Friday, August 30, 2024
Saying it ranked as "one of the most brutal and heinous" cases he has seen in his legal career, Sangamon County Presiding Circuit Judge John Madonia found Benjamin Howard Reed "guilty but mentally ill" Thursday in the Jan. 4, 2022, killing of Illinois Department of Children and Family Services child protective services worker Deidre (Graham) Silas of Springfield.
An Illinois law intended to help people with mental illness avoid confrontations with police had been on the books for three years when Sonya Massey was shot by a Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy. The Community Emergency Services and Supports Act, or CESSA, requires mental and behavioral health calls to 911 be handled by mental health professionals, rather than police.
Chicago is testing a mass surveillance tool to detect guns at CTA stations, even as debate rages around the effectiveness of another detection system used by the city, ShotSpotter. The Chicago Transit Authority announced Thursday it is one month into a year-long pilot program with ZeroEyes, a company that uses artificial intelligence to identify guns in surveillance video and alert police.
In an era when artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the workplace, Illinois has joined the growing list of states taking legislative action to further regulate the use of AI in employment settings, which follows the May 17, 2024, enactment of more sweeping legislation in Colorado.
A McHenry man convicted in a 1999 Lake County crash that killed his 16-year-old passenger while he was driving drunk pleaded guilty Wednesday to an aggravated driving under the influence charge from 2022.
An assistant state’s attorney in Knox County got promoted this month to be the county’s top prosecutor. At their August meeting, the Knox County Board appointed Sherry Lawson-Weaver to finish the unexpired term of Jeremy Karlin, who submitted his resignation earlier this summer. Karlin’s term as state’s attorney was set to expire in November. He served one four-term in the office.