on our Lake Michigan lakefront.” The Illinois Pollution Control Board’s interim order has ruled that NRG Energy’s Waukegan Generating Station is responsible for polluting groundwater with coal ash. The Waukegan plant, which is located on Lake Michigan’s shoreline, is one of four Illinois plants accused by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups of breaking state pollution laws and regulations.

What Makes Illinois’ Marijuana Legalization Bill So Progressive

June 4, 2019 By Ramenda Cyrus, Inthesetimes.com Educate! Illinois, Legalization, Marijuana, Reform

On May 31, the Illinois House of Representatives passed what is perhaps the most progressive recreational marijuana usage bill in the United States, by a margin of 66-47. The bill passed in the Senate on Wednesday by a margin of 38-17. Governor J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign the bill immediately, which would make the recreational use of marijuana legal in Illinois as soon as January 2020, and would also make Illinois the first state to pass recreational marijuana legalization through a proposed bill rather than a ballot initiative.

Illinois Workers Celebrate As ‘Life-Changing’ $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage Signed Into Law

February 20, 2019 By Jessica Corbett, Commondreams.org Create! Illinois, Minimum Wage, New Economy, Workers

"Fifteen dollars an hour will be life-changing for me. I can barely afford the basic needs for my two sons on my minimum-wage salary. Simple things like whether to buy school supplies for my older boy or formula and diapers for my little one become agonizing choices," said Fight for $15 member Ieshia Townsend, who works a McDonald's in Chicago. Reflecting on the past six years of grassroots organizing to raise wages across the state, Townsend shared that "as a single mom and a Black woman on the south side of Chicago, I felt invisible before I joined the Fight for $15 and a union. But by coming togethe and speaking out, our voices have been heard." While welcoming the victory on Tuesday, she vowed to continue the fight for a union.

Federal Judge To IDOC: Get Your Unconstitutional Shit Together

December 28, 2018 The Uptown People's Law Center, Beachwoodreporter.com Educate! Courts, Illinois, mental health, Prisons

A federal court has ordered the State of Illinois to address its "failure to . . . meet the constitutional requirements with respect to the mental health needs of" its approximately 12,000 prisoners with mental illness. This case reached a settlement agreement in 2016, but the Illinois Department of Corrections failed to live up to the agreement, and constitutional violations continued, according to the plaintiffs' lead counsel, Harold Hirshman, senior counsel for Dentons. In October, the court issued a 50-page decision finding that IDOC has been deliberately indifferent to prisoners' mental health, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Illinois Prisons Sued For Unconstitutional Ban On LGBTQ Literature

October 19, 2018 Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, Truthout.org Resist! Ban, Censorship, Illinois, Lawsuit, LGBTQ, Prisons

The Uptown People’s Law Center and the MacArthur Justice Center filed a lawsuit on October 17 that alleges Illinois prisons are censoring correspondence and publications that have been mailed to prisoners by Black and Pink, a prisoners’ rights organization focused on supporting incarcerated LGBTQ and HIV-positive people. Jason Lydon founded Black and Pink in 2005 after his own incarceration and was the national director of the group until 2017. “Prisoners are entitled to communication with people on the outside and are entitled to knowledge and stories that validate their humanity,” Lydon told Truthout. “This lawsuit is about ensuring that.”

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