Page 6 - Iris Martinez News Today

It was an unremarkable day in expungement court until a man with tears in his eyes spoke up.

Published June 9, 2021 at 6:07 PM CDT Listen • 18:03 Voces Oral History Center at the The University of Texas at Austin US Latino/a Studies at Iowa State University, in collaboration with the Parks Library and the Voces Oral History Project at the University of Texas at Austin, will collect interviews with members of the Latino community and their stories from the COVID-19 pandemic. An oral history partnership has an Iowa State student collecting the stories of L...

Community Re-Engaged We are not finished with this pandemic, or maybe I should say that the pandemic is not yet finished with us, but it sure feels as if most of us have moved on. Maybe it’s the amount of time that has passed since Covid-19 overwhelmed us, maybe it’s the pace of the vaccine rollout, or that nagging sense that masks and virtual meetings are now our new way of life. Whatever it is, we’ll never quite be the same, but we’re adjusting. One thing we have to reacquaint ourselv...

That report, by the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, the Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Civic Federation, stipulated that the clerk “did not respond to several requests for a meeting or an invitation to participate in a virtual community forum in connection with this progress report.” Most of its findings were from talking to executive staff in the office, as well as media reports and conversations with practitioners, advocates and litigants. The report notes Martinez is work...

* Subscribers had a heads-up about this today… The Democratic Party of Illinois (DPI) today named Abby Witt as its new Executive Director. An Evanston native, Witt has spent nearly two decades working with progressive campaigns and causes, building programs that successfully bring more people into the political process to advance Democratic values. “Abby has a proven track record of building inclusive organizations, has established solid relationships throughout the state, and has the visio...

Reply Contested cases, or those in which litigants are on opposite sides of issues such as asset distribution, child support, or a variety of other issues common in family law, are rarely taken as pro-bono cases or by low-cost agencies. (Shutterstock) Maria Nanos sees firsthand what happens when families cant afford legal services or navigate the bureaucracy of the court system. As chief executive officer of Greenlight Family Services, their work centers on helping families resolve legal concer...

The United Center will switch to the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine beginning next week, Chicago officials said Sunday. Starting April 20, those with walk-in appointments will receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which the Chicago Department of Public Health has reported to be in “high demand from residents.” Illinois public health officials Sunday reported 2,942 new confirmed and ...

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A group of Latinx moms and their school aged kids gathered Tuesday in San Franciscos Parque Ninos Unidos in the Mission District to fight for public schools to reopen. "I want to go back to school because I cant be home anymore. I fight too much with my little brothers and I cant concentrate at home," said fifth-grader Iris Martinez. She and the other students sat on the lawn with computers in their laps and participated in distance learning in the park. "My house is too ...

Veteran 8th Ward Ald. Michelle Harris is moving closer to securing the votes needed to replace former House Speaker Michael Madigan as Illinois Democratic chairman.

SPRINGFIELD — Michael Madigan may be gone from the Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly, but his influence on the political process in Springfield persists. And the connection between Madigan, a Chicago Democrat and speaker of the Illinois House for 36 of the past 38 years before Emanuel "Chris" Welch of Hillside took charge of the speakers gavel last month, could create political problems for Welch, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Senate president, a political observer and ...