Chicago Police Department
Crime fighters will meet
By Tim Hadac
Residents of Police Beat 812 (Clearing, west of Central Avenue) are invited to attend their next CAPS meeting, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9.
The meeting will be held via Zoom in a webinar format.
Chicago Police Department
To obtain instructions and passcodes, call the Chicago Lawn (8th) District CAPS Office at (312) 747-8724.
Residents of Beat 811 (Garfield Ridge, west of Central Avenue) are invited to attend their next CAPS meeting, set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15 at Ward Hall, 5157 S. McVicker.
The meeting will double as the monthly meeting of the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch.
At both meetings, police will offer recent data on crimes in the beat.
Local News
Kaegi touts new tax tool
Spread the loveFrom staff reports More than $180 billion in property taxes collected from every property in Cook County – from Ford Heights to Chicago to Winnetka – can now be analyzed with software code created by the Cook County Assessor’s Office. The Property Tax Simulator, or PTAXSIM, is a software code package implemented in…
Dems amend SAFE-T Act to address cash bail
Spread the loveSW Side voters rip GOP for ‘fear mongering’ By Jerry Nowicki Capitol News Illinois and Tim Hadac Lawmakers last week passed a long-awaited amendment to the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform’s provisions that will eliminate cash bail when the calendar hits 2023. The measure expands the list of crimes for which a judge…
Chicago Christian seeking new head football coach
Spread the loveBy Mike Walsh Correspondent Chicago Christian is looking for a new football head coach. The Knights’ next coach will succeed Tom O’Connor, who in two seasons in Palos Heights compiled an overall regular-season record of 9-9. This season, Chicago Christian won its last four regular-season games, including a 19-0 decision over Ridgewood in…
College Notebook: St. Laurence alum rewrites Greyhound record book
Spread the loveBy Mike Walsh Correspondent As senior seasons go, it’s tough to top the one authored by University of Indianapolis running back Toriano Clinton. Clinton, who prepped at St. Laurence, was one of three Greyhounds chosen for the 2022 D2CCA All-Super Region 3 Team, and the only one to make the first team. This…
Area Sports Roundup: Marist, Nazareth mourns deaths of coaches
Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Staff Writer It was a sad week for two area schools. The Marist and local running communities were saddened by the death of Jon Gordon on Dec. 9, two days after sophomore Nazareth baseball coach Mario Ortiz. Gordon, the RedHawks’ boys track and cross country coach since 2017, died…
Area Hoops Wrap: Holiday tournament season starts early at Oak Lawn
Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Staff Writer Oak Lawn got a jump on the rest of the area basketball world when its girls holiday tournament opened for business Dec. 10. Most area boys and girls holiday basketball tournaments take place the week before or the week after Christmas. But Oak Lawn has a tradition of…
Holiday cheer continues at Hale Park
Spread the loveBy Joan Hadac Your correspondent in Clearing and Garfield Ridge (708) 496-0265 • joan.hadac@gmail.com I hope your Christmas season is off to a warm and memorable start. Thanks to the Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch, the Midway Chamber of Commerce and everyone responsible for making the annual Christmas tree lighting in Wentworth Park and the…
Hockey star headed to Wisconsin
Spread the love Garfield Ridge resident Brooklyn Ramaglia, a star ice hockey forward with Team Illinois (the most respected Tier I, AAA hockey organization in the state), recently signed a letter of intent to continue her academic and athletic career with Concordia University (Wisconsin). She expects to wear the blue and white and play for…
White Castle opens after renovation
Spread the love Employees and community members are all smiles as they cut the ribbon to officially re-open the White Castle restaurant at 63rd and Cicero. A recent renovation means a spruced up interior, as well as what White Castle official John Whitaker called a “hospitality door” designed to make the drive-thru experience more comfortable…
Neighbors
State highway shootings decline as critics sue over ‘dragnet surveillance’
By JERRY NOWICKI Capitol News Illinois jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois State Police say an automated license plate reader program has helped the agency identify witnesses or suspects in 82 percent of highway shooting cases this year, including all eight that resulted in a death. But as the state looks to further expand its network of more than…
Just weeks before Republican National Convention, Illinois GOP chair announces resignation
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Halfway through the 2024 election cycle and just a few weeks away from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Illinois GOP Chair Don Tracy on Wednesday announced his resignation as head of the state Republican Party. Tracy, who’d held the job since February 2021, explained his resignation in…
As Illinois session ends, lawmakers’ attempt to reinstate wetland protections fails
by JENNIFER BAMBERG Investigate Midwest jennifer.bamberg@investigatemidwest.org In 2006, 19-year-old Jessica Whinston inherited 20 acres of land that her grandparents once farmed in Quincy, Illinois. The land had sat dormant since the 1980s and was overgrown, but Whinston and her husband Bradley worked to turn it into a productive farm. The couple were eventually able to…
Elections board dismisses illegal campaign coordination complaint, declines to clarify law
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com CHICAGO – State elections officials on Tuesday indicated they were unlikely to step in to clarify what constitutes illegal campaign coordination after voting to dismiss a complaint alleging such coordination in the 2022 campaign for governor. At their monthly meeting in Chicago, Illinois State Board of Elections members…
Illinois’ ban on ‘bump stocks’ remains in place despite U.S. Supreme Court decision
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – An Illinois law banning the sale and use of “bump stocks” and other devices that increase the firing power of semiautomatic weapons remains in place, at least for now, despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision Friday striking down a federal ban on such items. “Illinois law…
Lawmakers pass on oversight vote for Pritzker’s prison closure, rebuild plan
By HANNAH MEISEL & DILPREET RAJU Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – For the last two decades, each time a governor has moved to close a large state-run facility like a prison or mental health center, a legislative oversight panel has voted on the plan. That changed on Friday – at least for now –…
‘We don’t really know what we’re voting on,’ top Dem says of Pritzker’s prison plan
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com LINCOLN – On the eve of a scheduled vote to advise Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration on plans to close and rebuild a pair of dilapidated state prisons, hundreds filed into a junior high school gymnasium Thursday evening clad in matching green T-shirts. Printed on the shirts was a…
Illinois child tax credit: who gets it, how much is it?
By ANDREW ADAMS Capitol News Illinois aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com In the final hours of their spring legislative session, Illinois lawmakers approved a tax credit of up to about $300 for families with young children. The credit is available to Illinoisans with children under age 12 who qualify for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. Although…
Members of House speaker’s staff sue over ongoing unionization conflict
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – Members of a would-be union representing staffers in House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s office filed suit against their boss on Friday, asking a Cook County judge to force recognition of the union. The Illinois Legislative Staff Association, which formed in the fall of 2022, claims Welch’s…
Elections board urged to dismiss complaint that Bailey illegally coordinated in 2022 campaign
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com A hearing officer is recommending the Illinois State Board of Elections dismiss a complaint that alleged conservative radio host and political operative Dan Proft illegally coordinated with former Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey during his 2022 campaign for governor. Proft, a one-time gubernatorial candidate himself, is behind an…