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Publishing industry heavy-hitters sue Iowa over state’s new school book-banning law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

The nation’s largest publisher and several bestselling authors, including novelists John Green and Jodi Picoult, are part of a lawsuit filed Thursday challenging Iowa’s new law that bans public school libraries and classrooms from having practically any book that depicts sexual activity.The lawsuit is the second in the past week to challenge the law, which bans books with sexual content all the way through 12th grade. An exception is allowed for religious texts.Penguin Random House and four authors joined several teachers, a student and the Iowa State Education Association — the state’s teachers union representing 50,000 current and former public school educators — in filing the federal lawsuit.The law went into effect this fall after the Republican-led Legislature passed it earlier this year and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it in May. In addition to the the book ban, the law forbids educators from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through grade s...

Skilling: Chilly rain, possible snow for Friday around Chicagoland

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

Chicagoans basked in warmer Pacific air Thursday with high temps which reach 51 at O'Hare and 55-deg at Midway.This was the warmest day since a 54 degree high back on Nov 19th----11 days ago.This final day of November finished close to 7-deg above normal—and in so doing, matched the ABOVE NORMAL TEMPS which have occurred 20 of the past 30 days.  Today marks the final day of the 3 month METEOROLOGICAL/CLIMATOLOGICAL FALL SEASON—and 2 of this season's 3 months have come in well above normal. IT'S BEEN A WARMER THAN NORMAL season here in Chicago.Though 66% of November days have produced temps of 50-deg and higher this month—the fact is, only 26% of the past Nov 30th's have generated temps 50-deg or higher.  So that places today among the 16% warmest closing days of November in the 153 years since 1871.Low pressure is developing on the Texas/Oklahoma border and ingesting a moisture rich flow off the Gulf of Mexico which is to allow its precip shield to grow.  The nor...

Police: Gary man held woman hostage, assaulted her for 3 months

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

GARY, Ind. -- A 34-year-old man from Gary was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly held a woman hostage for three months.According to the Gary Police Department, officers responded to a home on the 2500 block of Jefferson Street after a Lake County dispatcher received a call from a distressed woman just before 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 29. Baby shot in head, critical after Washington Park shooting A 27-year-old woman told the dispatcher that she was battered by a man in the home and he had broken her nose. She also reportedly said that she was afraid of the man, and that she was calling from the kitchen while he was in the bedroom.The woman asked that the police not be notified as it would "make things worse." The dispatcher notified emergency medical services and the Gary Police Department.When officers arrived they attempted to contact the woman, but a man behind a closed door told them to go away and no "such person" lived there.Officers then heard a woman's voice state that ...

Glen Ellyn police arrest man who allegedly exposed himself to kids on their way home from school

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

GLEN ELLYN, Ill. — The Glen Ellyn Police Department have arrested a man for allegedly exposing himself to school children in the western suburbs earlier this fall.Matthew T. Morgan, arrested by the Glen Ellyn Police Department for allegedly indecently exposing himself to minors on Sept. 6, 2023.According to GEPD, officers served an arrest warrant around 1 p.m. Thursday for Matthew T. Morgan in Downers Grove. The warrant included four felony charges — two counts of sexual exploitation of a child under 13, and two counts of sexual exploitation of a child under 13 - expose self, which were the results of an investigation that began in early September. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Suburban man showed his genitals to children walking home from school, police say On Sept. 6, GEPD received information that two school children were walking home from class around 4 p.m. when a man exposed his genitals to them. Allegedly, the man told the children they dropped something, before dropping his pants.Mor...

Woman dumped on side of road in north suburbs was strangled, coroner finds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. — New details have emerged about the woman whose body was found on the side of a road Wednesday morning in Old Mill Creek, prompting a homicide investigation.The Lake County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 39-year-old Megan Lewis of Chicago. Preliminary autopsy reports indicate the woman was strangled to death.The development comes one day after Lake County Sheriff's deputies responded to Hunt Club Road, south of Route 173, following reports of a possible body on the side of the road.Deputies later recovered the body, adding that they believed Lewis was killed before her body was dumped.As of Thursday evening, no one is in custody. Read more: Latest Chicago news headlines Anyone with information is asked to call police.

Chet Holmgren called trip back to Minnesota ‘a blessing’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

Chet Holmgren spent a lot of time at Target Center growing up. Well, under it, at least. Holmgren grew up roughly two miles from the home of the Timberwolves and Lynx, and would take the bus or the train downtown to play at the Lifetime Fitness Center located just below the arena.“So I’ve been in this area a lot over my years. It brings back some memories, I guess,” the Oklahoma City rookie center said after Tuesday’s loss to the Timberwolves. “Kind of seeing everything when you’re driving by, it’s like, ‘I used to live here,’ which is kind of weird to think about, I guess.”But something he’s grateful for.“This is my first time playing at home in my home city, which is a blessing,” the Minnehaha Academy alum said. “There’s only 30 NBA cities in the world, and I was lucky enough to grow up in one of them, so it’s obviously a cool moment.”Holmgren had a large contingency of friends, f...

Rosalie Metro: Palestinian and Israeli children are endangered by ‘us vs. them’ narratives

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

“What do you want to do when you grow up?” I asked Muhammad, an 8-year-old boy.“I want to kill Israeli soldiers!” he replied proudly.This was in 1998, when I was teaching English in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. I’d come to Beirut to study abroad and explore my Arab roots, but as an American who’d never left the U.S., I was unprepared for the deep anger toward Israel that I encountered.My young students provided history lessons I’d never gotten. They told me of the notorious Shatila massacre in the 1980s, facilitated by Israeli soldiers. They told me about the Nakba, when many of their grandparents had been displaced and rendered stateless during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.Although they’d lived their whole lives inside Shatila, my students knew the names of the Palestinian villages their families came from. Some of their grandparents still kept the keys to houses that had been destroyed.As much as I learned from them, I...

Erwin Chemerinsky: The outlandish ruling that could eviscerate what’s left of the landmark Voting Rights Act

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

If a decision handed down by a conservative federal appeals court last week is allowed to stand, it will gut what remains of one of the most important federal laws enacted in my lifetime, the Voting Rights Act.An 8th Circuit Court of Appeals panel held that no one other than the federal government can sue to enforce a key section of this vital statute. And as the dissenting judge pointed out, only 15 of the 182 successful suits under the section over the last 40 years were brought solely by the Department of Justice.The Voting Rights Act has been remarkably effective in countering the myriad laws and practices the Southern states adopted to keep Black people from voting since the end of Reconstruction. Turnout among Black voters in Mississippi increased from 6% in 1964, the year before the law was enacted, to 59% in 1969.Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits state and local election practices and systems from discriminating against voters of color. Congress strengthened the p...

4-year-old boy killed in Weld County train crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

A 4-year-old boy from Ault was killed in a collision with a train near Weld County Road 88 and U.S. 85 in Pierce on Saturday, according to the Colorado State Patrol.The boy was in a vehicle with his parents and brother when the crash happened, family members wrote on a crowdfunding page. The driver, a 26-year-old woman, was not able to stop before the railroad crossing because of snowy and icy road conditions, family members wrote.Road conditions were not included in the initial crash report, said Trooper Gabriel Moltrer. They will be included in the full report, which will not be available for several weeks or months.The crash occurred at 10:12 a.m. when a Subaru Crosstrek was traveling westbound across County Road 88 and “proceeded through the stop sign” at a rail crossing, Moltrer said.A Union Pacific train traveling south on the tracks struck the rear side of the Subaru, causing the vehicle to travel off the road onto an embankment. The train stopped on the tracks fo...

Broncos’ Week 15 matchup against Lions to be played in prime time: “It’s time to go win December”

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:48:50 GMT

The Sean Payton Broncos are turning into the prime time Broncos.The NFL on Thursday finalized its Week 15 slate and slotted Denver’s road game at Detroit for a 6:15 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, Dec. 16.The game between Payton’s surging 6-5 team and his protege Dan Campbell’s NFC North-leading Lions is the nightcap on an NFL Network triple-header of standalone games.Given Denver enters this weekend tied for the NFL’s longest active winning streak with the 10-1 Philadelphia Eagles, perhaps it’s no surprise the television networks are making sure to get the Broncos in high-profile positions.“You want to play meaningful football in December and that’s what we’re doing,” linebacker Alex Singleton said. “When you look at it, we’ve won the month of October and the month of November and now it’s time to go win December.”The Saturday night game will be the Broncos’ fourth prime-time game of the season and it makes for...