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Pritzker Administration Issues First Wave Of Conditional Adult Use Cannabis Dispensary Licenses

2 years 9 months ago
CHICAGO — Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) today issued 149 Conditional Adult Use Dispensing Organization Licenses to applicants selected in three lotteries held in the summer of 2021. All businesses qualify as Social Equity Applicants under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act. The list of today’s awardees and the next steps for the conditional license period are available on the IDFPR’s Adult Use Cannabis webpage . Of the businesses selected through the lottery, 41% are majority Black-owned, 7% are majority White-owned, and 4% are majority Latino-owned, while 38% of awardees did not disclose the race of their owners. To date, Illinois has made and executed the greatest commitment of adult-use cannabis tax revenue to community reinvestment, expunged the most criminal history records involving cannabis, and has the highest rate of minority ownership of any state reporting/collecting ownership demographic

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Republicans in Congress shy away from campaigning on national abortion platform

2 years 9 months ago

WASHINGTON — Republicans, hoping to flip control of Congress in the November elections, appear to have decided against campaigning on a unified abortion platform that would specify exactly what conservatives plan to do if given control of the U.S. House and Senate. Yet Republicans in Congress have written dozens of proposals that, if passed, would […]

The post Republicans in Congress shy away from campaigning on national abortion platform appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Jennifer Shutt

Sen. Hawley criticized over new Jan. 6 video

2 years 9 months ago
The committee displayed a well-known picture of Hawley raising a fist of solidarity to those gathered to protest the transition of power between former President Trump and current President Biden as he arrived at the Capitol that day, then the display switched to video of Hawley fleeing the U.S. Capitol as protesters gathered in the halls.
Chloe Folmar

Court Suppresses Phone Search, Telling Cops A Warrant With No Probable Cause Is Like Having No Warrant At All

2 years 9 months ago
Not every crime is linked to a cell phone, no matter what cops may think. True, cell phones are omnibuses of information, containing overflowing email inboxes, social media posts, personal contacts, photographs, text messages, vast amounts of location history, etc., but not every crime generates evidence on a phone, not even one carried by a […]
Tim Cushing

East St. Louis High School Uniform Requirements Are Eased And Clear Backpacks Required

2 years 9 months ago
EAST ST. LOUIS - Beginning in School Year 2022-2023, high school students at East St. Louis School District 189 will not be required to wear a school uniform, as they have for a number of years. Rather, students in grades 9-12 must simply abide by a dress code that continues to align with the district’s board policy and current guidance from the Illinois Principals Association. “The dress code will allow students more flexibility,” noted Superintendent Arthur R. Culver. “In the past, high school students were required to wear a polo shirt in a specific color, indicating their grade band.” The change is occurring based on feedback received from students, parents, and the community requesting more flexibility. “Students have been advocating for greater uniform flexibility for some time,” said Sydney Stigge-Kaufman, Executive Director of Communications. In particular, members of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council have

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Beverly Farm Resident Kathleen Gastler Wins One Gold And Two Silver Medals In Bocce At Special Olympics USA Games In Orlando

2 years 9 months ago
GODFREY - Beverly Farm is thrilled to announce Kathleen Gastler, a resident at the 125-year-old home for adults with developmental disabilities, has won one gold and two silver medals in Bocce for Team Illinois at the Special Olympics USA Games. More than 5,500 athletes and coaches from all over the US and the Caribbean participated in the USA Games, held June 5-11 in Orlando, FL. Gastler won a gold medal in Ladies Singles Bocce. She also earned two silver medals: one in Ladies Doubles Bocce with partner Karyn Mrotek from Palos Heights, IL, and one in Team Bocce with her Team Illinois partners that again included Mrotek, as well as Kenny Ogden and Frank Kajdanowski. Ogden and Kajdanowski are both from Chicago. Gastler is originally from Martinsburg, Missouri. She has been a Beverly Farm resident since 2011 and currently lives in a group home setting on the Farm’s beautiful campus in Godfrey, IL. She has been playing bocce for 10 years. “I was excited to represent Beverly

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Gov. Pritzker Leads Senator Bailey By Nine Points

2 years 9 months ago
CHICAGO - In the first Illinois Poll after the June primary, Governor JB Pritzker leads his Republican opponent State Senator Darren Bailey by nine points. The first-term Governor was the choice of 48.9% of the respondents, while the downstate State Senator received 39.0% of the vote. The results are part of the latest Illinois poll, conducted July 17-19, 2022. It is a semi-monthly survey conducted since 2001 by Victory Research, an independent polling company based in Chicago. The poll of 1208 likely Illinois general election voters has a margin of error of 2.82% and was conducted by live callers. Respondents answered on landlines (411) and cell phones (797). www.illinoispoliticsblog.com . Pritzker, a first-term Governor, fell below the 50% mark for the first time in 2022, according to the poll, in both the head-to-head matchup with Bailey and a question about whether he has earned another term in office. In the January Illinois Poll, for example, Pritzker’s “re-elect”

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Falstaff Takes Center Stage At Union Avenue Opera

2 years 9 months ago
ST. LOUIS - Critics are hailing Union Avenue Opera’s Twenty-Eighth Festival Season opener Eugene Onegin as “super,” “excellent,” and “an intense production filled with incredible performances.” Amidst the excitement the cast of UAO’s production of Falstaff have begun staging Verdi’s riotous Italian romp based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. The production is helmed by director Jon Truitt and conductor Stephen Hargreaves who previously paired together for last summer’s critically acclaimed Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Big Top. “This is one of my all-time favorite operas because of the extraordinary quality of the music, the libretto, and the story,” said Truitt. “We are seeing Verdi here at the height of his powers writing to an excellent ‘better than the original Shakespeare’ libretto by Arrigo Boito – a great composer in his own right. There’s just so

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American Red Cross Seeks 35 New Disaster Response Volunteers

2 years 9 months ago
ST. LOUIS - The American Red Cross of Missouri and Arkansas is seeking individuals interested in serving in a new virtual volunteer role: regional disaster duty officer. The position can be done from home anywhere in the Missouri-Arkansas region and serves as a dispatcher, sending out Red Cross response teams to home fires or other local disasters as they happen. “Previously, we had a local disaster duty officer volunteer in each chapter area, but recently changed to a regional approach expanding the role to have greater responsibilities,” said Chris Harmon, Regional Disaster Officer for American Red Cross of Missouri and Arkansas. “Now, the regional disaster duty officer takes calls from about half of the two-state region, rather than a small number of counties, and they dispatch local on-call teams to provide immediate assistance to those affected by home fires or other disasters.” This newly expanded role is critical to the success of the organization.

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22nd Judicial Circuit Court To Implement Mask Mandate For Jury Assembly Room

2 years 9 months ago
ST. LOUIS - By administrative order of Presiding Judge Michael F. Stelzer, the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court today announced it is implementing a temporary mask mandate for its jury assembly room on the first floor of the Civil Courts Building in downtown St. Louis. It will take effect on Monday, July 25, 2022, and will continue through at least Friday, September 2, 2022. The mandate applies to all Court employees, members of the public summoned for jury duty, and any other person inside any portion of the jury assembly room at any time. The jury assembly room is indoor space and the Court’s most high-traffic area where groups of dozens of people routinely gather at a single time throughout carrying out their jury service almost every week of the year. As such, and because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to encourage mask wearing in crowded indoor spaces, the Court believes this precautionary measure is an important step toward helping reduce

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Durbin, Duckworth Announce More Than $12.2 Million For Health Care Research In Illinois

2 years 9 months ago
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today announced $12,245,863 in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) biomedical research grants for Illinois institutions. The funding will be put toward research programs across the state to support medical advancement in various fields, ranging from vascular diseases to mental health research. “Federal investments in medical research pushes our society forward, bringing us new treatments for the serious conditions that touch all of our families in one way or another,” said Durbin. “Illinois’ world-class research institutions will make good use of this federal funding to make devastating diseases like cancer, ALS, or heart disease more treatable.” “By increasing support for biomedical research, we can help deliver real public health results for Illinois families,” Duckworth said. “I will keep working with Senator Durbin

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IMPACT Strategies Hires Two New Office Staff Members

2 years 9 months ago
FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS - IMPACT Strategies’ office staff has grown by two – the firm has added Tori DeClercq as Project Assistant and Gerica Stucker as Accounting Coordinator. Tori DeClercq holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science from Western Illinois University. In her new position as Project Assistant, Tori will be assisting project managers throughout all phases of construction on IMPACT’s projects across the region. She joined IMPACT Strategies in April after working for several years in the agricultural industry. DeClercq lives in Freeburg, IL with her husband and one-year-old daughter. Gerica Stucker brings more than seven years of administrative experience in the construction industry to her new role as Accounting Coordinator. A member of the IMPACT team since May, she holds an Associate of Science degree from Southeastern Illinois College. Stucker resides in Collinsville, IL. Mark Hinrichs, President of IMPACT Strategies said, “We are

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