Illinois

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.”

1 In 4 Voters Live In States With Automatic Voter Registration

August 29, 2017 Staff, www.brennancenter.org Create! Illinois, Voting, Voting Rights

By Staff of Brennan Center for Justice - Chicago, IL – Today, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill to bring automatic voter registration to the state, which could help sign up more than 1 million eligible voters. The legislation had passed by a unanimous vote in both chambers earlier this summer. Rauner’s signature means that 80 million Americans — 1 in 4 — now live in a state where automatic voter registration has been approved. The plan would help sign up Illinoisans currently not on the voter rolls by automatically registering them when they interact with the DMV and other state agencies, unless they decline. It is an approach that not only increases voter participation, but also saves states money and increases accuracy of voter rolls. Illinois’ legislation is notable for having the potential to bring the reform to a broad range of state agencies, as opposed to other efforts around the country that focus largely on driver’s license–issuing offices. The bill, which passed 55-0 in the state Senate and 115-0 in the House, was sponsored by Sen. Andy Manar (D) and other legislators. The Just Democracy Coalition advocated strongly for the legislation, which also had the support of several local election officials including Cook County Clerk David Orr, along with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

Victory For Domestic Workers In Illinois

August 19, 2016 Terrance Heath, www.ourfuture.org Create! Domestic Workers, Illinois, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Terrance Heath for Campaign for America's Future - The law, which is the result of a five-year campaign by the Illinois Domestic Workers’ Coalition, guarantees nannies, housecleaners, homecare workers and other domestic workers a minimum wage, protection from discrimination and sexual harassment, and one day of rest for every seven days for workers employed by one employer for at least 20 hours a week. New York became the first state to pass such a bill in 2010.

Waukegan Paid $26.1 MillionTo About 50 People Wrongly Arrested

November 1, 2015 Dan Hinkel, www.chicagotribune.com Educate! Illinois, Police abuse

By Dan Hinkel for the Chicago Tribune - A Tribune investigation into the Waukegan Police Department has found a troubling history of investigative failure and abuse allegations. No city police agency in Illinois, other than Chicago's, shares responsibility for as many known wrongful convictions as the Waukegan police, who helped send six men to prison — some for decades — before they were cleared, according to an analysis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations. Waukegan police also have been inundated with abuse allegations, records show, and insurers and the city have paid out $26.1 million in police cases since 2006, outspending towns with more police and, in some cases, more violent crime. The Waukegan Police Department has been led by officers who played central roles in some of the costliest investigative failures in Lake County history, and police with troubled records have flourished in the department. Scandal and instability have plagued the agency, and the city is now run largely by former officers who have given little public indication that they detect a problem.

Bruce Rauner Is Using A Manufactured Crisis To Bust Unions

August 6, 2015 Jennifer Ritter and Jacob Swenson-Lengyel, www.inthesetimes.com Organize! Austerity, Conservative, Illinois, Politics

By Jennifer Ritter and Jacob Swenson-Lengyel for In These Times - If you like Scott Walker, you’ll love Bruce Rauner. In February, Rauner issued an executive order blocking public employee unions from collecting “fair share” fees, or payments from non-union members who nonetheless benefit from collective bargaining done on their behalf. The order is intended to decimate public employee unions, not just in Illinois, but across the nation. As unions rightfully fight the executive order, Rauner hopes the case will make it to the Supreme Court, where following last years Harris v. Quinn ruling, many experts believe conservative justices may be poised to strike down fair share fees nation wide. That was just an opening foray. Now Rauner is using the budget crisis to blackmail legislators into supporting his anti-worker policies. He refuses to raise revenue unless the state legislature, Cook County and municipalities across the state bow to his anti-union, destabilizing “turnaround agenda.”

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