IMCfest 2007! September 9–11! Click here for more.

A series of articles in the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette over the last couple of months beat a relentless drum of woe associated with the Champaign County Nursing Home. The stories repeatedly take the same tack, which is that high costs are making the future of the county’s home financially untenable in comparison to trends in the rest of the nursing home industry. This has resulted in Champaign County having to subsidize care at its nursing home.

On Wednesday, September 19, at noon the STOP Coalition successfully took over the student union. Approximately 60-80 people marched throughout the main floor of the union, going in and out of the building several times. STOP protesters marched past the ice cream corner, the Credit Union, and past the Espresso Royal Café counter as employees looked on in wonder. Some students joined in, and others stopped to take photos. Flyers were passed out with STOP’s demands and speeches were given through bullhorns. STOP organizers Treva Ellison, John Gergeley, and Paty Garcia led chants
of "Whose Union? Our Union!"

The march drew upon the coalitional structure of STOP and called out students of color, students of conscience, community members, union members, LGBT people, and many others. SEIU workers were there to protest going for a year without a contract. Aaron Ammons, of CU Citizens for Peace and justice and a SEIU union worker, gave a speech from the stage of the Courtyard Café and led the crowd, “Who Cleans the Buildings? B-S-Ws!” (Building Service Workers) “Who Feeds the Children? F-S-Ws!” (Food Service Workers).

Hawkeye is a concerned Urbana resident, keeping watch on the movement of the public to the private in the world. On September 6, 2007, University of Illinois officials severed ties with Tom Dempsey, the beleaguered director of the school's police training institute (PTI) who has been under scrutiny for his work with Blackwater USA, a controversial military contractor.

Patrick Thompson and Martel Miller, co-founders of VEYA (Visionaries Educating Youth and Adults), won a major victory this week in a federal civil law suit they filed claiming their civil rights were violated when local authorities charged them with felony eavesdropping in 2004 to stop them from videotaping police.

In 2004, Thompson and Miller began videotaping police in the African American community with the intent of producing a documentary film called Citizen’s Watch. The documentary they made contrasted the heavy policing on the North End with the hands-off approach of police on the University of Illinois campus. It was shown at Boardman’s Art Theater and the Champaign Public Library to packed audiences.

This is a link to a video in which community member and organizer Sean Williams discusses the City of Champaign Park Service's take over of Champaign-Urbana Day and the efforts of he and others, like Linda Turnbull, to bring it back under community organization.

For those who think the beginning of the semester is all about students binge drinking and bum rushing the field dressed as the Chief, think again. No fake Indians rushed the field at the football game last night, and over 200 packed the house at Allen Hall today to hear James Loewen speak about the legacy of racism in Illinois. Loewen, a historian originally from Illinois, is author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and more recently Sundown Towns. He is in residence at U of I’s Allen Residence Hall until Thursday and will cover these topics: what history textbooks leave out, historical markers afraid to tell the truth about the past, and how standardized tests lie. View the complete schedule here: http://www.housing.uiuc.edu/living/unit1/guest_2007-08/Loewen.asp

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the University of Illinois has received the resignation of Tom Dempsey, now ex-director of UIUC's Police Training Institute. Dempsey will apparently receive a golden parachute of $75,000 from the UI, plus $12,000 for health care insurance.

While Dempsey's departure seemed a foregone conclusion since it became obvious over the summer that he generated a massive personal conflict of interest by cutting a deal tying UIUC's PTI to the mercenary corporation, Blackwater USA, at the same time he was arranging his own employment by Blackwater as a mercenary in Afghanistan, his resignation leaves many questions unanswered.

Following up on a story about Champaign Police Chief R.T. Finney kicking me out of a press conference held on June 8, 2007, I finally got a response that his actions were inappropriate and were based on no existing department policy.

Some who were gone for the summer may not have heard about an incident in June when three Champaign police officers were shot in an incident with a homeless man, Donnell Clemons, that occurred in West Side park. As it turned out, one of the officers had been shot by a police bullet (so-called “friendly fire”). Clemons is charged with attempted murder and faces up to 160 years in prison. He has pleaded innocent and has told his family members that the police shot first.

Advocates for the rights of patients with conditions which are clearly helped by access to medical marijuana saw a mixed bag of results from their elected representatives in Champaign County this summer. Democratic State Senator Mike Frerichs opposed a measure in the Illinois Senate that was defeated by the narrow margin of 22-29. Republican Congressional Representative Tim Johnson supported a federal bill to get the DEA off the back of medical marijuana patients that was defeated by a 165-262 vote.

On Saturday, August 18, 2007, Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice pitched in to get Ms. Mildred Davis moved out of her house at 4 Hedge Court, nearly two months after a tragedy struck her home. Champaign police were in pursuit of Torriano Johnson on June 24, 2007, which began in Urbana and ended up in a stand-off at 4 Hedge Court in the Garden Hills neighborhood in Champaign. Ms. Davis, a 62 year-old grandmother who lives there, says police fired into her home while people outside told officers that she and her grandchildren were inside.