Illinois

CHICAGO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - China's abrupt lifting of stringent COVID-19 restrictions could result in an explosion of cases and over a million deaths through 2023, according to new projections from the U.S.-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

According to the group's projections, cases in China would peak around April 1, when deaths would reach 322,000. About a third of China's population will have been infected by then, IHME Director Christopher Murray said.

CHICAGO (AP) — A judge on Saturday set bond at $50,000 for the father of an Illinois man charged with killing seven people at a July 4 parade near Chicago who is accused of helping his son get a gun license.

Robert Crimo Jr. looked somber and tired as he made his first appearance before a judge since surrendering to police Friday. He is charged with seven felony counts of reckless conduct. His lawyer told the judge Saturday that Crimo would be able to pay the required bond amount for his release.

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Saturday was criticized by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democratic antagonist and ally, for being “cavalier” and “divorced from reality” after vowing to shutter coal-fired power plants and rely more heavily on wind and solar energy in the future.

CHICAGO (AP) — Eight people were rushed to hospitals after being injured when an explosion Tuesday tore through the top floor of a Chicago apartment building, officials said.

The explosion at the 36-unit, four-story apartment building in the South Austin neighborhood occurred at about 9 a.m., officials said. Chicago Fire Department Deputy Chief Marc Ferman told reporters a few hours later that the department had finished searching for potential victims and was “confident” that nobody remained trapped inside the building, of which much of the top floor had collapsed.

CHICAGO, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. state of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is signing a disaster proclamation to secure resources for the migrants bused to Illinois from Texas, Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

The governor's office said the disaster proclamation enables coordination among state, city and county governments to provide assistance including transportation, emergency shelter, food, health screenings and medical treatment.

(AP) --- Chicago is one of the nation’s gun violence hotspots and a seemingly ideal place to employ Illinois’ “red flag” law that allows police to step in and take firearms away from people who threaten to kill. But amid more than 8,500 shootings resulting in 1,800 deaths since 2020, the law was used there just four times.

It’s a pattern that’s played out in New Mexico, with nearly 600 gun homicides during that period and a mere eight uses of its red flag law. And in Massachusetts, with nearly 300 shooting homicides and just 12 uses of its law.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois voters have the chance to sign up to send their ballots for November and spring elections by mail — forever.

Elections officials are sending applications for permanent permission to vote by mail to each of the state’s 8 million registered voters.

No one is obligated to sign up. But for as long as they stay at the same address, those who do will receive ballots they can complete at home and put in the mail for all future elections.

CHICAGO (AP) — Blueberry bison tamales, harvest salad with mixed greens, creamy carrot and wild rice soup, roasted turkey with squash. This contemporary Native American meal, crafted from the traditional foods of tribes across the United States and prepared with “Ketapanen” – a Menominee expression of love – cost caterer Jessica Pamonicutt $976 to feed a group of 50 people last November.

Today it costs her nearly double.

22 August 2022; MEMO: Calls for justice are mounting after a Palestinian-American teenager was brutally beaten by US Police at a traffic stop last month near Chicago.

On 28 July, a video filmed by a bystander went viral showing two police officers in Oak Lawn, Illinois, on top of the teen, 17-year-old Hadi Abuatelah, beating him before a third officer is seen briefly placing his knee on the child's head or neck. Hadi is then handcuffed by the officers.

CHICAGO (AP) — Opening statements set for Wednesday give prosecutors and R. Kelly’s attorneys their first chance to address jurors directly about charges that accuse the R&B singer of enticing of minors for sex, producing child pornography and rigging his 2008 pornography trial.

Both the prosecution and Kelly’s legal team told the judge earlier in the week that they would like about an hour each to tell jurors about the kind evidence they can expect to see and hear. The evidentiary stage of the federal trial is expected to last about a month.