Friday, May 1, 2026
Federal agents who fired pepper balls and deployed chemical agents against citizens protesting an immigration arrest late last year in Elgin will not be criminally prosecuted. Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser announced that decision Thursday, saying that while at least one agent may have committed felony aggravated battery under Illinois law, the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution prevents his prosecution.
A bill to strengthen privacy protections for transgender and abortion patients passed a Senate committee Wednesday in a 9-4 partisan vote. Senate Bill 4834, would remove testosterone from the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program, which otherwise exists to protect against misuse of addictive controlled substances. It would also prohibit the Department of Human Services from adding estrogen, abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol, and drugs commonly referred to as hormone suppressants to the program.
In an unusual move and at the request of the defendant, a judge on Wednesday set a jury trial to determine the fitness of a Sycamore man accused of murder in his parents’ violent deaths. A jury of his peers will rule whether Kevin A. Schmidt, 35, is fit to stand trial on four charges of first-degree murder after his parents, Holly S. Schmidt, 59, and Gary A. Schmidt, 60, were found beaten to death at their home in unincorporated Sycamore on Sept. 30, 2025.
After a stint in Austin, Texas, Cat Valdez Doyle returned to Rockford with ideas for improving the community. The local advocate asked leaders how to apply “innovative” initiatives she saw work to ease tax burdens or take new action.
The commission Gov. JB Pritzker appointed to investigate what happened when federal immigration agents descended upon the Chicago area last year has wrapped up its investigations and is making state and federal recommendations. But before federal agents could face charges, more steps have to be taken.
The names of seven new associate judges, selected in a vote of Cook County Circuit Court judges, were announced by Marcia M. Meis, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts. Ballots listing the names of 14 finalists, chosen from 74 interviewed applicants, were distributed to 265 circuit judges. Ballots were due on April 27.
The SAFE-T Act is again generating controversy following the killing of a Chicago Police officer whose alleged shooter critics of the law say was only out of jail because of the state’s pretrial laws. While Republicans say the law needs to be changed to make it easier to hold a person in custody while they await trial, others say the judge who allowed the suspect’s release had the authority to detain him but made the wrong decision.