illinois
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Chicago’s Top Prosecutor Tosses Out More Than 1,000 Marijuana Convictions Ahead of State Legalization Law
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx took the first step toward wiping more than 1,000 marijuana convictions off the books, appearing at a court hearing Wednesday afternoon to call for the expungement of low-level cannabis convictions. As the Chicago Sun-Times reports, the move is part of Illinois’ new recreational marijuana law, which legalizes weed in…
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Illinois High Schooler Charged With Hate Crime After Posting a 'Slave for Sale' Ad for Black Classmate
Naperville, Ill., police have charged a 14-year-old boy with a hate crime after he allegedly posted a photo of a black classmate on a Craigslist ad captioned, “slave for sale.” According to the Chicago Tribune, the teen, who is white, was charged as a juvenile with two counts of committing a hate crime (a felony)…
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Thank God for the Nanny-Cam: Illinois Family Sues Police for Raiding Home, Snatching Up Teen
Teenagers are going to do what teenagers do, but thank goodness for home surveillance systems. In Carpentersville, a northern suburb in Illinois, police were caught in the act of —literally—breaking and entering, and then hemming a young dude up. In his own home. In captured video footage, an unarmed and seemingly unassuming 16-year-old boy was…
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Illinois State Senator to Trump: Hey, Sorry About the Mock Assassination
State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Ill.), has apologized to Trump and all who support him for an incident that happened at a fundraiser. And by incident, I mean that one of Sandoval’s supporters pointed an automatic weapon—which was likely fake—at a person wearing a Donald Trump mask. Basically, the man staged an assassination of the president…
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It’s ‘Racial’: Illinois Prison Banned Books on Black History and Empowerment From Inmate Program
Some 3 out of every 4 inmates in Illinois prisons are black, yet, an Illinois prison banned an inmate education program from using books discussing black history or empowerment due to their “racial” content. Now, prison officials are apologizing and pledging to overhaul their review system, according to the Chicago Tribune, but not before officials…
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2 Moms Who Fought Gun Violence in Chicago Killed in Drive-By Shooting: 'Who's Next?'
Andrea Stoudemire and Chantell Grant dedicated their lives to combating the rampant gun violence tearing apart their neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, only to meet their untimely demise courtesy of stray bullets. CBS News reports that on July 26, Stoudemire, 35, and Grant, 26, were killed by gunfire intended for an alleged gang…
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Common Leads Proposal to Build Massive Movie Studio Complex in Chicago
During a rousing speech at the BET Awards in June, movie magnate Tyler Perry stressed the importance of becoming our own gatekeepers. “When I built my studio, I built it in a neighborhood that is one of the poorest black neighborhoods in Atlanta so that young black kids could see that a black man did…
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Jesse Jackson and Son Jesse Jr. Beg Trump’s Pardon for Disgraced Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich
Civil rights icon the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his oldest son, former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., are throwing their weight behind a push to implore Donald Trump for the release and full presidential pardon of Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor imprisoned for trying to auction off Barack Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat to…
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Black Patient Arrested After Security Guard Accuses Him of Attempting to Steal an IV and Sell It on eBay
A video of a black Freeport, Ill., patient being arrested while taking a walk outside a hospital has gone viral after he shared the incident on Facebook. The video shows Shaquille Dukes, 24, walking outside FHN Memorial Hospital on June 9, wearing a hospital gown and attached to an IV. According to Dukes, who had…