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Forest Preserves of Cook County May 2026 Newsletter

Posted in Crabtree Nature Center, Crime, FPDCC, Horizon Farm, Public Safety, Riding Club of Barrington Hills on May 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The long-tailed weasel (Neogale frenata) is a swift and agile predator often seen darting through grasslands and forest edges in search of prey. Its slender body and distinctive black-tipped tail help it maneuver easily while hunting small mammals, birds and insects. | Long-tailed Weasel, Photo by: Kyle Keenan

In this Issue:

  • Forest Preserves Police Takes Patrols to the Trails
  • Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center: Explore for an Hour, a Day or Even a Night
  • Life After the Burn: How Prescribed Fire Revives and Reshapes the Forest Preserves
  • Watch Spring Take Flight Across the Forest Preserves
  • Sacrifice Honored in a Renewed Space at Dan Ryan Woods; Visit Us at Share the Trail Stops: A Friendly Way to Enjoy the Outdoors Together; Party Outside the Ordinary at Your Next Gathering in the Forest Preserves; Experience Culture, Creativity and Nature During AAPI Heritage Month; Save the Date: 15th Anniversary of the Conservation Cup Set for September 10
  • Upcoming Events & Programs
  • Volunteer Opportunities: NEWTS

Find the May FPDCC newsletter here.

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Pritzker board eliminates poor attendance from Illinois school ratings

Posted in 220, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Crime, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Elections, Ethics, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Snowflake Effect, Springfield, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on May 21, 2026| 1 Comment »

High chronic absenteeism will no longer hurt a school’s state rating.

By Hannah Schmid | Illinois Policy Institute

Illinois plans to eliminate poor attendance from school ratings at a time when a fourth of the state’s students miss a significant chunk of the academic year.

In an overhaul the State Board of Education approved in April, “chronic absenteeism,” or missing 10% or more of the school year with or without a valid excuse, will no longer ding a school’s rating. All nine current board members were appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

The new system will use the term “consistent attendance,” the percentage of students present 90% or more of the school year.

That semantic switch may confuse parents about what’s really being measured, though it’s just a different way of saying the same thing. But the revised system also changes attendance from a “core indicator” in the rankings to merely an “elevating indicator.”

Why that matters: Strong “consistent attendance” will raise a school’s rating, but a weak performance won’t hurt it.

The state calls this a “strengths-based” approach, but it means the high rates of students skipping class across Illinois won’t affect schools’ ratings.

Report continues here.

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Police announce charges after 6 masked suspects ransack luxury boutique in Barrington of $106K in merchandise

Posted in Crime, Lake & McHenry County Scanner on May 13, 2026| 2 Comments »

Surveillance video captured a half-dozen suspects forcing entry to ReStyle Designers of Barrington, 121 South Cook Street in Barrington, and stealing nearly all of the products in just a minute early in the morning on December 28. | Background: Screengrab; Inset: Provided

By Sam Borcia | Lake & McHenry County Scanner

Police have announced charges against one of six masked suspects who allegedly ransacked a boutique retailer in Barrington, stealing over $100,000 worth of merchandise in December.

The Barrington Police Department responded around 5 a.m. on December 28 to ReStyle Designers of Barrington, 121 South Cook Street, following reports of a disturbance.

Barrington Police Chief David Daigle said a resident living above the business called 911 after hearing multiple males yelling loudly outside and witnessing two vehicles speeding away from the scene.

Officers discovered that the front door of ReStyle Designers had been forced open.

The business owner, who was notified of the incident, responded to the scene and provided officers with surveillance footage that captured a burglary, Daigle said.

ReStyle Designers of Barrington said nearly all of the store’s inventory was stolen, leading to years of hard work and trust “gone in seconds.”

“We are devastated, but we are not giving up. This store has always been about community, and our clients and consignors are more than customers, you are our family,” the store owners said.

“We are grateful to the Barrington Police Department for their prompt response and ongoing assistance,” the store said.

The police department announced the arrest of Jeremiah K. Brown, 21, on Wednesday and said he was charged with burglary, a Class 2 felony, following an investigation.

Report and video can be found here.

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Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 4)

Posted in AI, Audio Recordings, Clown Car, Comprehensive Plan, Crime, Data Center, Deception, Dumb and Dumber, ePacket Agendas, Ethics, FOIA, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Disconnection, Land Use, Lennie, New Normal?, Newsletter, OMA, One Barrington Hills, OP/Ed, Open Meetings Act, Perjury, Plan Commission, Politics, Privacy, Property Taxes, Real Estate, Simple Minds, Taxes, Topics Of Interest, Transcripts, Transparency, Village Attorney, Village Board, Village Clerk, Village Code, Village Director of Administration, Village Government, Village President, Zoning Board on April 3, 2026| 3 Comments »

Village of Barrington Hills board members (l-r) JC Clarke, Laura AB Ekstrom, Brian Cecola, Marsha McClary, David Riff and Jessica Hoffmann. Not pictured: Thomas Strauss.

Our Village Board of Trustees met Monday evening. This marked the third meeting since their December 2025 meeting when residents were blindsided to learn, “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board.”

The first speaker Monday night expressed their continued dissatisfaction with the Board as follows:

“All right. Good evening. My name is Aaron Becker. By now you probably know who I am.

I’m speaking tonight in regards to the Village attorney’s letter in response to my questions from January 27th,and I’ve got a couple other comments as well.

I really appreciate the Village responding in righting to my quick response. However, I ask respectfully and directly why several of my explicit questions and requests were not answered at all. They were just omitted, so… .

The response explains why it believes its past actions were lawful, but it does not confirm whether any of the safeguards I requested would be implemented. My question tonight is simple: was the omission intentional?

In the Village Summer 2021 newsletter, residents were told by Trustee Ekstrom, she’s not here today, and I’m going to quote her, ‘Most residents know that they can attend the Village Board meetings, many may not realize that committee and commission meetings are also open to the public. Our Village is a community above all else and having input from our residents reflected in our decision making is not only welcome but encouraged.’

I’ll say this much, I genuinely appreciate that perspective and I believe her. With that in mind, here’s some feedback:

Please confirm that all off-record communications with Brennan Development Group will stop.

Please stop project specific merit discussions absent of formal filings.

Please confirm that unsupported tax claims will not be repeated by the Village without substantiation.

Please confirm that records will be preserved.

Please do everything in your power to maintain true independence of the Plan Commission.

I’d also like the Board to reflect on some of the statements Board of Trustees members have made in the past. In the same Summer 2021 newsletter, residents were told by Trustee Strauss that quote, ‘We live in a special community, and the Board is committed to maintaining our heritage.’

And Trustee Riff said, ‘I would like to make certain that we remain focused on the budget, protect our residential zoning rights (or rather zoning laws), and ensure that our community remains safe and secure for all residents.’

So those are strong words. And they matter. So I’ll ask each of you as Trustee members, do you believe that based on all of the emails we have now seen and read that you have honored those commitments? That you are protecting our residential zoning rights. And that you are maintaining our heritage as a Village.

I’ll be honest, I don’t. I read all the emails. I don’t believe it.

You have to go to bed at night. You have to look yourself in the mirror and say that you believe you’ve protected the residential zoning rights with your actions and your words.

My wife spoke last month about actions and words and holding people accountable when their actions and words don’t align. And that’s what we’re here doing asking of our leaders for continuity between their actions and their words.

That’s all I’m asking. When you say you’re going to do something, follow through and do it. Please.

So, to summarize, respond to the five requests I had in the letter either acknowledging you made a mistake and how you’re going to fix it, or that you made no mistake.

Either way we deserve clarity we deserve responses to those.

That’s my comment. Thank you very much.”

The audio recordings from the March 30, 2026, Board of Trustees meeting can be found here.

Related: “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Follow-up),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 3),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 2),” “Do you trust our Board of Trustees? We don’t. But you decide for yourself once we have finished. (Part 1),” “110 Acre AI data center campus pitched to Village Board”

 

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Man arrested during bank robbery in Hoffman Estates

Posted in Crime, Jewel-Osco on April 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

By Andy Koval | WGN9

A man was taken into custody during a bank robbery Wednesday morning in Hoffman Estates.

Police responded to a Huntington Bank branch (in Jewel Osco), located in the 1400 block of Palatine Road, at around 9:15 a.m. 911 callers reported that a man displayed a gun and demanded money from bank employees.

Officers from the Hoffman Estates Police Department and then Inverness Police Department responded within one minute of the dispatch call, according to police.

Officers made entry into the bank and took the man into custody without further incident.

No injuries were reported and the man was transferred into the custody of the FBI.

Article continues here.

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The Pols Who Failed Sheridan Gorman – WSJ

Posted in Crime, Deception, Ethics, Immigration, OP/Ed, Politics, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield, Wall Street Journal on April 1, 2026| 1 Comment »

Sheridan G. Gorman (Via Instagram)

By William McGurn | Wall Street Journal

Sheridan Gorman should still be alive. The 18-year-old freshman should be with her family and catching them up on what’s new at Chicago’s Loyola University. Instead she’s gone, and this weekend her family came with moist eyes and broken hearts to her funeral at the First Presbyterian Church in her hometown of Yorktown, N.Y.

This family has been through the unspeakable: The light of their lives snuffed out before her time, cut down as Ms. Gorman gathered by the Chicago lakefront with friends to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights. The politicians who failed to protect her from a criminal have since compounded the pain with ill-conceived statements about who’s to blame. These statements—by the governor, the mayor, a Chicago alderwoman—weren’t intended to wound, but they did.

Our political class, apparently, has lost all sense of what’s important in moments like these. It’s become all about scoring political points against your enemies. Comforting the afflicted, supporting communities and individuals, all that comes later—or not at all. This is not normal.

Begin with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. A week ago he admitted there were “real failures” in the immigration and criminal-justice systems that led to this murder. The accused murderer is 25-year-old Jose Medina, a Venezuelan who crossed into the U.S. illegally amid the border chaos of the Biden years. He has been arrested and charged with Ms. Gorman’s murder.

Mr. Pritzker’s real message wasn’t the “real failures.” It was: This is Donald Trump’s fault, notwithstanding that there’s hardly a Republican to be found in Illinois. “I know that the Gorman family has suffered mightily,” the governor said. “I agree. There have been real failures. Those failures, of course, extend beyond the borders of Illinois. There [are] national failures, a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst.”

Alderwoman Maria Hadden told Fox32’s Chicago Live last week that Gorman “might have been a wrong-place-wrong-time, running into a person who had a gun. They might have startled this person at the end of the pier unintentionally.” Ms. Hadden has since apologized for suggesting the victim caused her own death while blaming media for “intentionally creating sound bites to misconstrue my words during this tragedy.”

Not to be outdone, Mayor Brandon Johnson gave a master class in deflection when asked if he would apologize to Gorman’s parents for her death. He then characterized it as “senseless violence.” This was followed by a filibuster, in which he said the city’s sanctuary status was established 40 years ago and was somehow shaped by a 2021 criminal justice reform, which he incorrectly said was passed under Gov. Bruce Rauner who was—wait for it—a Republican. (The law was signed by Gov. Pritzker.)

Finally he, too, went to the old reliable: Mr. Trump. “He points the finger at everything and everyone else versus doing some real self-reflection on what his responsibility is.”

Article continues here.

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THE MURDER OF SHERIDAN GORMAN AND THE STIFLING OF CHICAGO

Posted in Crime, John Kass, OP/Ed, Pritzker’s Rules of Order on March 29, 2026| 4 Comments »

By John Kass | johnkassnews.com

The worst sound in the world comes from the throat of a father or mother of a child killed by an illegal protected by powerful politicians as the news media begins to edge away from them, ignoring their child and their pain.

It is the sound of anguish. You can hear it in Chicago.

I’ve been hearing it far too much lately, that desperate sound in the throat of a grieving parent. Their sorrow overwhelms them. The fact that their sorrow is ignored by journalism as journalism serves political lords overwhelms them. Their throats begin to clench and what remains is a climbing ladder of anguish and a high-pitch screeching for desperate breath.

You may think of the many angel moms and dads out in America mourning those kids, from Kate Steinle, shot in the back in 2015 while holding her father’s hand as they walked on a pier in San Francisco. “Dad, help me,” she said as she collapsed, “Help me.”

Laken Riley was a Georgia nursing student who also was senselessly killed in February 2024. And Katie Abraham from Illinois, slaughtered and forgotten as she sat quietly in a car waiting at a red light in Urbana with friends, as a car driven by a drunken illegal hurtled down upon them at 75 miles per hour. And so many, many others killed by migrants here illegally in the United States, all of the illegal migrants ushered into the United States by Democrats and former President Joseph Biden.

Billons of  dollars were spent on the illegal migrants by American taxpayers whose children were killed by those tax subsidized illegals, some by gunfire, some by a crushing blow with a rock, some by the impact of a vehicle driven by the illegal while drunk. In each case there was silence from Democrats, and silence from the news media lest mention of the dead anger the partisan leftist subscribers.

In the midst of that crushing silence, anguished parents want their murdered children to have mattered, but the media and leftist political indifference angers them and their throats begin to close up as they raise their voices. Their screeching digs deeply into anyone who hears them and are possessed of human souls.

And now Sheridan Gorman, the 18-year-old freshman at Loyola University who was recently out with friends at the lake shore hoping to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights when illegal Jose Medina-Medina—who had already been arrested for another crime–fired shots at them with a gun.

Gorman was hit in the back as she tried to run away. She died. Chicago Police detectives used facial recognition technology to track her killer down.

(Posted on X)

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) placed the blame for the murder of Sheridan Gorman not on the Biden Democrats protecting illegal migrants–or lavishing billions upon them as they wreak havoc in the cities–but on President Trump.

The governor said part of the blame for the murder belongs to the Trump administration because they have not stuck to their “edict” of targeting the “worst of the worst” when it comes to illegal migrants.

“This has been a terrible tragedy, and I know that the Gorman family has suffered mightily,” he said. “I agree, there have been real failures. Those failures, of course, extend beyond the borders of Illinois. It’s their national failures, a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst.”

That’s about the most disgraceful thing I’ve heard come out of J.B.’s mouth.

A terrible tragedy like JB Pritzker playing Illinois for fools and getting elected? I kept waiting for editorials condemning Pritzker, but I didn’t see them. That tells you what you need to know about Chicago media. It’s dead. A feast for crows.

Kass’ commentary continues here.

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Legislator presses forward with facial recognition ban even after it helped solve Loyola student murder case in her district

Posted in Crime, CWB Chicago, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Dumb Bunny, Politics, Springfield, Who Cuts Your Hair?, WTF on March 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Rep. Kelly Cassidy and Jose Medina (Facebook, Dept. of Homeland Security)

By Tim Hecke | CWB Chicago

A bill that would bar Illinois law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition databases to help identify crime suspects is scheduled for a second day of legislative hearings, days after the technology helped Chicago police identify the man accused of murdering a Loyola University freshman in the bill’s sponsor’s own district.

House Bill 5521 is sponsored by Rep. Kelly Cassidy, who represents the 14th District, which includes Rogers Park. Cassidy introduced the measure last Wednesday, hours before 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman was shot and killed at the Loyola Beach pier. Chicago police have since charged Jose Gregoria Medina Medina, a 25-year-old Venezuelan citizen, with Gorman’s murder.

An arrest report obtained by CWB Chicago describes how detectives worked to identify Medina as the shooter. Among the investigative steps, an officer wrote that video images of the gunman were sent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which “returned matching candidate Jose Gregoria Medina Medina.”

If passed, HB5521 would prohibit Illinois law enforcement agencies from obtaining, retaining, possessing, accessing, requesting, using, or entering into agreements with third parties, state or local government agencies, or federal agencies to use certain biometric identification systems, including facial recognition.

It also bars the Secretary of State from providing facial recognition search services except when issuing a mobile driver’s license or identification card. That facial recognition database is the most commonly used within CPD.

On Sunday, CWB Chicago published a report detailing dozens of violent crimes — including murders, robberies, and sex offenses — that Chicago Police Department detectives have solved with the assistance of facial recognition. The technology has proven particularly useful in cases involving the CTA, where offenders are often anonymous, crimes can be random, and the transit system’s high-definition cameras provide broad coverage.

Article continues here.

Related: “Facial recognition helps cops solve some of Chicago’s most heinous crimes. This state legislator wants to shut it down,” “Hundreds of police departments use camera company (seen below) accused of breaking state law”

Automated license plate readers such as this one are installed throughout Barrington Hills.

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JB Pritzker Blames Trump For Student Allegedly Murdered By Illegal Alien — But Suspect Released Under Biden

Posted in Chicago Tribune, Crime, Daily Caller, Deception, Ethics, OP/Ed, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, RealClear Politics, The Chicago Way on March 25, 2026| 1 Comment »

By Jason Cohen | Daily Caller

Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on Tuesday blamed President Donald Trump for the murder of female college freshman Sheridan Gorman, allegedly at the hands of a criminal illegal alien.

Jose Medina-Medina, a Venezuelan national released twice under former President Joe Biden in 2023, allegedly shot and killed Gorman on Thursday near the Loyola University campus as she tried to flee, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Despite the suspect’s history, Pritzker placed the blame on “national failures” and the Trump administration when speaking to reporters.

“This has been a terrible tragedy. And I know that the Gorman family has suffered mightily … there have been real failures. Those failures, of course, extend beyond the borders of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “They’re national failures, a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst.”

“And in my view, we have a lot of work that we need to continue to do,” Pritzker also said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “But it is the job of the federal government to go after immigration enforcement, and it is the job of our local and state law enforcement to prosecute or catch violent criminals and prosecute them, and we should continue to do that both on the state level and the national level.”

Pritzker attempted repeatedly to portray Chicago as safe just months before the killing, despite the city suffering from a lengthy violent crime crisis. The governor has in recent months feuded with Trump over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and backed a January lawsuit brought by his state against Trump’s DHS.

Article continues here.

Related: “Sheridan Gorman’s Murder—and Chicago’s Silence,” “Gov. JB Pritzker acknowledges ‘real failures’ in immigration system after Loyola student’s killing”

 

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Facial recognition helps cops solve some of Chicago’s most heinous crimes. This state legislator wants to shut it down.

Posted in Crime, CWB Chicago, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Dumb Bunny, Politics, Springfield, Who Cuts Your Hair? on March 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Illinois Rep. Kelly Cassidy, center, and images of some of the people who have been charged with violent crimes following investigations that involved the use of facial recognition. (Facebook, Chicago Police Department)

By Tim Hecke | CWB Chicago

An Illinois state legislator wants to strip law enforcement of a tool that has helped detectives solve murders, robberies, kidnappings, and sexual assaults — including some of the most violent crimes to hit the CTA in recent years: facial recognition.

When Chicago police detectives needed to figure out who stabbed 37-year-old Dominique Pollion to death and left his body on a Blue Line train in the Loop in January, facial recognition helped them get the investigation on the right track.

By feeding high-quality CTA video images into the Illinois Secretary of State’s database of state ID and driver’s license photos, detectives narrowed their focus to possible matches, including 21-year-old Demetrius Thurman. As their investigation continued, investigators allegedly found video on Thurman’s phone that shows him committing the crime.

Powerful stuff. But if a North Side state legislator gets her way, Illinois police will soon be barred from using any facial recognition database, including the Secretary of State’s, to do their work ever again.

The bill is called the Illinois Biometric Surveillance Act, and it’s being pushed by Rep. Kelly Cassidy, who represents most of Rogers Park and Edgewater in Springfield. Cassidy’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.

Her proposed law would ban the use of facial recognition and other biometric identifiers by law enforcement statewide. No agency could use the technology or enter into an agreement with a state or federal agency to use it. The bill would still allow “fingerprinting pursuant to an arrest or conviction, or to collect forensic evidence at a crime scene.” The bill does not include the ultimate biometric, DNA, among its “biometric identifiers.”

To be clear about how the tool works: a potential facial recognition match alone is not enough to file charges. Detectives use it to help generate leads and identify potential suspects.

Article continues here.

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