Latest news with #CookCounty
CBS News
a day ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to sign law streamlining FOID cards for lowest-level gun offenders
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to sign a bill into law Monday that will make it easier for the state's lowest-level gun offenders to obtain a firearm ID card. The laws, which was passed with bipartisan support at the end of the spring legislative session, allows people who have been arrested for the least severe charges of possessing a gun without a license to complete diversion programs that are alternatives to prosecution. After the programs are completed, and the felony case is officially dropped, Illinois State Police would grant that individual a firearm owner's identification, or FOID, card if they choose to apply and pass the background check. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office said the way current Illinois law is structured prevents state police from starting the process of the FOID card and background check until after the felony case is officially dropped, which can take months after the diversion program is complete. The new law allows state police to start the application and background check in the interim between completing the programs and the official dropping of the charges. The state's attorney's office said the law benefits people who own guns for protection or for sport, and who may have moved to Illinois after purchasing a gun legally in another state, especially ones with looser gun regulation and open carry laws, who have not realized Illinois gun laws would require them to get a FOID card and concealed carry licenses. "It's two very different approaches to gun crimes because they're treated very differently under the law," Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke said in June. "The goal is to get as many people into compliance with the regulation as possible, while at the same time addressing the very real threat that automatic weapons pose."
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
Cook County Crime Stoppers offering $1,000 reward for information in fatal hit-and-run of Marcella Herrera
Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward for information in the hit-and-run crash that left a woman dead and her fiancé seriously injured in Pilsen earlier this month. On July 19, Marcella Herrera, 22, was just getting off work and was walking with her fiancé on the 1900 block of South Ashland Avenue when an SUV hit them in the middle of the crosswalk. The driver fled the scene in an unknown direction without stopping to render aid. A witness said she was driving behind an SUV at the intersection of Ashland and Cullerton late Saturday night. That's when the car sped past her and hit the couple as they were in the middle of the crosswalk. Paul Rutherford, Chairman of Cook County Crime Stoppers, urges the public to provide any information. "Marcella's family deserves justice, and we need the community's help to identify the person responsible for this senseless act," he said. Anyone with information about the driver is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-535-STOP (7867) and leave an anonymous tip. The video above is from a previous report.
CBS News
4 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Teens won't get paid after south suburban program gets fraction of promised state funding
More than 100 teens who worked summer jobs through a south suburban youth program won't get their final paycheck after the program says it received only a fraction of its promised state funding. Dorothy Omokowajo and Ian Walker are both owed $1,000 on their last paycheck, which was supposed to come today. "I just don't have a clear reason as to why this is happening to us," Omokowajo said. She and Wlaker spent their summer working through the Career Compass Project. They were assigned to help a south suburban school district. "I was looking for a summer job, but I was also looking for a job with a purpose," Walker said. "I learned so much being at the district, and I learned so many skills I want to implement when I go into college," said Omokowajo. Yet the pair, and more than 100 other teenagers in the program, received an ugly life lesson about business. "It was like, 'Gotcha!'" Walker said. "I'm very frustrated at the state if they're the ones doing this," Omokowajo said. "I've never had to call students and say don't come to work because you're not getting paid," said Barbara Green-Kenan, project manager for the careers program. "Do you know how that feels? That's a horrible feeling." But Green-Kenan was forced to make that call this week when word came that the Cook County Southland Juvenile Justice Council, the nonprofit that pays the students, did not receive the expected state grant. "I'm upset with our state legislators," she said. "How dare you not release these funds to our kids? The Illinois Department of Human Services offers grants through the Illinois Youth Investment Program. The Southland Juvenile Justice Council applied for two grants, and the Career Compass Project uses those grants to find work for students who then should get paid. But in this case, the funds never made it. James Lyles, the CFO of the Justice Council, provided documents to CBS News Chicago which shows that in April the state awarded them two grants for a total of $253,000. But as of today, the state has transferred only $17,000. "One grant, we didn't get a dime from," he said. Lyles said now they can't make payroll until the grant comes through. "We need to get this money in for these kids and get them situated, and we don't need to leave a bad taste in their mouth when it's all over," he said. The 108 students are owed a combined amount of just under $100,000. The Southland Juvenile Justice Council has been around for 10 years and this is the third year for the career project, but the first time students did not get paychecks. The Council said it's working to get the students their money, but there's no word on if or when that will happen.
CNN
4 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Federal judge dismisses Trump administration lawsuit against Chicago ‘sanctuary' laws
A federal judge in Illinois dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit Friday that sought to disrupt limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police. The lawsuit, filed in February, alleged that so-called sanctuary laws in the nation's third-largest city 'thwart' federal efforts to enforce immigration laws. The Trump administration sued officials in Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County. It argued that local laws run counter to federal laws by restricting 'local governments from sharing immigration information with federal law enforcement officials' and preventing immigration agents from identifying 'individuals who may be subject to removal.' Judge Lindsay Jenkins of the Northern District of Illinois granted the defendants' motion for dismissal. 'The individual defendants are dismissed because the United States lacks standing to sue them with respect to the Sanctuary Policies,' Jenkins said in her ruling. Trump officials have repeatedly criticized those policies, often singling out Chicago, where the administration recently conducted an immigration enforcement operation. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was pleased with the decision and the city is safer when police focus on the needs of Chicagoans. 'This ruling affirms what we have long known: that Chicago's Welcoming City Ordinance is lawful and supports public safety. The City cannot be compelled to cooperate with the Trump Administration's reckless and inhumane immigration agenda,' he said in a statement. Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed the ruling, saying in a social media post, 'Illinois just beat the Trump Administration in federal court.' The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The administration has filed a series of lawsuits targeting state or city policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York. It sued four New Jersey cities in May. Heavily Democratic Chicago has been a sanctuary city for decades and has beefed up its laws several times, including during President Donald Trump's first term in 2017. That same year, then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed more statewide sanctuary protections into law, putting him at odds with his party. There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities. The terms generally describe limits on local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE enforces US immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks state and local help.
CNN
4 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Federal judge dismisses Trump administration lawsuit against Chicago ‘sanctuary' laws
A federal judge in Illinois dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit Friday that sought to disrupt limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police. The lawsuit, filed in February, alleged that so-called sanctuary laws in the nation's third-largest city 'thwart' federal efforts to enforce immigration laws. The Trump administration sued officials in Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County. It argued that local laws run counter to federal laws by restricting 'local governments from sharing immigration information with federal law enforcement officials' and preventing immigration agents from identifying 'individuals who may be subject to removal.' Judge Lindsay Jenkins of the Northern District of Illinois granted the defendants' motion for dismissal. 'The individual defendants are dismissed because the United States lacks standing to sue them with respect to the Sanctuary Policies,' Jenkins said in her ruling. Trump officials have repeatedly criticized those policies, often singling out Chicago, where the administration recently conducted an immigration enforcement operation. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he was pleased with the decision and the city is safer when police focus on the needs of Chicagoans. 'This ruling affirms what we have long known: that Chicago's Welcoming City Ordinance is lawful and supports public safety. The City cannot be compelled to cooperate with the Trump Administration's reckless and inhumane immigration agenda,' he said in a statement. Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed the ruling, saying in a social media post, 'Illinois just beat the Trump Administration in federal court.' The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The administration has filed a series of lawsuits targeting state or city policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York. It sued four New Jersey cities in May. Heavily Democratic Chicago has been a sanctuary city for decades and has beefed up its laws several times, including during President Donald Trump's first term in 2017. That same year, then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed more statewide sanctuary protections into law, putting him at odds with his party. There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities. The terms generally describe limits on local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE enforces US immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks state and local help.
