illinois

Uline, Where the Boss Wishes Employees Watched More Fox News

Hamilton Nolan · 06/15/16 12:15PM

People who work for privately owned companies—even very big ones—are often subject to their bosses’ political whims. For employees of a major Midwestern industrial company, that means regularly being preached to by owners known as the Illinois version of the Koch brothers.

Who Else Knew About Dennis Hastert’s Sexual Abuse of Children?

J.K. Trotter · 04/27/16 03:05PM

Today, in a federal court in Illinois, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert confessed for the first time to sexually abusing high school students in the 1970s, when he worked as a teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Illinois. The extent of the related charges (for which Hastert received a 15-month prison sentence), the sum of money—$1.7 million—Hastert paid to silence one of his accusers, and the length of time all of his deeds remained hidden made it all but inevitable that third parties knew about what happened, yet said or did nothing. But who?

Police: Hit-Man Seeking Cop Who Staged Suicide Also Groped Women at Christmas Party

Taylor Berman · 11/06/15 11:55AM

The disgraced Illinois cop who killed himself after allegedly embezzling thousands of dollars from a police youth group and attempting to hire a hit man to kill a town administrator was also accused of repeatedly grabbing women’s breasts at multiple Christmas parties, being a drunken nuisance at local bars, and using a donated gift certificate to get a free tattoo while on duty.

Mayor Who Tried to Prosecute Parody Twitter Account Settles in Free Speech Lawsuit

Brendan O'Connor · 09/05/15 09:35AM

Last year, Peoria resident Jon Daniel, 29, started a Twitter account satirizing (loosely) his city’s mayor, Jim Ardis, portraying the mayor as a hard-partying strip club patron. Ardis did not take kindly to this caricature, ordering a police raid on Daniel’s house; Daniel sued in federal court claiming civil rights violations. This week, the city of Peoria announced that it had agreed to settle the case out of court, paying Daniel and his lawyers $125,000.

Hudson Hongo · 08/03/15 08:35PM

The AP reports that two people died and 15 were injured on Monday after severe weather caused a circus tent to collapse in Lancaster, New Hampshire. Yesterday, storm winds caused a tent to collapse at a festival in suburban Chicago, killing one and injuring more than a dozen others.

Adam Weinstein · 06/01/15 10:47AM

“In light of the charges and allegations that have emerged,” conservative Christian Wheaton College says it has renamed its J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy. They could also change the motto to: “Integrity is doing the right thing when everybody’s watching.”