CHICAGO (AP) – Prosecutors have filed hate crime and aggravated kidnapping charges against four black suspects accused of beating and taunting a white man during an attack streamed live on Facebook Cook County prosecutors on Thursday announced charges against three 18-year-olds – Jordan Hill of Carpentersville, Brittany Covington of Chicago and Tesfaye Cooper of Chicago…
CHICAGO (AP) – Republican Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner says he won’t be in Washington later this month for GOP President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Rauner says he’s “focused on Illinois” and is trying “to minimize the distractions” and his time out of state. Rauner is amid a state budget impasse with Democratic lawmakers. Trump is to…
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – A Springfield medical group is requiring patients insured by the state to pay half of their expected surgery bills up front. The State Journal-Register reports that the requirement from the Orthopedic Center of Illinois comes at a time when payments for the care of state workers, retirees and dependents insured through…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Director of National Intelligence says attempts to deter foreign hackers don’t work, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for a buildup of defensive cyber capabilities. James Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing Thursday that the U.S. cannot put stock in what he called cyber deterrence. He says cyber…
CHICAGO (AP) –Â Chicago police say authorities are considering whether an attack on a white man that was broadcast live on Facebook falls under hate crimes statutes. Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Thursday morning that the four black suspects made “terrible racist statements” during the assault but that police believe the victim was targeted…
ATLANTA (AP) – The president of a historically black college in Alabama says its band will perform in President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural parade, despite a barrage of criticism. Talladega College President Billy Hawkins announced the decision Thursday. It comes after the Presidential Inaugural Committee had announced that the Alabama band had accepted its invitation to…
St. Louis, MO Â (KTRS) Â St. Louis has its first homicide of the year. Police say a man was shot to death Wednesday night on Dodier Street in north St. Louis. The victim’s name hasn’t been released. There’s no word on a motive or of any arrests. The number of murders in St. Louis in…
St. Louis, MO Â (KTRS) Â The winter storm has prompted dozens of school closings and delayed opens. School Closings and Delays as of 7 a.m. : ALEX Recovery School Desloge | CLOSED Abiding Savior Lutheran School | opening at 10:00 am Academy of St. Louis – Chesterfield | CLOSED Academy of the Sacred Heart |…
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Unofficial numbers are in, and 2016 was just as deadly as 2015 in St. Louis. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 188 homicide cases were reported in the city last year, the exact same as 2015. Â The 2015 total was 18 percent higher than the 159 killings in 2014. The record…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Under mounting pressure to free convicts as a last act, President Barack Obama is planning at least one more batch of pardons and commutations before leaving office in two weeks. But don’t expect many famous offenders to make the list. The list of bold names appealing to Obama for compassion in his…