Tag: illinois

Trans-Identifying HS Volleyball Player Sends Illinois Community Into Uproar

A trans-identifying biological male at James B. Conant High School in Illinois, who reportedly stands 6-foot-4, made the freshman girls volleyball team despite never having previously played the sport, OutKick has learned. 

According to a parent of one of the freshman girls, who spoke to OutKick on the condition of anonymity, around 70 girls tried out for the team and only 23 made it – along with the male to complete the 24-player roster. 

In addition, the longtime girls’ volleyball coach allegedly resigned her position after being forced to allow the male – who is also allegedly using the girls’ bathroom and locker room facilities, according to parents – on the girls’ team. 

OutKick reached out to the school’s athletics department and principal. 

On Wednesday night, August 20, the Township High School District 211 school board – which oversees Conant, a school located in the Chicago suburbs – held a special meeting and allowed members of the public to speak. Chaos ensued. 

Parents beg school board to take action

Over the course of an hour, 16 people spoke at the meeting. Some were in opposition to a male on the girls’ team and some were in favor. The first few speakers all begged the school board to intervene and remove the male from the girls’ volleyball team. 

“If you want groundbreaking, revolutionary, inclusive ideas, start a trans league so trans people can compete against each other. But keep biological men out of biological girls’ sports. Protect our girls,” John Goodman, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, said. 

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Will County Democrat Jacqueline Traynere — Who Once Struck a Child With Her Car — Now CHARGED With Three Counts of Computer Tampering After Allegedly Hacking Fellow Board Members’ Emails

The scandals surrounding Will County Democrat Jacqueline Traynere keep piling up.

Traynere, a Democrat Will County Board member serving Bolingbrook, Illinois, is now officially charged with three counts of computer tampering, according to documents filed in Will County Circuit Court this week, Patch reported.

The charges stem from an incident in March 2024 when Traynere allegedly accessed the private email account of Republican Board Chair Judy Ogalla without authorization. Prosecutors say Traynere then forwarded Ogalla’s conversations to Democrat County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant in an apparent attempt to undermine her political opponents.

Computer tampering is a Class B misdemeanor in Illinois.

More from the Chicago Tribune:

Traynere, a Bolingbrook Democrat, allegedly accessed the email account of board member Judy Ogalla, a Monee Republican, in March 2024 without Ogalla’s authorization, according to the charges.

The misdemeanor charges filed by special prosecutor William Elward state Traynere forwarded emails from Ogalla’s account to herself and others.

Ogalla, who was the Will County Board chairman at the time, said that Traynere knowingly accessed her email and knew it was unethical.

Ogalla questioned whether Traynere had opened her email more than once. She said she doesn’t know what all Traynere saw.

“Was she in my email other times and I just didn’t know?” Ogalla said. “She shouldn’t have done it.”

An email exchanged between board member Steve Balich, a Homer Glen Republican, and Ogalla regarding the controversial 143rd Street road widening project had been forwarded to the county executive, who replied to the email, Balich said during a July 2024 news conference with other County Board Republicans.

This isn’t Traynere’s first brush with controversy. Earlier this year, she was involved in a disturbing incident where she struck a child riding a bicycle with her car.

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JB Pritzker Under Fire Over His Latest Move Helping Illegal Aliens

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a measure that opens state-funded student financial aid to all residents, regardless of immigration status, making illegal immigrants in Illinois eligible for educational financial benefits.

The legislation, framed as creating “equitable eligibility for financial aid and benefits,” establishes that any student residing in the state who is not otherwise eligible for federal financial aid can now qualify for assistance.

The law specifically cites students disqualified from federal aid, such as transgender students who fail to register for selective service or noncitizen students who lack lawful permanent residence.

The bill was met with immediate criticism from conservatives, including Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., who described the move as prioritizing illegal immigrants over Illinois families.

“Allowing taxpayer-funded financial aid for illegal aliens is a slap in the face to hardworking Illinois families and students,” Miller told Fox News Digital.

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Illinois State Police Trooper Charged for Allegedly Possessing, Distributing Child Porn

A state police trooper in Deerfield, Illinois, is facing child pornography charges linked to the app known as Kik.

The suspect is identified as 38-year-old Illinois State Police Trooper Colin Gruenke, the Lake and McHenry County Scanner reported on Friday.

“A criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said an investigation began last year after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a report of the social networking platform Kik,” the article said.

Kik alerted authorities when it appeared someone was using a profile on the platform to upload and distribute files of child porn in September. Not long after the first tip was issued, Kik said another account was uploading and distributing files containing that form of material.

When those accounts were linked to the suspect and his home address, search warrants allowed officials to search the man and his residence.

“Agents conducted the search warrant for Gruenke at the Illinois State Police headquarters in Des Plaines on Wednesday and then conducted the warrant for the residence at his home shortly after,” the Scanner report said.

According to CBS News, the agents found evidence of deleted child porn on the cellphone he was holding at the time, and some of the images were reportedly of children whose ages were around four years old.

“Agents also executed a search warrant at his home, where they found a flash drive containing approximately 200 videos of child pornography, including numerous videos showing children being sexually abused by adults, including children as young as 10,” the CBS article read.

Gruenke, who was arrested Wednesday and placed on administrative leave without pay, is now the subject of an internal investigation by state police and is being held in custody.

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Illinois Democrat Representative Ramirez Declares She Is American Second

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) is facing criticism after remarks made during the second annual Panamerican Congress held in Mexico, where she reportedly stated, “I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.”

The comments were delivered in Spanish and confirmed by multiple Spanish speakers, according to the Daily Caller.

The summit, described by Daily Caller as a radical gathering organized by individuals tied to anti-American causes, featured Ramirez as one of several high-profile Democratic speakers.

Ramirez, who represents Illinois’ newly drawn (gerrymandered) 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, attended alongside fellow “Squad” members Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).

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Texas Dems ripped for ‘cartoonishly dumb’ strategy to flee to blue state notorious for gerrymandering

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is rolling out the red carpet for Democratic state lawmakers who fled Texas as they push back against a move by President Donald Trump to add five Republican-controlled congressional seats in their state.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that they’re welcome here, that they have the ability to stay as long as they need to and want to,” Pritzker, a Democrat, said on Sunday evening as the lawmakers arrived in Illinois.

The lawmakers fled Texas in order to prevent the quorum needed in the Republican-dominated state legislature to vote on Monday on the new redistricting maps, which passed a committee vote this past weekend along party lines.

The redistricting push in Texas is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to keep control of the House and cushion losses elsewhere in the country, as the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats in midterm elections.

But veteran Republican strategist Matt Whitlock argued that the decision by most of the Democratic lawmakers to head to Illinois – with a few others decamping in two other blue states, New York and Massachusetts – was “cartoonishly dumb.”

Tom Bevan, the RealClearPolitics co-founder and president, wrote on X, “The idea that Texas Democrats would flee to Illinois, a state where Dems have abused gerrymandering to comical levels, is perfection.”

“To protest ‘partisan gerrymandering’ Texas Democrats are fleeing to…Illinois,” Republican Missouri Senator Eric Scmitt wrote on X. “You can’t make this up.”

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DOE cancels $4.9B loan for energy project Illinois lawmaker calls a ‘scam’

The U.S. Department of Energy has canceled $4.9 billion in federal loans for the Grain Belt Express, a proposed multistate transmission line that faced pushback from Illinois landowners over concerns about property rights and eminent domain.

State Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, praised the DOE’s decision and called the project a “scam” driven by global investors and green energy lobbyists.

“This is a huge win for taxpayers in Illinois and across the United States,” Miller said in an interview. “It was an assault on property rights, on the livelihoods of Illinois farmers, and I’m proud to stand with my constituents against this scam.”

The 800-mile Grain Belt Express aimed to carry wind power from Kansas eastward but drew rural backlash over eminent domain, including opposition at a 2024 Meade County Kansas Corporation Commission hearing where resident Barbra Parker spoke.

“The current plan would place it approximately 150 feet from my front door. Over the years, through that very door, have walked my grandfather, my father, my grandmother, my mother, myself, and now my daughter Kate — four generations of farmers and ranchers,” said Parker. “So I’m asking Invenergy to work with me on possibly adjusting the route or considering micrositing alternatives. I’m asking that the commission oversee and ensure that micrositing is used.”

Micrositing in wind energy means fine-tuning turbine placement to boost output and reduce environmental impact.

Supporters say the Grain Belt Express would improve grid reliability, deliver lower-cost clean energy to major population centers and generate economic activity along its route.

In 2023, when the ICC approved the project, Mark Denzler, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association said in a news release, “This project will deliver billions in energy cost savings. Energy infrastructure investment is key to ensuring our region maintains our traditional energy cost advantage and manufacturing competitiveness.”

Miller criticized the project as a costly green energy push that threatens farmland and drives up electric bills.

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Drones, cameras, AI: University of Illinois real time crime center raises privacy concerns

Thousands of cameras. A fleet of drones. Gun shot detection devices. Stationary and vehicle-mounted automatic license plate readers.

A major metropolitan city? No, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Real-Time Information Center furnishes the institution’s Division of Public Safety with a number of technologically sophisticated tools that have some privacy experts alarmed.

The drones, gunshot detection devices, automatic license plate readers, and campus-wide system of roughly 3,000 security cameras are among the tools currently utilized at the campus, which enrolls about 59,000 students.

Social media monitoring programs and “AI-driven video analytics software” are also among the technologies being evaluated for possible future implementation, according to a document sent by Urbana Police Chief Larry Boone.

He sent it to city officials as they deliberate a proposed city ordinance to establish stricter approval, oversight, and transparency requirements for Urbana’s own acquisition and use of the kinds of surveillance tools being used by the university’s Real-Time Information Center.

According to the document, the Real-Time Information Center provides a wide array of services designed to enhance public safety, streamline operations, and support law enforcement agencies.

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The Toxic Combination Of Illinois’ Sanctuary Status And The SAFE-T Act

It’s hard to believe he’s been walking freely for months. A woman overdosed in his home. He concealed her death and dumped her body in a bleach-filled trash can in his back yard – where it remained for more than two months. His alleged crimes were heinous.  Abuse of a corpse. Concealing a death and obstruction of justice. Class 4 felonies.

Yet after Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez was finally arrested, he couldn’t be held in jail. His alleged crimes didn’t qualify for pretrial detention under the SAFE-T Act, a law passed in 2021 that makes it more difficult to detain alleged criminals for certain crimes. The Act also made Illinois the first state in the country to ban cash bail altogether. 

Incredibly, authorities had yet another opportunity to put Mendoza-Gonzalez behind bars. He’s an illegal immigrant and could have been handed over to federal authorities. But Illinois’ sanctuary status meant, again, he was allowed to walk free while awaiting trial. 

It’s an infuriating example of how criminals in Illinois are prioritized over victims and their families. And how two laws – Illinois’ sanctuary status and the SAFE-T Act – can combine to wreak havoc on Illinoisans.

How many offenders in Illinois have been let out before trial due to an undetainable crime and then committed yet more offenses? It’s hard to know, but CWB Chicago in their “not horrible” series has at least compiled a list of individuals accused of killing, shooting, or trying to kill or shoot others while on pretrial release for a felony allegation.

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Government finally recognizes the Second Amendment

How far has America fallen when the DOJ’s Civil Rights division files an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting the Second Amendment against Illinois, and that filing is unusual? How can it be that the DOJ defending a fundamental, unalienable, express constitutional right should be rare, so rare as to be surprising, even astonishing?

If Democrats and their media propaganda arm are to be believed, Donald Trump is a dictator bent on destroying “our democracy.” Ironically, they’re right. He is determined to destroy “our—their—democracy,” which is a tyranny of the majority. That’s why Dems are so desperate to keep every illegal in the country. They want that 50.0000001%, which in a democracy rules. In “our democracy” the majority can deprive the minority of property, rights, liberty, even life. Thus did Biden’s Handler’s Forestry Service try to imprison South Dakota ranchers Charles and Heather Maude over a fence built before they were born. Under “our democracy” they would have gone to jail for ten years leaving their children without their parents. Under our constitutional, representative republic, the charges were dropped.

Such is the tyranny of Donald Trump who ordered his Administration to protect the Second Amendment rights of Americans. “Our Democracy,” like all would-be tyrants, wants to disarm all Americans. Trump, the dictator, wants American’s Second Amendment rights protected.

The issue in this case is Illinois’ violation of the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision by banning “assault weapons,” primarily AR-15s, the most popular rifle in America, and “high capacity” magazines—actually, standard capacity magazines.  Thus are Illinois’ Democrat rulers part of “our democracy” rather than America’s representative republic.

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