Harris admitted during interview after FBI agents raided his home that he had asked teen to send him photos and videos
Jerry Harris, the star of the Netflix documentary series Cheer, was arrested on Thursday on felony charges of production of child sexual abuse images.
The arrest comes three days after twin boys filed a lawsuit alleging he sent them sexually explicit photos of himself and cornered one of them in a bathroom and begged for oral sex.
Continue reading...The top police officer in Chicago told the mayor he had “a couple of drinks with dinner” before he fell asleep at a stop sign while driving home on Thursday, an incident the chief contends was related to a change in his blood pressure medication.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson did not mention having anything to drink when he spoke to reporters on Thursday night and a department spokesman said then officers who responded to a 911 call reporting a man asleep in a car at a stop sign did not observe any signs of impairment.
Continue reading...Prosecutors criticised after alleging the youngster started the blaze intentionally to kill three small children and two adults
A nine-year-old child has been charged with the first-degree murder of three children and two adults in a fire at a trailer park in Illinois.
The child was also charged with two counts of arson and one count of aggravated arson, the Peoria Journal Star reported. The juvenile’s gender was not identified.
Continue reading...Brendt Christensen has never revealed the whereabouts of Yingying Zhang, whom he raped and then decapitated in Illinois
A former doctoral student has been spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison in Illinois for kidnapping and killing of a 26-year-old scholar from China.
Jurors deliberated for eight hours over two days at the court in Peoria before announcing they were deadlocked on whether 30-year-old Brendt Christensen should be put to death for killing Yingying Zhang.
Continue reading...With reproductive rights under aggressive attack, clinics across state lines are bracing for an influx of women seeking care
Dr Erin King felt a weight lift off her shoulders – at least for a few minutes.
The executive director of Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois had spent a week “scrambling” to prepare for an influx of patients from St Louis – just about a 10 minute drive across the Mississippi River – as Missouri threatened to close its last legal abortion provider by the end of the week at midnight.
Continue reading...In a speech denying allegations of antisemitism, misogyny and homophobia after Facebook banned him from the social media platform, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan referred to “Satanic Jews”.
Related: Facebook bans Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and other far-right figures
Continue reading...Officials say DNA testing rules out the unnamed teen as being Timmothy Pitzen, who disappeared from Illinois aged six
Authorities have rejected a teenager’s claim that he is a missing Illinois boy who disappeared in 2011 at six.
Related: Teen says he is missing boy who escaped from kidnappers
Continue reading...Fourteen-year-old identifies himself as Timmothy Pitzen, who was six when he disappeared in Illinois
A 14-year-old boy who said he escaped from two kidnappers in Ohio told authorities he is from Illinois, where he went missing nearly eight years ago when his mother apparently took her own life.
The boy identified himself as Timmothy Pitzen and said Wednesday morning that he had “just escaped from two kidnappers”, police in suburban Cincinnati’s Sharonville wrote in a short incident report.
Continue reading...The Vermont senator will conclude a two-part launch in the Windy City, harking back to his student days in the civil rights era
With the Chicago skyline around him, Bernie Sanders will on Sunday conclude his two-part presidential campaign launch by emphasizing the role of race and racial discrimination in American society.
Related: Bernie Sanders draws on personal history in 2020 campaign launch
Continue reading...The R&B star R Kelly is due in court in Chicago on Saturday, charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four victims, including at least three between the ages of 13 and 17.
Related: R Kelly in police custody after being charged with 10 counts of sexual abuse
Continue reading...Chicago police are still seeking a follow-up interview with Jussie Smollett after receiving new information that “shifted” their investigation of a reported attack on the Empire actor.
Related: Jussie Smollett attorneys dismiss reports of involvement in own 'attack'
Continue reading...A man opened fire on Friday in a warehouse in Aurora, Illinois, an hour's drive west of Chicago. The shooter, identified as 45-year-old Gary Martin, was an employee at the industrial complex in Aurora. He also wounded five police officers before he was shot dead.
• Aurora shooting: sacked employee kills five in Illinois warehouse
A gunman opened fire at an Illinois manufacturing warehouse had just been fired from his job when he killed five fellow workers,authorities said.
Aurora police chief Kristen Ziman said the assailant, identified as 45-year-old Gary Martin, had worked at the Henry Pratt Company for 15 years before the violence unfolded at the firm’s sprawling warehouse in Aurora, west of Chicago.
Continue reading...Wind chills fell as low as -47C in Chicago, with the temperature hitting -23C, as bitterly cold weather moved into Illinois, US. A local newscaster published this video of Lake Michigan, as viewed from Chicago’s Edgewater neighbourhood, appearing like a ‘boiling cauldron’ on Wednesday. State and local officials have asked residents to stay indoors if possible and check on neighbours
Continue reading...A blast of Arctic air from the polar vortex has caused temperatures to drop to as low as -46C (-50F) in Chicago. Cities in the midwest opened warming shelters as temperatures plummeted well below zero. The Illinois governor warned the weather 'poses a serious threat' to people's wellbeing. The polar vortex, a mass of freezing air, usually spins around the North Pole
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