Marcus Banner News Today

In this weeks Good News Sunday column, we recap stories about a girl with health issues receiving a free puppy, an event offering free haircuts and school supplies to Elgin area kids, and a retired pastor who took an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.

Elgin activist Marcus Banner will join local volunteers, businesses and city employees to hand out school supplies, food and services at the annual Back to School Festival.

As Elgin prepares plans for their North Grove redevelopment area, a renewed focus is on the citys homelessness issue downtown. Nine candidates for four available at-large seats on the city council have each weighed in on the problem during numerous forums.

As Elgin residents await the final, long-sought recommendations from the citys community task force on policing, the nine candidates running for city council have differing views on both the effectiveness of the task force and the role the council and residents should play when it comes to the police department.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. food drive collected about 30,000 pounds of food donations from one Elgin church and is receiving monetary donations from other churches, organizers said.

Having debated and voted on some 64 recommendations for how to improve the relationship between minority groups and the Elgin Police Department, the citys citizens task force on policing is ready to move on to its next phase.

Members of Elgins Community Task Force on Policing learned this week that there are at least three obstacles that may blunt the impact of any plan to create a civilian review board.

Elgins task force on policing agreed this week that it wants to explore the formation of a citizens review board that would have binding input on police discipline. There has been some background work done on forming such a board for a couple of years now, but it hasnt come to fruition.

Elgin activist Marcus Banner will host his annual back-to-school festival at his fitness center Sunday. Because there are already events planned to give away school supplies, his event will take a different twist and give away gift cards and shoes while providing music, games and food.