(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Former Peoria Congressman and U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood reportedly needed money for home repairs when he took $50,000 from the associate of a foreign national in 2012.
That s according to a 2019 non-prosecution agreement released in full by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for the first time on Thursday.
LaHood was reportedly facing significant financial difficulties in part due to problems related to home remediation at the time, and was looking to raise money to fund home repairs. He met with a priest referred to only as Individual A in May 2012 to seek a connection to a creditor for a home repair loan, according to the DOJ agreement.
The bill sponsored by state Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Chicago, would reduce the proximity from 500 feet to 250 feet former sex offenders may locate from protected areas.
Proposed legislation could make it easier for former sex offenders in Illinois to find a home and remove the threat of being forced to move if a childcare facility locates near them.
The proposal would change a requirement that forces people living in residences sanctioned under registry guidelines to move if a daycare or other protected entity moves within 1,000 feet of the home.
House Bill 3913 also seeks to eliminate weekly registration requirements, instead relying on annual and quarterly check-ins. Registrants would still be required to alert police of any change circumstances, including address and employment.
Byron Merriweather was 17 when he shot a man at Miller Park during a 2003 fight between rival Twin City gangs, a crime that netted the teen 70 years in prison.
Merriweather, now 35, was in court on Friday for a new sentencing hearing ordered by the Fourth District Appellate Court. Merriweather was sentenced prior to several U.S. Supreme Court rulings and a decision by the Illinois Supreme Court on the issue of what amounts to life sentences for juveniles.
Judge Casey Costigan heard three hours of testimony some of it emotional from Merriweather’s family and a childhood friend who now supports Merriweather’s goal of becoming a youth counselor.
Kamil Zihnioglu / AP
This story is part of a special episode of Sound Ideas airing March 12, marking the one-year anniversary of COVID s arrival in McLean County. Find more stories in the series.
For the past year the pandemic has aggravated many drivers of domestic violence substance abuse, financial worries, being stuck at home. But it’s also muffled the true scope of the problem, with researchers just beginning to understand if COVID caused a spike in domestic violence.
But one message is crystal clear: There are a lot of resources in McLean County to get help, and those on the front lines see several new options for attacking one of society’s most invisible crimes.
WCBU
A Peoria man has been booked for attempted murder after a man was found shot in his vehicle in a Limestone Township liquor store parking lot.
Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell said deputies found a 26-year-old man with several gunshot wounds in a vehicle in the Laramie Liquors parking lot just before 10:45 p.m. Sunday.
The man was taken to OSF St. Francis Medical Center with serious injuries.
Deputies later arrested David Dillard, 25, of Peoria, for attempted murder, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, aggravated discharge of firearm, aggravated batter with firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, and on a parole hold for the Illinois Department of Corrections.