Latest news with #Matteson
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
Chicago area congressman wants CDC to get involved in fight against gun violence
Charges were filed Wednesday against a 13-year-old boy accused of shooting another teen in Matteson, Illinois, and a shooting involving two young teens also left a 13-year-old boy dead in Joliet this week. Meanwhile, there was word Wednesday that a Chicago area congressman wants gun violence at the center of discussion on Capitol Hill. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would get involved under this push. In Joliet on Monday, 13-year-old Manuel Mejia Perez was shot and killed in an alley behind the 300 block of South Desplaines Street. The Will County State's Attorney's office charged a 15-year-old boy with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon. In Matteson on Tuesday, a 13-year-old boy is accused of shooting and wounding a 15-year-old boy outside the Matteson Community Center. Video taken Wednesday morning shows Matteson police recovering a gun and placing it into a brown evidence bag. Police found the weapon at a nearby retention pond. Hours earlier, the 15-year-old victim stumbled into the recreation center after being shot — allegedly by a boy two years his junior. "And that's why I want to fix the problem," said U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Illinois). "A 13-year-old cannot go into a gun shop." Jackson is pushing for new legislation he says would allocate resources of the CDC to curb gun violence. "It's us also expanding the definition of gun violence — just not as a policing issue, but as a community health factor," Jackson said. "This way, we can ask the Center for Disease Control to become involved. We can gather more data." Jackson said it is time to call the country's gun violence what it is — a health epidemic. "Let's use the resources of the Center for Disease Control. They can move with alacrity and speed like they've done with COVID, the bird flu, and other things," he said. "I'd like to heighten this to being that level of urgency for public safety." Jackson pointed out that Chicago and his congressional district, which also encompasses suburban communities, are feeling the impact of ongoing gun violence. "On average, it costs almost $1 million to help recover someone's life after they've been shot, taking into account long-term factors and trauma and recovery and ongoing physical issues that they have," said Jackson. "That can save the Chicago region almost $2 billion a year." Jackson pointed out that when gun violence goes unaddressed, people are forced to abandon communities seeking safer areas. Jackson plans to address Congress Thursday about the push to get gun violence on the minds of all lawmakers.
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Boy shot, wounded near community center in Matteson, Illinois
A boy was shot and wounded Tuesday afternoon near a community center in the south Chicago suburb of Matteson. At 4:22 p.m., police and paramedics were called to the Matteson Community Center, at 20642 Matteson Ave., for a person shot. They found a boy of an unspecified age, but described as a juvenile, inside the community center with a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. The boy was rushed to the emergency room. Matteson police investigators learned there had been a fight between the boy and another person outside the community center that led to the shooting, police said. The shooting took place outside the community center, police said. The shooter ran off on foot, while the victim entered the community center seeking assistance, police said. The suspected shooter was taken into custody about two hours later in Richton Park after a brief pursuit, police said. Investigators are working with community center staff to review surveillance video, and the community center was closed for the investigation. It was expected to reopen in the morning. Police do not believe the community is in danger.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Dolton police investigate shooting death near park, homicide reported in Matteson
Dolton police said Friday they are continuing to investigate the recent shooting death of a Chicago man near a village park, while authorities also reported a homicide in Matteson. A Dolton spokeswoman said officers were dispatched to the area of 147th Street and Evers Avenue following reports of a gunshot victim. Upon arrival, two gunshot victims were located, and one was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the spokeswoman. Police said the shooting appears to have been isolated. The Cook County medical examiner's office reported the deceased shooting victim was 24-year-old Contrail Boone, of the 200 block of East 121st Place, Chicago. He was pronounced dead at 9:43 p.m. May 17 at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, according to the medical examiner's office. Boone had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homcide, the office said. The location where the shooting took place is near the Dolton Park District's Lester Long Fieldhouse, where Village Board meetings are held. In Matteson, the medical examiner's office reported the shooting death May 18 of Denard Allison, 37, of the 700 block of Notre Dame Drive. He was shot multiple times and it was not clear whether the shooting took place inside or outside his home. A message left with Matteson police seeking additional information was not returned. Allison was pronounced dead at 10:17 p.m. May 18 at Franciscan Health Olympia Fields Hospital, and his death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner's office.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Williamson County greenways plan survey extended
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Residents have more time to let Williamson County leaders know what they want from a Greenways Master Plan. It's the first time a plan like this has been developed for unincorporated areas of Williamson County. 'The county updated its parks and recreation master plan not long ago and one of the things that came out of that plan was the community expressing an interest in more greenway trails,' Williamson County Community Development Director, Mike Matteson, said. 'Most of the greenways in unincorporated areas are associated with neighborhoods so they're HOA trails but we're thinking broader here. We're envisioning a network of greenway trails.' They're at the beginning stages of building a plan for greenways that could also direct county leaders on ways to overcome challenges that come with creating a trail network. WSM radio tower: Broadcasting the Grand Ole Opry across generations 'Funding is huge, obviously,' Matteson said. 'But in terms of placement, most of the property is privately owned.' Roughly 1,200 residents have already taken part in a survey about how they use greenways and where they'd like any new greenways located. The survey deadline has now been extended to May 15. 'A lot of questions about how people use greenways currently, and if they don't, what are the reasons for that — whether it's distance from a greenway, or greenways don't connect them to the kind of destinations that they're interested in. There's also a mapping exercise for people to show where they live or work and where they'd like to go on a greenway,' Matteson said. 'We're working with a company called Design Workshop. They're based out of Raleigh, and they've done greenway master plans for a lot of communities across the country, which includes Louden County, Virginia, which is kind of parallel to Williamson County in terms of demographics and size.' (Source: WKRN) (Source: WKRN) The U.S. Census estimated that Williamson County had a population of about 269,136 in 2024. That's about 64,000 more people than a state estimate from a decade prior. 'Williamson County has grown pretty rapidly. The growth pressures are there to continue that,' Matteson said. 'In the unincorporated areas we're trying to preserve the rural character that still exists and the greenway master plan is a component of that because it allows people to not only get from place to place but to experience the beauty and character that we have in our county.' The multimodal aspect of greenways is one of the biggest benefits in the eyes of Bike Walk Brentwood President Marty Tank. 'Being multimodal, there's the traffic aspect of it, so you can use it for transportation as opposed to getting on the congested roads,' Tank said, adding there are health benefits as well, both physical and mental. 'You get out in nature; you get a little bit of exercise.' Tank is passionate about helping people connect with the outdoors using greenways and trails, having spent years as a mountain biker, including as a competitor. Municipalities like Brentwood, Franklin and Nolensville have worked to connect communities with more greenways. Tank added that for example, mountain bike trails had been built at Smith Park. ON TOUR | Speedy seventh grade runner in Nolensville hits her stride 'The cities are kind of doing their part right now in building greenways here and there but the county doesn't really have too much right now,' Tank said. Mom and area real estate agent Katie Garrison said she uses a Nolensville greenway that has many people walking from nearby homes. 'There are kids riding bikes on this greenway daily,' Garrison said, adding that greenways are a big asset for people who are seeking new homes. 'It's a space for families to come together, to walk, to exercise, to stay motivated, to stay in the community and meet other families.' Linking homes to greenways is one of the county's goals, along with connecting schools and parks. 'Studies show that property values increase significantly when they have access to greenways,' said Matteson. County leaders plan to release an update this summer after assessing survey results. The master plan will also help determine how to fund new greenways. 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 WKRN News 2.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chobani announces $1.2 billion factory project for Oneida County, New York on track for dairy boom
Apr. 22—New York will soon be home to the single largest natural food processing facility in the country — Chobani, the upstate-based yogurt and dairy foods company, announced with much fanfare on Tuesday that they are moving forward with a $1.2 billion project in Rome, Oneida County to create a 1.4 million square foot manufacturing center in the city's Griffiss Business and Technology Park. Governor Kathleen C. Hochul heralded the announcement in a press event at the park Tuesday. "Through this partnership with Chobani, we're revitalizing upstate New York's manufacturing sector one spoonful at a time," she said. "Chobani has been a major employer in the Mohawk Valley for decades, and this massive new $1.2 billion investment will bring more than 1,000 good-paying jobs to Oneida County — the largest natural food manufacturing investment in American history." North country Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, who represents Rome in Washington D.C., also spoke at the event. "This is great news for our upstate New York and north country dairy farmers as well as our region's economy," she said. "I am proud to welcome the hardworking employees of Chobani to NY-21 and am grateful for their commitment to our region." New York State has already spent $23 million to spur the project along, investing last year in infrastructure and transportation improvements at the park. Empire State Development will provide another $73 million in tax credits if Chobani hits its job creation goals. That means a huge spike in milk demand — officials said the plant will process more than 12 million pound of milk a day, sourced from nearby dairy farms, including many in the north country. Chobani sources its milk from the Dairy Farmers of America milk cooperative, one of the larger co-ops in the northeast with over 350 member-farms in New York alone. Jay Matteson, Jefferson County's agricultural coordinator, said he expects the Chobani project will increase demand for farms all across New York, DFA members and those in other co-ops, because the Chobani factory will require so much milk that the DFA farms will likely sell less to other sources. It'll dovetail with at least six other major dairy industry projects under development right now, he said, part of a push that's quickly boosting New York's dairy industry. Matteson listed a handful of major projects; a $150 million expansion for cottage cheese and yogurt by the Upstate Niagara Co-op out west, a $650 million Fairlife pasteurized milk project, also out west, a $150 million milk plant from Cayuga Marketing in Auburn, a $621 million cheese plant in Franklinville from Great Lakes Cheese, a $120 million project from Byrne Dairy in Cortlandville, and now this Chobani investment. In total, $2.9 billion is being spent on these projects, and that's expected to boost demand for milk by 7 billion pounds per year when they're all up and running. "That's huge," Matteson said. "New York is quickly becoming the dairy processing center for the eastern United States, if not the nation." That will require serious, and smart investments across the industry, and Matteson said if the state wants to navigate this dairy boom properly, it's time to start looking at barriers to expansion in the way for dairy farmers. "My biggest concern is, what are the barriers to farms right now who want to grow to meet that demand?" he said. "You've got two major ones." The first is the cost of production — and Matteson said there are a few policies that are boosting the cost of things dairy farmers need to run their operations. "Tariffs, regulations, and so on," he said. Besides the federal tariffs on almost all imported goods, which is increasing the costs of even domestically-produced goods by reducing available and rightly-priced supplies, Matteson said the continued cutting to the overtime threshold for agriculture workers in New York is also increasing costs. Every other year, the state cuts four more hours from the total hours an agricultural worker can work per week before hitting mandatory overtime. In 2023, the total was 60 hours per week before overtime kicked in. A phased-in reduction cut that to 56 in 2024, and in 2026 that will hit 52, down to 40 hours per week by 2032. The state offers a tax credit equal to the extra overtime costs for some farms, but that's a refund that farmers have to seek after paying those higher wages for a year and recently-closed loopholes left many dairy farms out of the tax credit program altogether. "Are we increasing the costs of production to the point where the farms don't want to make those investments to grow their operations? That's a huge issue and we need to take a look and try to fix that," he said. The other major barrier is workforce — for years, upstate New York has gotten older and less populated, and concerns over staffing have grown for manufacturing and agricultural operations specifically. Matteson said that besides the 1,000 jobs the Chobani plant will create, and however many hundreds more jobs the other five dairy investments will bring, the dairy farms themselves will need to find capable help, and they're likely to want to turn to migrant and foreign farm workers. Chobani itself is also planning to work with Empire State Development to create a workforce training program aimed at training and hiring people from traditionally underserved communities. "Farms and other (agriculture) businesses are facing expanded enforcement on farm workers," he noted. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has visited a handful of upstate farms and detained hundreds of people in the process — including a very high profile immigration action at a Jefferson County farm earlier this month that garnered national attention when a mother and her three children were detained in the process. Hard data on the impact of those high-profile arrests on the wider agricultural industry in the region isn't available yet and is unlikely to be fully accurate, but industry and immigration experts have said they expect that increased immigration enforcement focused on farms is likely to drive down the number of immigrants who work on those farms, document and undocumented alike. Matteson has long advocated for a change in the federal H2-A visa program, which authorizes foreign nationals to work in seasonal agricultural operations for a limited period of time. Dairy farmers and advocates have long complained the program doesn't work well for their year-round operations, and the program itself offers some roadblocks that prevent otherwise eligible and willing workers from using it. "We either need a revision of the H2-A visa program, or the creation of a farm guest worker program so we can have a workforce to help them produce," Matteson said.
