A state prison warden was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated drunken driving Monday after a crash that killed a fellow prison employee.William Barham, 47, warden of the Shawnee Correctional Center in Vienna, was charged in Johnson County after the accident early Sunday that killed Jerry Isom, also 47.
Barham, Isom and five other Corrections officials, including Director Donald Snyder, attended a fund-raiser on Saturday afternoon for state Rep. Jim Fowler, D-Harrisburg.
Fowler said Monday no alcohol was served at the event.
Barham was driving his state-issued vehicle on Illinois 147 near Simpson just after midnight when he lost control of the car and it left the road and struck a tree, Illinois State Police Capt. Craig Smith said.
Isom, dietary manager at Shawnee, was declared dead at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Ky., at 1:50 a.m. Barham was in critical condition Monday at Lourdes.
Barham's blood-alcohol level was .097, above the legal limit of .08, according to a state police report.
Chicago
The Chicago Board of Elections filed a lawsuit Monday against an Internet site that claims to buy and sell votes to the highest bidder.
The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, asks the court to force the closure of the site, www.voteauction.com.
The site belongs to an Austrian businessman named Hans Bernhard, who bought the site from a New York graduate student who launched Voteauction.com this summer to provide "a forum for campaign contributors and voters to come together in a free market exchange."
Voteauction.com claims it will collect absentee ballots from voters, verify them, and then sell them to the highest bidder who can "choose who the group will vote for en masse." Sellers then receive money depending on how much is bid.
On Monday, the site listed the going price per Illinois vote at $12.38.
Chicago Jury seated to hear Palestinian's trial
After being urged to "search your souls" for bias, jurors were sworn in Monday at the trial of a Palestinian man accused of refusing to tell what he knows about the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Sharif Alwan, 31, is charged with criminal contempt for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Hamas fund raising in the Chicago area.
He had been granted immunity from prosecution for anything he might admit before he was taken before the grand jury.
Instead of answering questions, he took the Fifth Amendment in his appearance before the grand jury last July.
Defense attorneys say Alwan is not a member of Hamas.
But they say he refused to answer questions before the grand jury because he fears retaliation against his family members by both the Israelis and Hamas.
Prosecutors say that on the contrary, Alwan has clear ties to Hamas.
They cite a 1996 Israeli military report claiming he confessed to taking part in Hamas training in the Chicago area and using a fake Somalian passport to travel from Chicago to Lebanon for more training.
Alwan's attorneys say Alwan confessed only after he was tortured by the Israeli military.
The government is trying to confiscate $1.4 million from Salah and the Quranic Literacy Institute, claiming it was raised to support Hamas.
Wood Dale Crossing photos draw challenge, tickets halt
Wood Dale police have stopped ticketing motorists caught on camera violating railroad crossing laws because of questions about the cameras' legality.
Last week, a DuPage County judge dismissed three citations after ruling the camera program was unconstitutional because notices mailed to motorists fail to advise them of their rights and police are not required to prove the photographs are authentic.
Those convicted of violations were ordered to pay a $500 fine or perform 50 hours of community service.
Mark Vietzen, a Wood Dale attorney, challenged the law on behalf of himself and two other motorists.
The cameras, aimed at reducing railroad crossing fatalities, also were installed at a crossing in Naperville as part of a pilot program approved by state lawmakers in 1996. A third site, near Winfield, will be equipped with cameras within weeks.
Wood Dale police were advised by the county prosecutor to stop issuing tickets based on the cameras.
Naperville police continue issuing citations because that community's program has not been challenged.
DuPage prosecutors say they will review the ruling before deciding whether to appeal.
Washington Report affirms Census did not cut corners
There is no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing at 17 Census Bureau offices around the country, including sites a House Republican had called into question, the Commerce Department's internal watchdog says.
The memo from Inspector General Johnnie E. Frazier to Census Director Kenneth Prewitt did identify "potential deficiencies" at one of those 17 offices -- in north Philadelphia -- and requested additional information on two others -- Las Vegas and in the Bronx borough of New York City.
Also among the sites Rep. Dan Miller, R-Fla., had questioned were Chicago's far south and near north areas.
"The census has apparently proved the inside-the-Beltway critics wrong again," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, ranking Democrat on Miller's subcommittee.
"The census was conducted to the highest standards."
Chicago Man accused in assault gets home confinement
A man accused of roughing up a witness in an FBI investigation of a major jewelry theft ring was placed under home confinement Monday following a drunken scene in which he allegedly struck a woman friend.
Joseph Basinski's attorneys conceded he may have struck or pushed the woman but said it was merely a spat in a long-running affair between the married Basinski and the young woman, who boasted that she was his "trophy girlfriend" and sent sexually explicit "love sonnets" to him.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий