News For Reasonable People

San Francisco’s crackdown on homeless encampments has seen arrests of unhoused people skyrocket, as the lowest tent count in months was recorded in the Tenderloin, new data obtained by The Standard show.

As of Monday, police had arrested 215 homeless people during encampment clearings since Aug. 1, when the city intensified its enforcement of anti-camping laws, according to the mayor’s office.

Fighting and threats erupted at Village Hall in Sauk Village this week—tied to a financial probe in the south suburb.

The tension was all captured on video Tuesday night. Village Clerk Marva Campbell-Pruitt and Mayor Derrick Burgess got into a heated exchange right in the middle of a board of trustees meeting.

"It just went north," said Sauk Village Trustee Diane Sapp. "I wouldn't say it went south. It went north."

"Disgust, disgust," said Trustee Debbie Williams. "It's getting worse every week."

Williams and Sapp had a front-row seat Tuesday night. They said village meetings can get heated, but this week, it got to a level they had never seen.

The dysfunction in Dolton spilled into a Cook County courtroom where a judge was asked to hold Mayor Tiffany Henyard in contempt for allegedly meddling in village operations even after being warned not to.

Judge Thaddeus Wilson issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 25, blocking Henyard’s attempts to appoint a new village administrator, village attorney and police chief.

The judge said the law requires the mayor to receive trustees’ approval for those positions.

Attorney Burt Odelson joins Lisa Dent on WGN Radio 720 and breaks news that a Dolton reality TV series is in development at a major TV network, along with other updates on the Dolton/Tiffany Henyard situation.

Violent crime is down across the nation. It’s a rare bit of good news these days. But here in Washington, it seems we’re not getting the memo. Instead, we’re charting our own course — and it’s not a good one.

According to FBI data analyzed by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC), violent crime nationwide has decreased by 4.1% over the past five years. That’s murders, rapes, robberies, assaults — the big ones. But in Washington, violent crime has surged nearly 20%. Murders alone have jumped by a staggering 80.8% from 2019 to 2023.

After a slew of illegal immigrants were nabbed on this idyllic island by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for sex crimes and assault over the course of a month, many residents fear their home has changed forever.

Five migrants from Guatemala and El Salvador were picked up by Enforcement and Removal Operations of Boston in separate actions this month. Elmer Sola and Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo were charged for sex crimes against children, per the agency; Felix Alberto Perez-Gomez and Gean Do Amaral Belafronte were charged with sex crimes against adults; and Angel Gabriel Deras-Mejia was a documented member of the notorious gang MS-13.

Immigrants – many who have obtained H2B visas for seasonal work – are a vital part of Nantucket's tourism industry and make up a large portion of the summer vacation spot's year-round population. Multiple local bars, like The Muse, host packed Latino nights each week; 41.5% of students in Nantucket's public schools speak a language other than English at home, per online school district data.

Officials from three of the largest transit agencies operating in San Francisco said Tuesday that time is of the essence to determine the best ways to close a forthcoming combined $700 million budgetary shortfall while preserving service.

Representatives from BART, Caltrain and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency spoke in Tuesday front of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority board, telling members they have recovered between 40% and 70% of pre-pandemic ridership.

Martin Reyes, the SFCTA's principal transportation planner in government affairs, said “ridership is really varied from operator to operator.”

Embattled Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard faces a new crisis: she is reportedly being evicted from her home.

FOX 32 has obtained copies of an eviction notice filed in Cook County Court against Henyard and her boyfriend, Kamal Woods.

Henyard has rented a home in the 14600 block of South Harvard for the past three years, but the property owner said she and Woods are behind on rent and owe more than $3,300.

The notice also stated that Henyard has refused to allow an inspection of the property.

There's a mayoral race taking place in the city of Portland to replace outgoing mayor Ted Wheeler. Wheeler announced last year that he would not be running for reelection. The two leading candidates in the race are Rene Gonzalez and Carmen Rubio, both of whom are city council members looking to move up to the top job.

More than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide — either in the United States or abroad — are living outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, according to data ICE provided to Congress earlier this week.

The immigrants are part of ICE’s “non-detained” docket, meaning the agency has some information on the immigrants and they have pending immigration cases in the U.S., but they are not currently in detention either because they are not prioritized for detention, they are serving time in a jail or prison for their crimes, or because ICE cannot find them, three law enforcement officials said.