Category Archives: Illinois

How a clump of moss helped convict grave robbers in Illinois

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Four cemetery workers dug up and moved more than 100 bodies to resell the burial plots nearly 20 years ago

It was a particularly heinous crime. Four workers at a cemetery near Chicago dug up more than 100 bodies and dumped the remains elsewhere in the grounds, in order to resell the burial plots for profit.

Now, nearly two decades after the scandal broke at Burr Oak cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, scientists have released details of how a tiny clump of moss became crucial forensic evidence that helped convict the grave robbers.

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Winter storm brings foot of snow to midwest over busiest US travel weekend

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Plane skidded off runway and 45 cars were piled up as 53 million were under winter weather alerts over Thanksgiving

A Thanksgiving weekend storm system brought over a foot of snow and strong winds across the US midwest and thunderstorms across the south, as 53 million people from South Dakota to New York were under winter weather alerts.

Over the weekend, ahead of one of the busiest travel days of the year on Sunday, a 45-car pile-up occurred on interstate 78 in Indiana and a Delta Air Lines plane skidded off the runway in Des Moines, Iowa, during landing.

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Northwestern University agrees to pay US government $75m to restore research funding

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Agreement will also end series of investigations of university over school’s alleged failure to fight antisemitism

Northwestern University has agreed to pay $75m to the US government in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.

Donald Trump’s administration had cut off $790m in grants in a standoff that contributed to university layoffs and the resignation in September of Northwestern’s president, Michael Schill. The administration argued the school had not done enough to fight antisemitism.

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US Boeing workers continue midwest strike after rejecting latest contract offer

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Nearly three-month strike includes 3,200 machinists at plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed

Boeing workers at three midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed voted Sunday to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago.

The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in Mascoutah, Illinois, and the Missouri cities of St Louis and St Charles is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners but threatens to complicate the aerospace company’s progress in regaining its financial footing.

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Illinois warns immigration officers tampering with license plates is illegal

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Hotline introduced to report on agents’ vehicles after one said plates were changed every day in video

Illinois officials have issued a warning to federal immigration agents that tampering with or swapping license plates is against state law and will not be tolerated.

On Wednesday, the Illinois secretary of state, Alexi Giannoulias, unveiled a new initiative called the “Plate Watch” hotline, encouraging residents to report cases in which law enforcement vehicles appear to be using invalid or altered plates to evade identification during federal immigration raids.

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At least 15 detained after protesters and police clash outside Chicago Ice center

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Officers reportedly tackled and dragged several people after authorities told demonstrators to stay in ‘protest zones’

At least 15 people were taken into custody outside the Broadview Ice detention center in the Chicago area after heated confrontations between Illinois state police and protesters on Friday.

Authorities had instructed demonstrators to remain in designated “protest zones”, but tensions escalated when officers moved to clear the roadway.

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National guard troops in Illinois can remain but cannot be deployed yet, judge rules

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Troops can stay under federal control, as US senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth decry being barred access to Ice facility

The national guard troops Donald Trump sent to Illinois can remain in the state and under federal control but can’t be deployed, an appeals court ruled on Saturday.

The appeals court granted a pause in the case until it can hear further arguments.

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Chicago woman shot by US border patrol indicted by federal grand jury

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Marimar Martinez, 30, was charged with impeding a federal officer with a deadly weapon in fracas preceding shooting

A Chicago woman shot multiple times by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents was recently indicted by a grand jury on federal charges of impeding a federal officer with a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors allege Marimar Martinez, 30, rammed the vehicle of federal agents with her own before they shot her, which they say was an act of self-defense. They also claim Martinez was armed.

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Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s effort to deploy national guard in Chicago

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Much-anticipated judgment centers on efforts by Trump administration to use troops to aid immigration crackdown

A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from federalizing or deploying the national guard in Illinois after Donald Trump ordered hundreds of troops to Chicago to help with immigration enforcement and to battle what the White House says are high crime rates in the city.

US district judge April Perry issued her decision from the bench after more than two hours of arguments from lawyers for the federal government and the state of Illinois, which sued the Trump administration over the deployment. The order took effect on Thursday and will remain in place for two weeks.

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Trump calls for jailing of Chicago mayor and Illinois governor as national guard arrives in city

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President accused Brandon Johnson and JB Pritzker of failing to protect Ice officers as troops deploy to Chicago

Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, accusing them of failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. “Governor Pritzker also!”

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Federal agents taunted Chicago woman to ‘do something’ before shooting her, attorney claims

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Officers say woman was in chase ending in ramming border patrol vehicle during Trump’s immigration crackdown

The attorney for a woman who was shot by federal agents in Chicago over the weekend after she allegedly rammed a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) vehicle has claimed that body-camera footage captures one of the officers saying: “Do something, bitch,” before opening fire, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The shooting occurred on Saturday morning in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, as immigration agents, at the behest of the second Trump administration, have been scouring Illinois’s largest city for people to deport.

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Kristi Noem calls Chicago a ‘war zone’ after federal agents shoot woman

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Homeland security secretary takes aim at city’s mayor who has called deployment of national guard ‘unhinged’

Kristi Noem, Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, called Chicago “a war zone” on Sunday after federal agents shot a woman and the governor of Illinois accused the administration of fueling the crisis rather than resolving it.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday morning, Noem took aim at the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s Ice raids and deployment of the national guard in Illinois, a measure he called “unhinged and unhealthy”.

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Trump authorizes national guard deployment to Chicago, White House says, as border patrol there shoots woman

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Illinois governor JB Pritzker says administration is escalating ‘aggression against Illinois citizens and residents’

Donald Trump has moved to deploy the national guard in another city by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, where the government said border patrol agents shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president had authorized using Illinois national guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.

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Trump to send national guard to Memphis and says Chicago is ‘probably next’

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Move is latest push by administration to expand military-led response to urban crime in Democratic-run cities

Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order that would send national guard troops into Memphis, in a “replica” of the administration’s expanding military-led response to urban crime in Democratic-run cities.

The move was welcome by Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, who stood behind Trump in the Oval Office as he signed a presidential memo establishing a Memphis Safe Task Force.

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Chicago suburb warns residents that federal agents may be about to arrive

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Evanston urges residents to report sightings of federal agents as Trump has threatened immigration crackdown

A Chicago suburb has warned its residents that federal immigration agents may be present in the coming days as Donald Trump continues to threaten an immigration enforcement crackdown and national guard deployment in the nation’s third largest city.

The city of Evanston issued a statement urging its residents to report sightings of federal agents, after local officials said they were informed over the weekend about the likelihood of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) activity.

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JB Pritzker calls for ‘all to stand up’ to Trump’s immigration crackdown in Chicago

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President is preparing for controversial federal takeover of US city in crusade against immigration ‘sanctuary cities’

Illinois’s governor JB Pritzker has called on “all to stand up” to Donald Trump as the US president prepares to launch a federally led immigration crackdown across Chicago, a plan which has been met with widespread backlash from local leaders and the public.

Pritzker’s comments come as White House officials vow to target Chicago next in its sweeping immigration crackdowns across the country. Recently, the White House requested that a US military base on the outskirts of Chicago assist with immigration operations as the Trump administration plans a broader takeover of Democratic-run “sanctuary cities”.

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Chicago mayor signs executive order directing city to resist Trump’s immigration raids

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Brandon Johnson’s order directs city police not to collaborate with federal agents in immigration enforcement

The mayor of Chicago has signed an executive order outlining how the city will attempt to resist Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Brandon Johnson pushed back on Saturday against what he called the “out-of-control” Trump administration’s plan to deploy large numbers of federal officers into the country’s third-largest city, which could take place within days.

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Illinois governor hits back at Trump in Chicago national guard feud: ‘not in good shape’

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Governor Pritzker says Trump is ‘not in good shape’ as president weighs sending troops into Chicago against local wishes

The Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, has hit back at Donald Trump for commenting on his weight, saying the Republican president is himself “not in good shape” amid escalating tension over the possible deployment of the national guard on the streets of Chicago.

Trump said on Monday that Pritzker “ought to spend more time in the gym”. While successfully campaigning in 2024 for a second presidency that began in January, Trump said that the Illinois governor is “too busy eating” to lead his state.

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Judge blocks White House from defunding 34 municipalities over ‘sanctuary’ policies

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Cities that limit cooperation with immigration authorities had sued Trump administration over funding freeze

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, significantly expanding a previous order.

The order, issued on Friday by the San Francisco-based US district judge William Orrick, adds Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Albuquerque, to cities that the administration is barred from denying funding.

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Landlord who stabbed Palestinian American boy to death dies in prison

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Joseph Czuba sentenced to 53 years for murder of Wadee Alfayoumi and wounding of mother in October 2023

A landlord jailed for decades after he attacked a Palestinian American boy and his mother has died.

Three months ago, Joseph Czuba was sentenced to 53 years behind bars for the attack. He was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen.

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