Greg Koger was found guilty on three misdemeanor counts by a jury on Thursday, August 26, 2010. Charges against him were pressed by the so-called Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago and carried out by the Skokie police and a Cook County State's Attorney. After he was found guilty following a three-day trial, a judge immediately revoked his bond and sent him directly to the Cook County jail where he spent last night.

I met Greg in 2005 through the UC-IMC Books to Prisoners program. Greg was then an inmate in Pontiac Correctional Center and we became pen pals. In December 2006, Greg was released and has since lived in Chicago and held a job as a paralegal working for an attorney.

To hear of Greg's re-incarceration is crushing. Greg is no harm to society. His jailing is another sign of a cruel and inhumane criminal in-justice system.

Below is a statement from the Ad Hoc Committee for Reason and Dropping the Charges in support of Greg.

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MSEA Picket

The first day of school for Mahomet Seymour students did not happen today because the Mahomet Seymour Education Association (MSEA) has been out on strike since 7 am.

The union has had previous struggles with the school board over employment issues. The summer of 2009 was spent pressuring the district to bargain with MSEA about staff performing medical procedures like the insertion of catheters. The district board had refused to negotiate the matter and expected non-medical staff to perform medical procedures.

photo by Bill GorrellWorld's First Udderbot Recital:  Jacob Barton preforms new xenharmonic music by local composers on a unique instrument

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Jacob Barton presents his first full-length concert featuring the udderbot, a unique slide woodwind instrument invented in 2005.

A joint project of OddMusic-UC and UnTwelve, the concert will feature adaptations of pre-existing compositions and new music commissioned especially for the occasion.  Sixteen composers, half of them Champaign-Urbana residents, participated in the commissioning project.

The recital will take place at 8 PM on Friday, August 20, 2010, at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.  Admission is a $10-15 sliding scale, with no one turned away for lack of funds.  RSVP is recommended.

The following letter to the editor from Caroline Yang was printed in Sunday's News-Gazette.

It responds to the trial of Keving Hemingway and in particular the skewed article on the trial by NG reporter Mary Schenk

Thanks to our kind readers for notifying us of the letter's publication.

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As someone who witnessed most of the trial of Kevin Hemingway, I noted a troubling untruth and a glaring omission in Mary Schenk’s report. First, Ms. Schenk’s assertion that Mr. Hemingway “admitted to Champaign police that he robbed Herbst” is simply not true.  This was never revealed during the trial.  Considering that this case carries the possibility of an extended sentence, it would be generous to call Ms. Schenk’s error irresponsible.

The IMC was recently awarded $6,400 from the City of Urbana for the second annual IndyMedia & Arts Lab as part of the Consolidated Social Service grant.  The Lab will take place July 26th-August 5th and will guide youths 13-16 years of age though a series of workshops focussed on: audio/radio production, community gardening, painting, and instrumentation.  This 2 week-long initiative seeks to provide affordable summer activities that will empower youths to utilize their talents to explore various outlets of self-expression in a safe, nurturing environment.  Lunch will be served to participants.  Time - TBA. Enrollment is still open, and spots are limited!  For further information contact Katy Vizdal at katyvizdal@gmail.com or at 217.344.8820."

On Monday night, June 14, 2010, longtime community activist Terry Townsend delivered a list of demands for construction of the new school to replace the Booker T. Washington School in Champaign. The new school is to fulfill the requirements of the consent decree to provide an additional 200 seats in the historically black community of the North End. The Unit 4 School Board is currently reviewing bids for the $13 million school. The old school has already been torn down and its replacement will be roughly double the size. Townsend says that this will significantly impact the neighborhood, bringing increased traffic and paving the way for gentrification.

According to Champaign City Manager Steve Carter, the appeal of a 30-day suspension given to Daniel Norbits, the officer who shot and killed Kiwane Carrington, was denied.

A day after the suspension was announced, an attorney with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) filed an appeal on behalf of Norbits. A hearing was held on May 18, 2010 between the FOP attorney, Norbits, Deputy Chief Troy Daniels, and Carter. 

After a CCAPP meeting held Monday, May 24, 2010, Carter told me personally that he had made his decision and the appeal was denied. The city, he said, would send me a copy of his statement in response to a FOIA request for the results.

See the attached pdf. for Carter's letter to Norbits.

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At an event held in late 2009 by the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago in the suburb of Skokie, Gregory Koger was arrested for voluntarily videotaping a free speech statement made by Sunsara Taylor, a political commentator and writer for Revolution, newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist party. After being asked to speak at the event, Taylor was later disinvited because of her political views. As an act of protest, she read a prepared statement in a public meeting area at the conference which was videotaped by Koger. As he was videotaping, Skokie police grabbed Koger, handcuffed and maced him, then charged him with trespassing.

Recently, Koger was charged with contempt of court by the Cook County State’s Attorney for speaking publicly about his arrest at a forum where he was on a panel with Billy Ayers, Marc Falkoff, and Sunsara Taylor, and for those speaking on his behalf at a website organized by his defense committee. He will be in court Wednesday, April 28, 2010. If found in contempt of court, he will be sent to jail.

The April issue of the Public i can be viewed here. The theme is environmentalism for Earth Day this month with articles on the anti-coal campaign of Students for Environmental Concerns, Prarie Roots, Olympian Drive, Judi Bari, and Guerrilla Gardening.

Champaign City Manager announced that Officer Daniel Norbits, who shot and killed Kiwane Carrington, has been suspended for 30 days. This is the maximum suspension that can be enforced according to the police union contract. The justification was that Norbits "failed maintain control of his weapon." The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police promptly responded, saying that Norbits was now the "victim" in the case.

See the attached pdf for the full reports.

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Here's Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart at the Tea Party in Champaign on April 15, 2010.

The Mayor says about Obama, "I don't think he's American, personally," and denies the existence of the President's birth certificate.

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