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Hate crimes rose by 30 percent in Illinois in 2018, according to a recently released FBI report.

Several media and legal organizations spoke out at a University of Illinois Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, saying university policy is impeding reporting on sexual assault at the school.

In August, an NPR Illinois and ProPublica investigation found the university had protected multiple professors accused of sexual harassment. Reporters reviewed a total of seven cases.

In the midst of #MeToo movement and several high-profile sexual misconduct cases involving its own faculty, the University of Illinois is announcing recently released recommendations that would change how the university handles cases of sexual harassment and misconduct. Recommendations include prohibiting confidentiality agreements that keep findings of misconduct secret, and a system for tracking and disclosing findings of misconduct on a "need-to-know" basis.

Illinois lawmakers Wednesday advanced a plan to pool more than 650 downstate and suburban police and fire pension funds. Passing the measure out of both chambers by week’s end is a top priority for Governor J.B. Pritzker.

Pritzker’s office has been arguing for weeks that combining all of those funds would make more money for retired police and firefighters, while cutting fees and reducing the need to raise local property taxes.

Teachers and educational support personnel in the Springfield School District approved a new two-year contract last night by a vote of 422 to 150.The package includes annual 3 percent raises for teachers and 4.75 percent for support personnel over each of the two years of the contract.

Christine Sanders, a teacher assistant at the Early Learning Center and a member of the bargaining team, said there's a reason support personnel got a higher percentage raise.

The Illinois Senate approved a move Tuesday that would allow Illinois to stay on daylight saving time permanently.

Tuesday, November 19, 6 - 8 p.m.

Main Library, Room 66

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

T. Christian Miller, a Pulitzer-winning journalist and editor with ProPublica, will moderate a discussion about issues of sexual harassment at UIUC, especially sexual misconduct perpetrated by faculty and staff.

Illinois has more than 850 school districts, and most of those stop at 8th grade, or serve only high school students. State Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich), has proposed legislation that would give such districts three years to merge to become “unit” districts — the kind that serve all grades.

“I actually have a K-8 district that feeds more than one high school district,” he says. “And some of the experts that I’ve talked to, when I tell them that, they just look at me kind of incredulously and say, ‘How do they even establish a curriculum appropriately?’ ”

In 2012, filmmaker Rodney Ascher waded into the fever swamps of cinema obsession in the documentary Room 237, an exhaustive deep dive into the myriad of suspected secret messages in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Those who were anxious to lap up that film’s fan-brewed fantasies will hate Mike Flanagan’s semi-sequel to Kubrick’s film, Doctor Sleep (heretofore Sleep). That’s a shame, because director Mike Flanagan has managed to adapt Stephen King’s novel that pays tribute to both artistic titans while creating something all his own.

The ACLU of Illinois, press freedom groups and victims’ rights advocates urged the university to alter a policy that requires reporters to tell campus officials about sources’ sexual harassment complaints.

If a school resource officer wants to question a student about a criminal act, they first have to notify the student's parents. That's according to a new law implemented at the beginning of this school year.

But State Representative Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego), says at least one district has already created a workaround. 

"The resource officer's dog, a K-9 unit, was walking through the parking lot and alerted on a student's car. The student got questioned with the resource officer present. They looked at the car, there was nothing there,” Kifowit says. “And the parent was never notified of this questioning until the student came home upset."

A coalition of 26 advocacy organizations sent a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker this week asking him to order the Illinois Department of Corrections to immediately improve its treatment of a suicidal transgender inmate. 

Janiah Monroe, who is isolated in a medical unit, is in danger of committing suicide because of the departments’ refusal recognize her as a woman and its denial of her request to provide surgery to treat gender dysphoria, according to the letter. She's one of five transgender women who have a lawsuit pending against IDOC.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has a bill on his desk that would end the practice of suspending driver’s licenses for most non-moving violations, like unpaid parking tickets.

It’s easy to see why people would gravitate towards ACE Comic Con. Didn’t get your convention fill this year? Trying to meet that one last celebrity? Tired of waiting for hours to go to that panel only to be turned away due to max capacity? ACE is the place to be - billed as a family and fan first experience, as well as something different than the typical convention.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says he’s "furious" about the behavior of state lawmakers ensnared in federal probes this year. Now he’s calling for changes in the way lobbyists disclose their finances.

Springfield teachers are headed back to the bargaining table after their union, the Springfield Education Association, voted last night to reject the latest proposal from School District 186. Although the district made an offer that included raises, only 300 union members voted to accept the contract, while 448 voted against. 

Larry Hale, a member of SEA’s bargaining team, said they're asking the school board for more than just money.

"I was in there counting votes. The number one issue is safety and security. We've had several talks with them, but there's no teeth to what they tell us that they're going to do and all they are are talks," he said.