Author: Voxtrend News
With World Water Week just completed, it’s crucial to recognize the vital importance of the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan, to Chicago and the entire region. These lakes provide drinking water for millions of people and sustain local ecosystems and economies worth billions annually. However, the precious resource of water is under growing threat. Pollution from urban runoff and industrial discharges continues to degrade water quality. Stormwater runoff alone accounts for nearly 80% of the pollution in the lakes, carrying fertilizers, chemicals and trash that threaten aquatic life and water safety. Invasive species such as Asian carp further jeopardize native…
Five people were shot early Monday morning in the second mass shooting to occur in the Bronzeville area over a Labor Day holiday weekend that saw 55 people shot citywide, seven of whom died. Chicago police officers were near the scene of the second Bronzeville shooting shortly after 1 a.m. Monday when they heard gunfire. Police said they found five people wounded on the 3600 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue. The shooting left a 17-year-old boy in critical condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center with multiple gunshot wounds to the body, according to police. The victims also…
A southwest suburban man has been charged with soliciting pornographic videos from a 13-year-old British girl who was found by her mother in her bedroom hanged from the charging cord of her smart watch. Khamryn Zyiel Johnson, 27, of Plano, is charged in a five-count indictment made public Friday with enticement of a minor to produce pornography and transmitting and receiving images of child pornography. He was arrested in June on a criminal complaint that had originally been filed under seal, and is being held without bond, court records show. Johnson’s attorney, Michael Baker, declined to comment Friday. The investigation…
Indiana’s rising inmate population is throwing cold water on Michigan City officials’ eagerness to redevelop the Indiana State Prison once the new prison in Westville opens. When ground was broken for the new $1.2 billion prison in 2023, it was designed to hold up to 4,200 prisoners. Indiana Department of Correction plans at the time called for closing the Michigan City prison and moving inmates there and at Westville Correctional Facility to the new 1.4 million-square-foot prison, the Northwest Indiana Correctional Facility, now under construction. In September 2023, the Westville inmate count was about 2,300, with another 2,282 at Michigan…
NEW YORK — Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after a merger of the brands created one of the biggest food manufacturers on the planet. One of the companies, currently called Global Taste Elevation Co., will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese, Kraft Heinz said Tuesday. The other, currently called North American Grocery Co., will include slower-selling brands like Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. The official names of the two companies will be released later. Kraft Heinz said in May that it was conducting a strategic review…
Most legal cannabis in Illinois is grown without the sun, wind, rain, or even, in some cases, soil. But opportunities to grow cannabis outdoors in Illinois have been limited. State law, which requires that cannabis be grown in an “enclosed, locked facility,” allows greenhouses. But the law doesn’t address similar facilities like screen houses and hoop houses, which feature a metal frame with plastic sheets. The lack of clarity over the legality of such facilities has led to a tug-of-war between the cannabis industry and state regulators. Two companies won state permission to grow cannabis in screened houses, but regulators…
For more than 17 years, one of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” fugitives was hiding out in Mexico. Charged in 1998 with the rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman in Back of the Yards, Fidel Urbina evaded capture until 2016, when he was arrested by Mexican federal authorities on a U.S. extradition warrant. He has remained in Cook County Jail ever since, awaiting trial in the alleged murder of Gabriella Torres — a case that originated during the Clinton administration. There could be an end to the saga within sight. In recent weeks, a Cook County judge finally set aside…
High schools in Chicago’s North Shore suburbs continue their strong showings as of U.S. News & World Report’s 2025-26 rankings, released last month. U.S. News and World Report ranked nearly 18,000 public high schools out of more than 24,000 reviewed. The report said 679 Illinois schools made its rankings. Following are the North Shore high schools according to their rank in the state. Number 8. Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire ranked number 8 in the state this year and 203 in the nation, down from number 6 in the state last year. It’s in Adlai E. Stevenson High…
Economist Matthias Doepke once believed the U.S. was the pinnacle of academia: open, diverse, global. He immigrated to Chicago from Germany to pursue his doctorate, and most of his classmates were international students. “That’s an exciting thing, to bring talent together from everywhere,” said Doepke, now 54. “That’s how science is supposed to work.” It was an American Dream. He joined the Northwestern University faculty in 2008, with reams of research to his name. He married an American, became a U.S. citizen and raised three sons in Evanston with his wife. But their shiny life buckled when President Donald Trump…
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration “willfully” broke federal law by sending National Guard troops to the Los Angeles area in early June after days of protests over immigration raids. In the 52-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco noted Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have stated their intention to deploy National Guard troops to other cities across the country, including Oakland and San Francisco, and that raises concerns they are “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.” Breyer did not require the 300 remaining soldiers to leave but…