Latest news with #IllinoisNationalGuard
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Yahoo
Illinois announces change in standards for military transitioning to police
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTWO/WAWV)— The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB) announced Wednesday a change in standards for military members transitioning into law enforcement roles. The ILETSB approved military reciprocity, joining 18 other states that have done so already. The new policy means military members are now eligible for certification reciprocity instead of having to complete the full 640-hour Basic Law Enforcement Academy. Military service members used to be ineligible for certification reciprocity despite training by the Department of Defense and operational experience. Now, eligible veterans can request a certification waiver like applicants from other states or federal agencies can. 'Today's announcement honors the commitment of our service members by opening a clear path into law enforcement careers across Illinois,' said Keith Calloway, Executive Director of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. 'This is about honoring their experience while meeting our state's workforce needs in a responsible and impactful way.' The policy change comes after months of collaboration between ILETSB, military leaders, and state partners, stating that they want to ease the transition to civilian service roles and strengthen recruitment pipelines for law enforcement agencies across the state. 'Our Illinois Army National Guard Military Police and Air National Guard Security Forces personnel spend a lot of time training and learning law enforcement techniques in our ranks. This program expands the number of military occupational specialties that can translate into civilian careers,' said Major General Rodney Boyd, the Adjutant General of the Illinois National Guard. 'Illinois National Guard Soldiers and Airmen are great employees who perform well under pressure, possess great integrity, and are professional in everything they do.' To be granted a waiver request, veterans must: Successfully complete the Illinois Law for Police Course, which includes instruction on Illinois-specific law, policies, and procedures A two-day in-person Sexual Assault Investigation course A 40-hour Mandatory Firearms Course with Use of Force instruction and training Passing the Illinois Certification Exam Any additional training deemed necessary by ILETSB Additional information and application instructions can be found at this link. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Springfield announces new fire, police chiefs
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — The search has ended for two top leaders of first responders in Springfield. Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher is nominating Assistant Fire Chief Nicholas Zummo to become the next Fire Chief and Assistant Police Chief Joseph Behl to Police Chief. They replace retiring Fire Chief Ed Canny and Police Chief Ken Scarlette. In addition, Fire Captain Julie Plunk will be promoted to Assistant Fire Chief and Police Commander Ryan Leach will become Assistant Police Chief. Central Illinois hospitals graded on safety 'These appointments symbolize a bold step in our mission to enhance public safety in Springfield,' said Mayor Misty Buscher. 'I firmly believe that Chief Scarlette and Chief Canny's leadership will persist in the new leadership team.' Zummo has worked at the Springfield Fire Department for 24 years. He's also served for 20 years in the Illinois National Guard before retiring as a Master Sergeant. He was named Springfield Firefighter of the Year in 2008 and received the Distinguished Service Award in 2017 as well. 'I'm honored and humbled by this opportunity to lead the Springfield Fire Department,' Zummo said. 'This is a department built on courage, sacrifice, and service. I look forward to working alongside Captain Plunk and the entire SFD team as we continue to adapt, grow, and deliver exceptional service to the community.' Chatham community, first responders welcome home girl hurt in after-school tragedy Behl has worked with the Police Department for 18 years and graduated from the FBI National Academy. 'I'm incredibly grateful for the trust that's been placed in me,' he said. 'It's been an honor to serve alongside the dedicated men and women of this department for the past 18 years, and I carry that experience — and the lessons I've learned from this community — into this new role. I'm committed to listening, leading compassionately, and ensuring every resident feels safe, supported, and respected.' Springfield City Council will need to approve the promotions before they're official. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Illinois governor seeks assurances from Joint Chiefs of Staff after Signal incident
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to give assurances to all of the states and their governors about the specific steps being taken to protect national security in the wake of the recent use of the Signal messaging app by members of President Donald Trump's administration to discuss sensitive foreign policy plans. The Democratic governor sent a letter on Monday to acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Christopher Grady – obtained exclusively by ABC News – asking that he intervene on behalf of service members' safety. Pritzker said he was reaching out as he's "lost faith" in the ability of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, one of the key members of the Signal incident, to "maintain the integrity of our national defense operations." "I am reaching out to you as our nation's highest-ranking military officer as I have lost faith in the ability of the Secretary of Defense to keep service members safe and maintain the integrity of our national defense operations," Pritzker wrote in the letter. The governor's office did not comment on the letter in response to a request from ABC News. MORE: Pentagon watchdog launches probe into Hegseth use of Signal chat ahead of Houthi airstrike "Please detail the exact steps the federal government will take to reign in dangerous and egregious behavior that compromises national security, and the steps it will take to ensure that appropriate, safe channels, methods, and protocols are used to protect classified information and secure communications," Pritzker also requested. He said he's seeking this information while keeping in mind the nearly 13,000 military personnel serving in the Illinois National Guard. "The Secretary's carelessness not only put the lives of the pilots executing the operation at risk, but it put the lives of troops around the world on the line – including service members from the Illinois National Guard," Pritzker wrote. "Currently, over 1,700 Illinois National Guard members are deployed on federal active-duty service by directive of the President, so I cannot not stand by silent as their lives are put at risk," he added. MORE: National Security Council staffers fired after Trump met with far-right activist Laura Loomer: Sources Pritzker, who has been on the forefront of pushing back against Trump and his policies among Democrats nationwide, recently returned from a four-day trip to Mexico that was meant to boost economic partnerships between it and Illinois. ABC News has reached out to Grady's office for a response to Pritzker's letter. Illinois governor seeks assurances from Joint Chiefs of Staff after Signal incident originally appeared on
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Walgreens has been the backdrop for our city's history
Charles Rudolph Walgreen Sr., son of Swedish immigrants, moved here from Dixon, Illinois, just as people from around the globe arrived for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Walgreen struggled, however, to keep a job that excited him. It took a near-death experience in Cuba while fighting with the Illinois National Guard for Walgreen to pursue a slower pace of life. What Walgreen found at 4134 Cottage Grove Ave., on the first floor of The Barrett Hotel, was a shabby, dimly lit apothecary owned by Isaac W. Blood. Though poorly stocked and short of customers, Walgreen realized the South Side store's potential. Through hard work and innovation, the 20-something saved up enough money to buy a partnership in the business. For a while it was known as Blood-Walgreen before Walgreen bought it outright and had the name 'C.R. Walgreen, placed in gold letters above the store's entrance. The year was 1901 and the establishment became the very first Walgreens location. Today, Deerfield-based Walgreens has more than 12,500 locations across the United States, Europe and Latin America. Last week, the company announced it is being acquired by a private-equity firm for $10 billion, which will take it private. As Tribune photo editor Marianne Mather looked through the Tribune's photo archive she realized that much of the city's history has been intertwined with the Walgreens chain. Here's a look back at some of what she discovered. By then incorporated as Walgreen Co., the drugstore became popular in the early 1910s for its speedy drug delivery known as the 'two-minute drill' — in which the items were at a nearby customer's door before they ended a phone call to the pharmacist — and its elegant soda fountains that not only served fizzy, nonalcoholic drinks but also hot meals during colder weather. But it was a long, hot summer in 1919 that would give Walgreens and other local businesses a front seat to the city's most violent racial conflict that became known as 'Red Summer.' Seventeen-year-old Black boy Eugene Williams was stoned to death on July 27, 1919, at 29th Street Beach at Lake Michigan after he floated into a swimming area designated for whites. Vintage Chicago Tribune : After race riots of 1919, a special report outlined many problems Chicago still faces today Williams' death played a pivotal role in inflaming existing racial tensions that led to a weeklong race riot that left 23 Black and 15 white people dead. More than 500 people were injured and hundreds homeless due to arson. The 1919 riots 'didn't seem to make it into the timeline alongside titanic stories about Fort Dearborn, Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable, the World's Columbian Exposition, the 1968 riot, Richard J. Daley, or Harold Washington,' wrote Eve Ewing in her book of poetry '1919.' In fact, only a small marker on the beach near the spot Williams was killed commemorates the days of rioting that followed. Walgreen's introduced in April 1933 a perfume bar for women, which was believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. The amenity joined chocolate-dipped candies and employee Ivar Coulson's chocolate malted milk shake — which was invented in 1922 at the Loop store, 17 E. Washington St., before becoming available at all 33 outlets in 1923 — as early Walgreens mainstays. But that same month, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act into law and the Prohibition era neared conclusion. For the first time in 13 years, thirsty Chicagoans could legally buy a beer and enjoy it in public — even at Walgreens. Walgreens survived the Great Depression — while opening four stores at the 1933 Century of Progress on Northerly Island — and saw its first change in leadership with the death of Walgreen Sr. on Dec. 11, 1939. Charles R. Walgreen Jr., who had earned a pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan, was tapped to take over. Writing kits, comic sheets, playing cards and smoking tobacco were inexpensive options at Walgreens stores to mail to service members stationed overseas during World War II. But when Victory in Europe Day arrived, the drugstores closed for business on May 8, 1945, to celebrate with the rest of the city. Walgreen Jr. led the company's change to a new concept that was sweeping the nation post-World War II, called self-service retailing, where customers could choose products from shelves by themselves. Previously, most retail goods were kept behind the counters and store employees would gather products for customers. Stores were becoming larger and carried a wider variety of merchandise. By the early 1960s, Walgreens had established its own line of vitamins and supplements, packaged prescription medication in childproof containers and hosted a call-in show with a doctor on WBBM radio. Three generations of the Walgreen family were at the opening of the more than 20,000-square-foot outlet at Harlem-Irving Plaza — the chain's largest at the time — on Aug. 20, 1964. The fiscal outlook for 1966, according to Walgreen Jr., would be a 'very good year,' he told the Tribune. With the debut of Medicare, Walgreens expected to benefit from a greater number of prescriptions filled. In the company's 65th year, it expected to open 48 outlets and was recognized for filling its 150 millionth prescription. Mayor Jane Byrne was at State Street Mall (stretching from Wacker Drive to Congress Parkway, which is now known as Ida B. Wells Drive) on Oct. 29, 1979, to lay a ceremonial paving stone. A week of celebrations featured a polka band, dancing dalmatians, trick unicyclists and members of the Honey Bears, the cheerleading squad for the Chicago Bears, passing out chrysanthemums, the Tribune reported. Flashback: The State Street Mall, billed as a car-free shopping mecca, started with high hopes but ended in failure and bus fumes The city hoped that the $17 million project would revitalize the downtown shopping district and increase property values. The opening of Walgreens' 1,000th store at Dearborn and Division's street on the city's North Side on Sept. 6, 1984, was attended by Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and husband-wife actors Cary Grant and Barbara Harris. The Tribune's 'Inc.' column took note of Harris' 'enormous sapphire and diamond ring' and called it inappropriate for the 9 a.m. event. Grant, then 80 years old, attended the event on behalf of Faberge, which was a major supplier of goods for the chain. The decade started energetically for the company, which filled its 500 millionth prescription in October 1980 and became the first drugstore chain to top $2 billion in sales, according to 'Pharmacist to the Nation: A History of Walgreen Co.,' written in 1989 by Tribune reporters and father-son duo Herman Kogan and Rick Kogan. As Americans navigated shutdowns and the disappearance of goods like toilet paper and Clorox wipes from store shelves, Walgreens became a frequent destination for quick trips to buy face masks, household supplies and medication. Others booked appointments for their first COVID-19 screening or vaccination at the chain. Walgreens emerged from the pandemic, buoyed in part by its key role in providing COVID vaccinations for Americans yearning to emerge from lockdown isolation. 'The role of the pharmacist and local pharmacy is now more vital than ever,' then-CEO Roz Brewer said in October 2021. Become a Tribune subscriber: It's just $12 for a 1-year digital subscription Thanks for reading! Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
Chicago Tribune
13-03-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Walgreens has been the backdrop for our city's history
Charles Rudolph Walgreen Sr., son of Swedish immigrants, moved here from Dixon, Illinois, just as people from around the globe arrived for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Walgreen struggled, however, to keep a job that excited him. It took a near-death experience in Cuba while fighting with the Illinois National Guard for Walgreen to pursue a slower pace of life. What Walgreen found at 4134 Cottage Grove Ave., on the first floor of The Barrett Hotel, was a shabby, dimly lit apothecary owned by Isaac W. Blood. Though poorly stocked and short of customers, Walgreen realized the South Side store's potential. Through hard work and innovation, the 20-something saved up enough money to buy a partnership in the business. For a while it was known as Blood-Walgreen before Walgreen bought it outright and had the name 'C.R. Walgreen, placed in gold letters above the store's entrance. The year was 1901 and the establishment became the very first Walgreens location. Today, Deerfield-based Walgreens has more than 12,500 locations across the United States, Europe and Latin America. Last week, the company announced it is being acquired by a private-equity firm for $10 billion, which will take it private. As Tribune photo editor Marianne Mather looked through the Tribune's photo archive she realized that much of the city's history has been intertwined with the Walgreens chain. Here's a look back at some of what she discovered. Summer 1919: Race riots By then incorporated as Walgreen Co., the drugstore became popular in the early 1910s for its speedy drug delivery known as the 'two-minute drill' — in which the items were at a nearby customer's door before they ended a phone call to the pharmacist — and its elegant soda fountains that not only served fizzy, nonalcoholic drinks but also hot meals during colder weather. But it was a long, hot summer in 1919 that would give Walgreens and other local businesses a front seat to the city's most violent racial conflict that became known as 'Red Summer.' Seventeen-year-old Black boy Eugene Williams was stoned to death on July 27, 1919, at 29th Street Beach at Lake Michigan after he floated into a swimming area designated for whites. Williams' death played a pivotal role in inflaming existing racial tensions that led to a weeklong race riot that left 23 Black and 15 white people dead. More than 500 people were injured and hundreds homeless due to arson. The 1919 riots 'didn't seem to make it into the timeline alongside titanic stories about Fort Dearborn, Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable, the World's Columbian Exposition, the 1968 riot, Richard J. Daley, or Harold Washington,' wrote Eve Ewing in her book of poetry '1919.' In fact, only a small marker on the beach near the spot Williams was killed commemorates the days of rioting that followed. April 7, 1933: Beer boom Walgreen's introduced in April 1933 a perfume bar for women, which was believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. The amenity joined chocolate-dipped candies and employee Ivar Coulson's chocolate malted milk shake — which was invented in 1922 at the Loop store, 17 E. Washington St., before becoming available at all 33 outlets in 1923 — as early Walgreens mainstays. But that same month, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act into law and the Prohibition era neared conclusion. For the first time in 13 years, thirsty Chicagoans could legally buy a beer and enjoy it in public — even at Walgreens. 1945: World War II's end Walgreens survived the Great Depression — while opening four stores at the 1933 Century of Progress on Northerly Island — and saw its first change in leadership with the death of Walgreen Sr. on Dec. 11, 1939. Charles R. Walgreen Jr., who had earned a pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan, was tapped to take over. Writing kits, comic sheets, playing cards and smoking tobacco were inexpensive options at Walgreens stores to mail to service members stationed overseas during World War II. But when Victory in Europe Day arrived, the drugstores closed for business on May 8, 1945, to celebrate with the rest of the city. Walgreen Jr. led the company's change to a new concept that was sweeping the nation post-World War II, called self-service retailing, where customers could choose products from shelves by themselves. Previously, most retail goods were kept behind the counters and store employees would gather products for customers. Stores were becoming larger and carried a wider variety of merchandise. By the early 1960s, Walgreens had established its own line of vitamins and supplements, packaged prescription medication in childproof containers and hosted a call-in show with a doctor on WBBM radio. Three generations of the Walgreen family were at the opening of the more than 20,000-square-foot outlet at Harlem-Irving Plaza — the chain's largest at the time — on Aug. 20, 1964. September 1966: Fills 150 millionth prescription The fiscal outlook for 1966, according to Walgreen Jr., would be a 'very good year,' he told the Tribune. With the debut of Medicare, Walgreens expected to benefit from a greater number of prescriptions filled. In the company's 65th year, it expected to open 48 outlets and was recognized for filling its 150 millionth prescription. Oct. 29, 1979: State Street Mall opens and Walgreens location looks to benefit from foot traffic Mayor Jane Byrne was at State Street Mall (stretching from Wacker Drive to Congress Parkway, which is now known as Ida B. Wells Drive) on Oct. 29, 1979, to lay a ceremonial paving stone. A week of celebrations featured a polka band, dancing dalmatians, trick unicyclists and members of the Honey Bears, the cheerleading squad for the Chicago Bears, passing out chrysanthemums, the Tribune reported. The city hoped that the $17 million project would revitalize the downtown shopping district and increase property values. Sept. 6, 1984: 1,000th store opens The opening of Walgreens' 1,000th store at Dearborn and Division's street on the city's North Side on Sept. 6, 1984, was attended by Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and husband-wife actors Cary Grant and Barbara Harris. The Tribune's 'Inc.' column took note of Harris' 'enormous sapphire and diamond ring' and called it inappropriate for the 9 a.m. event. Grant, then 80 years old, attended the event on behalf of Faberge, which was a major supplier of goods for the chain. The decade started energetically for the company, which filled its 500 millionth prescription in October 1980 and became the first drugstore chain to top $2 billion in sales, according to 'Pharmacist to the Nation: A History of Walgreen Co.,' written in 1989 by Tribune reporters and father-son duo Herman Kogan and Rick Kogan. March 2020: Coronavirus pandemic As Americans navigated shutdowns and the disappearance of goods like toilet paper and Clorox wipes from store shelves, Walgreens became a frequent destination for quick trips to buy face masks, household supplies and medication. Others booked appointments for their first COVID-19 screening or vaccination at the chain. Walgreens emerged from the pandemic, buoyed in part by its key role in providing COVID vaccinations for Americans yearning to emerge from lockdown isolation. 'The role of the pharmacist and local pharmacy is now more vital than ever,' then-CEO Roz Brewer said in October 2021. Want more vintage Chicago? 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