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Oak Park church offers dozens of migrants reprieve from cold weather

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

OAK PARK, Ill.  — The mission statement is clear for one church that sits on the edge of Oak Park."You help people in need – that’s who we are," said Kathy Nolte, the lead pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Built on that foundation in 1936, Nolte, quite literally and figuratively, answered the call that came ringing around midnight. On the other line was Oak Park's village president asking if Nolte would take in some asylum seekers who had been sleeping outside in the cold.  City Council vote on migrant shelter in Morgan Park temporarily shelved "I said, 'Give me 15 minutes. I'll be at the door. We’ll open the church,'" Nolte said.Since then, Nolte has been actively working to help about 100 people get situated inside their little building of faith."We are full and cannot take one more person," Nolte said. "We are bursting at the seams. We are not a big congregation. We just have a big heart."The relocation is hot on the heels of $150,000 in grant money awarded to Oak P...

Male shot dead in Chicago's West Pullman neighborhood

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

CHICAGO — A homicide investigation is underway after Chicago police say a male was shot and killed on the city's Far South Side.Just after 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to the 500 block of W. 120th St. in West Pullman. Arriving officers located a male, age unknown, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the body. The male was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died.No one is in custody. Read more: Latest Chicago news headlines Anyone with information is asked to call police or leave an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com.SkyCam9 flew above the scene.

Man burglarizes home, leaves behind warrant with his name on it: police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) – A Tennessee man is accused of breaking into someone's home and left behind an arrest warrant with his name on it, helping police nab him. Maurica Walls, 37, was charged with aggravated robbery and theft of property in connection with the Oct. 18 burglary in Memphis, according to authorities.A man told the Memphis Police Department that he was outside his home when Walls approached him and claimed to be selling candy for St. Jude. The man said Walls was holding a USPS envelope with a small stack of papers. Cooking spray burn victim awarded $7.1 million after can ‘exploded into a fireball’ Police said the man was suspicious of Walls and told him to come back the next day.Moments later, the man's neighbor left his home. When the neighbor returned, he found that his house had been burglarized.This booking photo shows Maurica Walls, 37. (Memphis Police Department)The suspect allegedly took several electronics. The neighbor whose home was burglarized noticed that...

President Biden to visit Illinois next week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

CHICAGO -- President Joe Biden is set to visit Illinois next week.President Biden's travel details are still unclear at this time, but he's expected to tout his agenda and likely have a fundraiser on Thursday, Nov. 9.The president will travel to rural areas over the next two weeks to highlight how two specific laws are helping the economy.According to the Chicago Sun-Times, members of the Illinois congressional delegation have been told that the president is expected to visit the Chicago area on Nov. 9. Rep. Dean Phillips announces primary challenge to Biden President Biden visited a family-run farm in Minnesota on Wednesday and is holding a fundraiser featuring many of the state’s top Democrats, championing his administration’s investments in rural America while flexing political muscle on the home turf of his new 2024 primary challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips.The president announced more than $5 billion in spending, largely in rural areas. It will go toward better adapting agricult...

'There's help out here for you': First trauma recovery center in Texas opens in Austin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN)— Clarence Watson fought back tears as he stood in front of a crowd during the grand opening of the Harvest Trauma Recovery Center in Austin. Survivor, Clarence Watson embraced after emotional speech during Harvest Trauma Recovery Center open. (KXAN photos/Tim Holcomb).Watson is a survivor of violent crime, and for years, worked to bring a trauma recovery center to the area. He said he was shot in a drive-by shooting when he was in his 20s, among other traumatic experiences. "I've experienced homelessness, and I am a survivor of sexual assault as a child," Watson said. "If I had access to these resources...the pain I experienced would have ended a long time ago."Harvest Trauma Recovery Center is the first of its kind in Texas, according to the City of Austin and the African American Youth Harvest Foundation (AAYHF). This center was created in partnership with multiple entities including Travis County.Setting out to provide a holistic approach to helping survivors of vio...

A new motorized wheelchair for St. Paul man — and probation for the man who stole his old one

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

Kyle Schultz had a great day Monday, when a brand new power wheelchair was delivered to his St. Paul home.“It’s all fitted to him,” said his mother, Jodi Halverson. “So, we’re very thankful.”Schultz’s SUV, along with the electric wheelchair he used to get around, was stolen in July from his driveway on St. Paul’s East Side.“I just think of the day he called me screaming and crying that his truck was stolen with his wheelchair,” Halverson said Wednesday.The theft set off an outpouring of community support for Schultz, who has ALS.The local O’Neill Foundation of Hope bought Schultz a portable electric wheelchair a few days after the theft. The new power wheelchair was paid for through state disability funds, Halverson said.A GoFundMe page raised about $15,300, and the O’Neill Foundation provided the rest of the funds needed for a wheelchair-accessible minivan, which Rollx Vans in Savage sold at a discounted price, Halverson said.The 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan arrived at Schultz’s home S...

Boys soccer state tournament: Hill-Murray cruises to another championship match

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

Hard as it may have been for the past year, staying in the moment has led to another prime opportunity for the Hill-Murray boys soccer team.On Wednesday afternoon, Zach Frey had two goals, fellow seniors Vinny Pearcy, Wilfredo Vargas, Taylor Petrich and Austin Mjanger also scored, and the second-seeded Pioneers scored four times in the second half to beat unseeded St. Cloud Tech 6-1 in a Class 3A state tournament semifinal at U.S. Bank Stadium.No. 1 Orono will be the opponent in Friday’s 12:30 p.m. championship game back at U.S. Bank Stadium. Lisle Cherwien scored late in the second overtime, and the Spartans beat DeLaSalle 4-3 in the other semifinal.The tournament’s top seed in 2022, Hill-Murray lost to DeLaSalle via shootout in the title game. The Pioneers have yet to win in three championship game appearances.“State final is our next game” or “State final is our next practice” were commonly heard things throughout this season, be it practice or games, said midfielder Jacon Dinzeo...

Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah talks Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter, Justin Jefferson and more

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

From the moment they joined forces with the Vikings, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell had a shared vision for the franchise. They always wanted to be playing meaningful games in Minnesota.That has been the driving force behind the competitive rebuild that has become synonymous with the current regime. In the pursuit of a Super Bowl, the Vikings were not going to sacrifice the present for the future. In other words, they weren’t willing to tank to become a contender.As he sat in his office at TCO Performance Center this week with the trade deadline approaching, Adofo-Mensah kept coming back to that shared vision. Though the Vikings had lost franchise quarterback Kirk Cousins to a torn Achilles less than 48 hours earlier, and nobody would have blamed them for selling off some of their assets in response, Adofo-Mensah believed this group still deserved a chance to compete for the playoffs.As a result, the Vikings decide to add journeyman qua...

Effort to expel George Santos from the House fails

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

WASHINGTON -- A Republican-led effort to oust Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from office failed on Wednesday, allowing the embattled GOP lawmaker to stay in the House despite mounting legal and political trouble.The chamber voted 179-213-19 on a resolution to oust Santos from office, far short of the two-thirds threshold needed to expel a member of Congress. Only five lawmakers have been expelled from the House in its history, three of whom were booted for being disloyal to the Union during the Civil War. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! Wednesday marked the second attempt this year to remove Santos from office. In May, the House voted to refer a Democrat-led expulsion resolution to the Ethics Committee, a decision that was largely regarded as redundant because the panel had been looking into the congressman for months.But this week’s try — which came during the first full week of Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) tenure — was signifi...

Senate passes first government funding package, setting up clash with House GOP 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:41:00 GMT

The Senate on Wednesday passed its first batch of government funding measures for fiscal 2024, teeing up a clash with House Republicans as the party presses for steeper spending cuts and a host of partisan riders. Senators voted 82-15 to pass the package — which covers full-year funding for the departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), Transportation (DOT) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as the Food and Drug Administration, among other agencies. “We just passed a strong, bipartisan spending package — the only bipartisan spending bills in Congress, by the way — and we did it with an 82-15 vote,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said after the vote. “So let’s be crystal clear about what that means. Unlike the funding measures we’ve seen pushed through the House, these are serious and reasonable, bipartisan bills that can actually be signed into law. They are the product of months of hard work, careful negotiation, thoughtful input from members ...