Attorney General Merrick Garland should act on the contempt case against Steve Bannon, Justice Stephen Breyer should retire, Democratic senators Diane Feinstein and Patrick Leahy are getting old, the filibuster should be retained but reformed and former Attorney General Eric Holder was too slow to release the report clearing former Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson. Those…
Illinois is the first state to require a media literacy unit as part of the annual curriculum for high school students. Educators are spending this year adjusting and developing their lesson plans accordingly, which advocates say will establish a new standard for US public education. Beginning next fall, students will be exposed to the following…
Eighty-one Chicago police officers lost their badges over the past 20 years, but only after being investigated for 1,706 previous offenses – an average of 21 accusations per officer. One third (28) of these Chicago officers were investigated for domestic altercations or sexual misconduct. Two murdered their wives. That statistical picture emerges from records obtained…
Reporter Kallie Cox has sat through more school board meetings, city council meetings and community forums for the Southern Illinoisan and Daily Egyptian newspapers than she can count. But the last time she attended a meeting in person was a year ago. At the forum, there was a whiteboard, and after the meeting was over,…
When Kimberly France, a descendant of free African-American pioneers, first approached Toni Craig to help piece together her family’s history in a southern Illinois community called Africa, Craig wasn’t sure she was up for it. Craig already had spent years assembling and telling the stories of the community of Africa, which is located 120 miles…