Champaign County

Several years ago, while working at our local Books to Prisoners, I met a volunteer who had formerly worked as a mental health counselor in the local jail. This was just after there had been three jail suicides within a six-month period in 2004. She recalled a time when she worked with the “Crisis Team,” a nationally-recognized mental health program which for 20 years prevented any suicides in the jail. In response to the three suicides, Sheriff Dan Walsh outsourced mental health services to Health Professionals Ltd. (HPL), a private company based in Peoria, Illinois. Yet this has not stopped the loss of life in the jail.

Blue Steals Green
by:
Linn Washington Jr.

Drug-related corruption within the Philadelphia Police Department – once again – is the target of federal authorities.

This latest action by federal authorities involves two patrolmen charged with trafficking drugs and robbing suspected drug dealers while on-duty and in full uniform.

A few days before federal authorities announced the early June indictments against those two patrolmen, Philadelphia authorities announced the arrest of a policeman arising from that officer’s scheme to rob drug dealers.

Curiously, this latest federal enforcement action against Philadelphia police tainted by drug corruption did not involve the six officers at the center of a mushrooming scandal that has resulted in Philadelphia city prosecutors refusing to prosecute drug arrests by those officers.

“We found that in virtually every county in the country, police have wasted taxpayer money enforcing marijuana laws in a racially biased manner...”

by Ian Urbina

WASHINGTON — Black Americans were nearly four times as likely than whites to be arrested on charges of marijuana possession in 2010, even though the two groups used the drug at similar rates, according to new federal data.

This disparity had grown steadily from a decade before, and in some states, including Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, blacks were around eight times as likely to be arrested.

During the same period, public attitudes toward marijuana softened and a number of states decriminalized its use. But about half of all drug arrests in 2011 were on marijuana-related charges, roughly the same portion as in 2010.

Advocates for the legalization of marijuana have criticized the Obama administration for having vocally opposed state legalization efforts and for taking a more aggressive approach than the Bush administration in closing medical marijuana dispensaries and prosecuting their owners in some states, especially Montana and California.

This summer, the City of Champaign will begin the process of demolishing a neighborhood in the north end of the city. Bristol Place, northeast of Bradley and Market and home to nearly 200 residents, has been slated for total demolition by the city because of its low property values, old building stock and a purportedly high rate of crime. The city will use eminent domain to acquire the properties from even those residents who wish to stay in the neighborhood and who own and occupy houses that are in good condition. Although the city has been clear to say that the neighborhood’s total demolition is a settled issue, many questions remain: Why was the neighborhood regarded as obsolete? What’s next for residents? Is this a process that we will see for other low-income, predominately African-American neighborhoods in Champaign?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2013
4:09 PM

CONTACT: Fast Food Forward
http://www.fastfoodforward.org/en/
Catherine Murrell, 312.523.3882

McDonald’s Workers and Supporters Protest Shareholder Meeting, Call for $15 / Hour and Right to Form a Union Without Intimidation

Following Strikes, Workers From Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis Converge to Ask Shareholders for Decent Pay to Support Their Families

CHICAGO - May 23 - McDonald’s shareholders were greeted at the company’s annual conference Thursday by a hundred workers and supporters calling for decent wages to support their families, and the right to form a union without interference.

Workers who had participated in recent unprecedented fast food and retail strikes in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis converged outside the meeting on the McDonald’s corporate campus in Oak Brook, IL, welcoming shareholders with chants and rally speeches.

by NORML

WASHINGTON, DC — Nearly six out of ten US adults support legalizing the consumption of marijuana, and slightly more than half believe that the substance ought to be regulated in a manner similar to alcohol, according to national polling data released last week by YouGov.com and The Huffington Post.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that the adult use of cannabis ought to be legal. Among those favoring legalization, 51 percent supported taxing and regulating the retail production and sale of the substance in a manner similar to alcohol. Six percent of respondents said that they opposed imposing any taxes or regulations on legal cannabis production or sales.

Only 33 percent of respondents said that marijuana should not be legalized.

Seventy-four percent of respondents said that they believed that marijuana would eventually be legal in the United States.

On April 17th, as audience members and consultant Dr. Al Kalmanoff talked about criminal justice in Champaign County and the needs assessment Kalmanoff's ILPP is carrying out, ...

Chris drew out this beautiful summary of the meeting on the fly, on page by easel page:

by Tori Field and Beverly Bell

Heather Retberg stood on the steps of the Blue Hill, Maine town hall surrounded by 200 people. “We are farmers,” she told the crowd, “who are supported by our friends and our neighbors who know us and trust us, and want to ensure that they maintain access to their chosen food supply.”

Blue Hill is one of a handful of small Maine towns that have been taking bold steps to protect their local food system. In 2011, they passed an ordinance exempting their local farmers and food producers from federal and state licensure requirements when these farmers sell directly to customers.

Below is a re-broadcast of a News-Gazette article that appeared recently, covering a new 160-unit housing development to be located in far-west Champaign, where luxurious suburbs have enjoyed the quiet farmland that surrounds them.

The process, or lack of process, in how land is to be governed, used, and accepted is given a rare vetting in the series of comments below the article.

Taking into account the "by-the-way" council action regarding new business developments in the campus core area, there appears a future plan, (created by those who can influence land-use the most,) to establish a central core of trendy, upscale developments.

Following events and proposals for the last several years, we see plans for baseball stadiums, parking garages, hotels, condominiums, urban high-rise apartment living, research parks, another $160 million dollar capital renovation project for a sports arena, retail spaces, and  magazine-cover parks and sculptures to be congealing to the center of Champaign-Urbana.

Who will be the main beneficiaries of all these exciting changes?