CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago Board of Education has given its final approval to a contentious and ambitious plan to shutter 50 schools. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other proponents say the closures are necessary because of falling enrollment and the need to improve the city's struggling school system. Critics say they will disproportionately affect minority students and put some students at greater risk of gang violence.
CHICAGO (AP) - The head of the Chicago Teachers Union says the Board of Education's final approval of a plan to close 50 schools amounts to "bad governance." Karen Lewis said in a statement that the board's vote makes this a "day of mourning for the children of Chicago." Protesters who say the closures will disproportionately affect minority students and put some at greater risk of gang violence demonstrated at the board meeting and the state Capitol.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a supervisor in a western Illinois drug court program was making methamphetamine and growing marijuana in his home in Ursa. The Department of Justice said today that Adams County drug court supervisor John Grotts has been charged with maintaining a drug-involved premises and has turned himself in. No one responded to a phone message left today at a number listed as Grotts'.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A compromise concealed carry bill proposed in the Illinois House would ban concealed guns from parks and public transportation. The inclusion of the ban on firearms in public buses and trains contained in the bill proposed today by Democratic Rep. Brandon Phelps' is a must for Chicago Democrats.
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