Category: News
‘It’s a blessing’: Chevrolet of Homewood gives free car to mother with disabled infant son
Lameisha Moon frequently takes her son to two or three doctor’s appointments a day, she said. She started crying Christmas Eve when Chevrolet of Homewood owner Steve Phillipos presented her with a new car.
Her son, 8-month-old Jahmyr Moon, was born significantly disabled as a result of a difficult birth where he went 20 minutes without oxygen. Though Jahmyr survived, he was left with serious disabilities, including cerebral palsy.
“It’s a blessing to us,” Moon said. “I’ve been taking transportation with my son. He’s on oxygen, he is on a heart monitor. I carry a lot.”
This is the 11th year Chevrolet of Homewood has held its Chevy Cares giveaway, where it gives away a new Chevrolet to someone in need, entirely free. The dealership asks people to write about how a car would change their life.
“It’s not just a luxury. To have a car, think about this, you take your mother to the hospital,” Phillipos said. “Sadly, this young lady is going to be taking a child to the hospital. Right now, she’s waiting for an Uber. Nothing against Uber or anyone else, but you have a sick baby, is that what you want to do?”
About 400 people entered the giveaway this year, Phillipos estimated. Chevrolet of Homewood employees volunteer to help sift through the applications and narrow down the pool to a few top candidates.
“That was God, right there,” Moon said, recalling how she felt when she got called and informed she was a finalist.
Moon’s aunt and cousin convinced her to enter the giveaway. Her cousin, Samiyah Moon, said she had also applied, but that she couldn’t think of anyone more deserving than Lameisha.
Tom Mulrenin used to be one of the employees who helped to go through applications. He’s since retired, but said he still comes back every year to see the giveaway.
“I just thought, what a wonderful thing to do for people,” Mulrenin said. “Especially this time of year.”
Phillipos said he was inspired to start the giveaway after his dealership was rocked by a period of instability.
Chevrolet of Homewood employees ring a bell and throw confetti to celebrate Lameisha Moon’s new car on Christmas Eve. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)
“The car business took a complete dump during the recession. People were closing down dealerships,” Phillipos said. “I said to myself, man, just let me get through this and I’m going to try to do something nice every year.”
The dealership tries to do good in the community all year, Phillipos said, but the giveaway is the grand finale.
“I was watching a movie with my kids, and it was “Miracle on 34th Street.” And the slogan came up of, ‘Do you believe in miracles?’” Phillipos said. “And you know what? I kind of do. And that’s how this started.”
Phillipos said he hopes to keep the giveaway going as long as he can.
“I’m a lucky guy, I really am. This could’ve went different, 10, 12 years ago, when the car business took the dump,” Phillipos said. “If everybody that does OK — or well, and I do well, I’m not going to lie — just gives a little something back to somebody else, we can make this a better place. We really can.”
Steve Phillipos embraces past giveaway winner Latoya Glover on Christmas Eve. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)
Jahmyr Moon, 8 months old, in his stroller at Chevrolet of Homewood on Christmas Eve. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)
Phillipos said it’s difficult to choose a winner with so many people in need, but said he tries to choose someone whose life will be genuinely changed by the gift.
“You read these stories, I kid you not, you want to pour gasoline on yourself and hit yourself with a match,” Phillipos said. “There’s so many sad stories, you can’t help everybody. So we narrow it down to how the car can change somebody’s life.”
In addition to the car, a 2026 Chevrolet Trax, the dealership also paid off the sales tax for Moon, filled the tank with gas and paid for her first three months of insurance.
“When she drives out of there, she has to worry about nothing. Nothing,” Phillipos said. “Not a stinking thing.”
Lameisha Moon sits in the driver’s seat of her new car, a 2026 Chevrolet Trax, on Christmas Eve. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)
Moon said the car is going to make a huge difference in her life.
“I don’t have to worry about buses or my insurance. I can get up and go in my own vehicle. I know we’re going to be warm. All his stuff can fit,” Lameisha Moon said. “We don’t have to worry about danger, people staring at me, asking questions, staring at my son. It’s going to change my life.”
Phillipos said he tries to stay in touch with former recipients and see how they’re doing. Former winners include an elderly couple caring for their great-granddaughter, an Oak Lawn mother of six and a couple with two sons with epilepsy.
“Hopefully, when they’re 40 years from now, they’re going to say, some cheesy car dealership helped me and gave me a car, and my life changed,” Phillipos said.
elewis@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/chevrolet-homewood-mother-disabled-son/
Former Portage Mayor James Snyder’s sentencing delayed again
Former Portage Mayor James Snyder’s January sentencing was delayed following the former judge’s recusal in the case.
Judge Gretchen Lund recused herself Dec. 19, and the case has been assigned to Chief Judge Holly Brady. With the case being reassigned, Brady cancelled the January 14, 2026, sentencing hearing and set a status hearing for Jan. 20, 20206, according to court records.
Josh Minkler, Snyder’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Snyder asked for a new trial on his conviction for defrauding the IRS in federal court filings in October. Federal prosecutors, in their response, said his request is untimely and without merit.
This is the latest chapter in a saga that began nine years ago when Snyder was indicted on one count of defrauding the IRS and two counts of bribery, one involving towing contracts and the other involving garbage trucks.
A jury in U.S. District Court in Hammond found Snyder not guilty on the charge involving the towing contract, and convicted him twice on the garbage truck charge, a case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which deemed in June of last year that the $13,000 payment Snyder received over a garbage truck contract was a gratuity, not a bribe, because the payment came after the contract and not before. The case was remanded to the lower courts.
A jury convicted Snyder on the IRS charge, which involved his personal business and not his duties as mayor at the time, and that conviction remained unchallenged.
Snyder was scheduled to go to trial for a third time on the charge involving the garbage truck contract, but prosecutors have said they would like to sentence Snyder for obstructing the IRS and forgo a third trial on his bribery charge.
Snyder, awaiting sentencing on the IRS conviction, which has been repeatedly pushed back, argued in an Oct. 31 filing that he wanted a new trial on the IRS charge because the information presented on the bribery charges could have improperly swayed the jury.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office argues that Snyder’s request “is both untimely and meritless.”
“Now, after the parties agreed to proceed to sentencing on the tax count and have begun their sentencing advocacy before this Court, defendant seeks leave for additional motion practice to challenge his 2019 conviction,” prosecutors said in their filing. “Defendant wants this Court to grant the extraordinary remedy of overturning a jury’s verdict setting the case for multiple new trials.”
Snyder “failed to raise the issue of misjoinder or severance (of the charges) before trial in 2019,” prosecutors said.
He also made a “strategic decision” to go to trial on all of the counts rather than arguing at the time for the counts to be separated for trial, prosecutors said. “Defendant thus waived any claim to improper joinder by failing to make this argument before trial,” prosecutors said.
In response, Snyder filed a motion that said prosecutors “charged him with bribery for conduct that ‘any fair reader’” of the law “would be left with a reasonable doubt” if a crime was committed.
“The result was a trial that was infected with constitutional error. And now that the Government has lost before the Supreme Court, it wants to use the conviction on (the IRS charge)…as a backdoor opportunity to bring in evidence of the overturned (bribery charge) instead of allowing him what he has never received – a fair trial on the tax count.”
While prosecutors stated that “the parties agreed to proceed to sentencing on the tax count,” Snyder’s lawyer wrote he never agreed to that.
“Mr. Snyder only agreed that the interests of justice call for an end to this prosecution,” his attorney wrote. “He specifically objected to the Government’s proposed use of unproven bribery allegations to enhance his sentence on the tax count. He never agreed to waive his constitutional right to a fair trial on the tax count, nor should he be compelled to do so.”
Snyder, a Republican, was first elected mayor in 2011 and reelected in 2015, a term cut short by his federal conviction in February 2019.
Snyder received a sentence of 21 months in prison for the bribery and IRS convictions and a year on supervised release from U.S. District Court Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois.
Snyder successfully argued that the start of his sentence should be postponed until his bid to have the Supreme Court hear his case was complete.
akukulka@post-trib.com
Land Of Confusion: The Great Reset In Motion
Land Of Confusion: The Great Reset In Motion
Authored by Colin Todhunter via Off-Guardian.org,
The global disruptions we have seen in recent years are frequently presented as a chaotic sequence of events: a ‘pandemic’, inflation, energy shortages and war.
Little wonder that most people are confused. However, a structural analysis reveals a more deliberate controlled demolition of the 20th-century social contract.
We are witnessing a transition from a productive capitalist model, which required a healthy mass labour force, to what Yanis Varoufakis calls a techno-feudalist order.
The engine of this transition was a desperate financial stabilisation strategy carried out by means of a public health event. As identified by Professor Fabio Vighi, the global financial system reached a point of terminal instability in late 2019, evidenced by the collapse of the US repo market (where banks lend to each other).
By freezing the real economy through lockdowns, central banks performed massive liquidity injections to save the banking-finance tier. If that money had entered a functioning economy, it would have triggered hyper-inflation. By keeping the population at home, the elite performed a stealth bailout that preserved the dominance of the financial class by sacrificing the productive middle class.
However, a geopolitical reset also had to take place. For decades, Germany’s economy relied on three pillars: cheap Russian gas, high-tech exports to China and a US security umbrella. By late 2025, all three have been fractured. As Prof Michael Hudson notes, the ‘sabotage’ of the Nord Stream pipelines was a structural necessity for the Western financial elite.
If Germany continued to integrate with Russia and China, it would have created a power pole independent of the US dollar. The conflict in Ukraine served a purpose: it resulted in Germany replacing Russian pipeline gas and being forced into a massive build-out of liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure and reliance on LNG from the US. Unlike pipeline gas, LNG must be super-cooled, shipped and re-gasified, a process that is inherently 3–4 times more expensive.
The result is that, in 2025, German industrial output is at its lowest since the 1990s. Heavy industries like BASF (chemicals) and ThyssenKrupp (steel) are relocating to the US or China. Meanwhile, Germany is pivoting from an industrial giant by betting on creating jobs in the likes of the green energy sector (including becoming a ‘hydrogen hub’), semiconductors and microelectronics, robotics and biotech and diverting its capital into a €150 billion annual defence spend.
At the same time, while Germany collapses, the City of London thrives on global volatility. Among other things, the City is the global hub for war risk insurance and energy brokerage. When a pipeline is destroyed or a strategically important shipping lane is threatened, the price of war risk insurance triples. The London insurance market (Lloyd’s) extracts these ‘risk premiums’ from the global economy.
The City’s brokers treat geopolitical instability as a volatile asset class. Even as British households are crushed by energy bills, the financial centre remains profitable by extracting wealth from the very chaos that foreign policy helps to manufacture.
Moreover, the City of London has secured its position as the indispensable middleman of the transatlantic energy pivot. While the physical gas originates in the US and is consumed in Europe, the financial and legal architecture of this trade is almost entirely managed in London.
Commodity brokers and exchanges like ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) in London have seen record volumes in LNG futures and derivatives. These are financial bets on the future price of gas. As volatility increases, the fees and commissions extracted by London-based traders and clearinghouses skyrocket.
More than 90% of the world’s marine insurance, including the specialised, high-premium coverage required for LNG tankers, is underwritten through Lloyd’s. By enforcing strict war risk premiums on any ship entering European waters, London effectively imposes a private tax on every molecule of gas that replaces the lost Russian pipeline supply.
This ensures that while European industry is struggling with high energy costs, the City’s financial firms extract a massive toll from the logistics of the replacement supply.
Of course, the structural readjustment of economies leads to huge social tensions.
This is where the ‘Russian threat’ comes in. It has been elevated to an all-encompassing internal narrative used to manage domestic dissent and to galvanise the public to rally behind the flag. The bogeyman serves a vital psychological function by converting the growing anger of the impoverished into a patriotic duty to endure hardship.
Under this regime of ‘permanent emergency’, any industrial action, protest or systemic critique can be branded as malign foreign influence or subversion, allowing the state to use new, expansive policing powers to suppress internal friction.
To justify the redirection of billions in tax revenue away from failing public services and into the military-industrial complex to create ‘growth’ in a failing economy (a desperate attempt to revive a collapsing neoliberalism—see chapter two here), the state must maintain a high-decibel level of existential fear. In the UK, the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 explicitly frames militarisation as an engine for growth, using the spectre of a Russian invasion to legitimise a state-subsidised transfer of wealth to high-tech defence contractors.
By manufacturing a permanent state of war-footing, the elite ensure that a main pillar of the economy is the one that directly serves the security of the state, while the population is told that their dwindling healthcare and pensions are a necessary sacrifice for national survival.
In this respect, we also see the changing status of the human being. In the industrial era, the state ‘subscribed’ to the working class, investing in the NHS and education because it required a fit population to drive production. Artificial intelligence, robotics and economic decline increasingly make much of this labour force redundant.
As capital may no longer find the reproduction of labour desirable or profitable, the state withdraws its subscription. The visible rot in the NHS is the result of deliberate divestment. (The UK private health insurance market has surged to a record £8.64 billion, a nearly 14% year-on-year increase.)
If the worker is no longer required for production, the state views healthcare as a ‘non-performing cost’ to be liquidated.
When a population is no longer an asset but a fiscal liability, the state moves from care to managing exit. It’s no accident that we have seen calls for the rapid legalisation of assisted suicide across the West. It might also help to explain the prescribing of midazolam and do not resuscitate orders in care homes during the COVID event. Data shows that the UK government purchased vast quantities of midazolam (two years’ worth of stock in just two months) in early 2020.
In 2025, official impact assessments noted that legalising assisted dying would result in “considerable cost savings” for the NHS and state pension system—estimated at up to £18.3 million within a decade for pensions alone. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Impact Assessment (May 2025) officially quantified the ‘benefits and pensions’ impact. It estimated that by year 10, the state would save roughly £27.7 million per year in unpaid pension and benefit payments due to assisted deaths.
By accelerating the ‘offboarding’ of the non-productive elderly (whatever happened to the COVID era marketing slogan of ‘saving granny’?), the system wipes billions in future pension liabilities off the state balance sheet.
Moving forward, what can we expect? We will see the elite continue to rollout the narrative of permanent emergency under the guise of climate crisis and Russian threat to provide the ideological discipline required to justify a boosted austerity.
Meanwhile, digital ID and central bank digital currencies will create a system of total surveillance. In this emerging system, the citizen is replaced by the ‘managed subject’, whose access to the economy is contingent upon a social credit score.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/24/2025 – 13:25
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/land-confusion-great-reset-motion
Powerful holiday storm lashes Southern California and threatens mudslides in fire-scarred areas
LOS ANGELES — A powerful winter storm swept across Southern California on Wednesday, with heavy rain threatening mudslides and debris flows in areas scorched by wildfires, bringing near white-out snow conditions in the mountains and hazardous travel for millions of holiday drivers.
Forecasters said Southern California could see its wettest Christmas in years and warned about flash flooding. Areas scorched by January’s wildfires were under evacuation warnings, and Los Angeles County officials said Tuesday they were going door to door at about 380 especially vulnerable homes, ordering residents to evacuate because of the risk of landslides and debris flows.
Areas along the coast, including Malibu, were under flood warnings Wednesday, local officials said. Parts of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties were also watching for potential flooding. Other parts of Southern California were under wind and flood advisories. Further north, much of the Sacramento Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area were under a flood watch and high wind warning.
Minor roadway flooding and downed trees were reported across the state Wednesday.
Early Wednesday morning, the Los Angeles Fire Department rescued a man trapped in a drainage tunnel in northwest LA that led down to a river.
Firefighters were able to get a ladder down through an opening, allowing the man to climb out, the fire department said. No injuries were reported, but the man is being evaluated.
In Monterey along the central coast, more than 5,000 people lost power Tuesday night due to a damaged power pole, according to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
Conditions could worsen as multiple atmospheric rivers move across the state during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. The storm in Los Angeles was expected to strengthen into Wednesday afternoon before tapering off later in the evening.
“If you’re planning to be on the roads for the Christmas holidays, please reconsider your plans,” said Ariel Cohen, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Los Angeles.
Forecasters warned that heavy snow and gusts were expected to create “near white-out conditions” Wednesday in parts of the Sierra Nevada and make it “nearly impossible” to travel through the mountain passes.
James Dangerfield, an 84-year-old Altadena resident, said his family and neighbor helped place sandbags in his backyard earlier this week. His neighborhood was under a flash flood warning as of Wednesday morning, but he wasn’t too worried.
The street he lives on is on a hill, so most rain water flows away from them, he said. For now, he and his wife, Stephanie, planned on staying in the house and spending Christmas Eve with their two adult daughters and grandchildren.
“We’re just going to stay put and everybody will have to come to us. We’re not going to go anywhere,” he said.
Southern California typically gets half an inch to 1 inch (1.3 to 2.5 centimeters) of rain this time of year, but this week many areas could see between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters), National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Wofford said. It could be even more in the mountains. Gusts could reach 60 to 80 mph (97 to 128 kph) in parts of the central coast.
Atmospheric rivers transport moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes in long, narrow bands of water vapor that form over an ocean and flow through the sky.
Officials have taken steps to reduce the risk in and around the burn scars, with Los Angeles County installing K-rails, a type of barrier to help catch sliding debris from burned areas, as well as offering free sandbags to residents.
The storm has already caused damage in Northern California, where flash flooding led to water rescues and at least one death, authorities said.
The state has deployed emergency resources and first responders to several coastal and Southern California counties, and the California National Guard remains on standby.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/storm-southern-california/
Wellness Room at Stagg High School offers students ‘quiet space to retreat and refocus’
School can be overwhelming sometimes, especially when thousands of high school students come together in one building, but Amos Alonzo Stagg High School in Palos Hills has created a space designed to combat some of that stress.
Its new Wellness Room, which had an official open house last month, is a dedicated space for students to relax and recharge.
It’s “intentionally designed in order to create a calming and welcoming environment for students,” said Jocelyn Wysocki, a Stagg social worker who spearheaded the project with social worker Paige Lombard.
“I think our main hope for this space is to help fill a need that we’ve seen for years – students needing space, time, and support to calm themselves from various situations as well as students sometimes needing a quiet space to retreat and refocus so they can proceed with their day,” Wysocki shared. “I’ve seen that our students are often quite skilled in this area – knowing when they’re feeling better and when they might need additional support.”
The room’s effects are expected to extend beyond the school day. “Providing a safe and supportive environment, one in which students are facilitated to manage their emotions by trialing and practicing new coping skills, can ultimately work to support positive outcomes for students and the school community as a whole,” Wysocki explained. “We can create a supportive environment that equips students with the coping tools and strategies they need to navigate the stressors and challenges they may face during their academic day and beyond.”
The Wellness Room was created with students’ needs in mind. “As the room is multipurpose (hosting drop-in students, social work groups, meetings, enrichment sessions, etc), we have a number of larger meeting tables as well as soft furnishings (armchairs, a couch, a beanbag) that students may opt for during a drop-in session. We prioritized low, decentralized lighting to support a calm feeling in the space,” Wysocki said. “We project calming music and videos during sessions as well.”
The room’s design drew praise from Kathryn Meader, director of Stagg’s guidance department, who supervises the social workers.
“Our social workers did an outstanding job thoughtfully designing the Wellness Room. Every element – from the calming furniture choices to the hands-on coping tools and activities – was selected with purpose. They created a space that feels welcoming, safe, and responsive to students’ emotional needs,” she said. “It is clear the team wanted a room where any student could walk in, feel grounded, and immediately access strategies that support their well-being.”
She hopes it becomes “a reliable, stigma-free resource for students – a place they can use proactively, not just in moments of stress. We want students to develop emotional awareness, coping strategies, and self-regulation skills that will serve them long after their time at Stagg. Ultimately, I hope this space strengthens our broader culture of care and continues to highlight the essential work of our social workers.”
Thus far, Meader believes it’s working well. “While it is still new, the early indicators show that it is meeting a real need in our building. Students are using the room to regulate, reset, and return to class more focused and ready to learn. Teachers and support staff have shared that students appear more regulated and equipped to handle challenges after visiting.”
A grant from the District 230 Education Foundation paid for special furnishings, carpets, lighting and supplies for activities in the new Wellness Room at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School in Palos Hills. (District 230)
The Wellness Room, which is in a new classroom in the recent addition at Stagg, is centrally located on the main floor near pupil personnel services staff and the main office. It’s open for student drop-ins on Mondays and Thursdays during lunch hours, as well as during second period on select Fridays for enrichment activities.
Those activities are varied. “Enrichment activities this semester have included making friendship bracelets and painting kindness rocks, with mindful coloring, shell painting, making your own worry stone and good luck finals clothespins,” said social worker Shannon Kleczka. “Many students have expressed their appreciation for the space!”
Regular student visitors do seem to enjoy it. “I visit the room with my friend because it is so peaceful and nice,” junior Vanessa Jimenez said via a news release. “To a classmate who is unsure about using the space, I would just tell them that it’s very chill and nice in there mostly when you just need to relax.”
So far, students are giving the room good reviews, according to school officials.
“The enrichments are a great thing to do to also meet others,” one student shared in a news release. “I like how the wellness room during the quiet space is a sensory friendly place with fidget toys too. I usually visit the room when I feel like I’m stressed or overwhelmed.”
A social worker monitors the room during drop-in times Mondays and Thursdays. During enrichment periods on select Friday intervention days, staff such as social workers, interventionists, psychologists and counselors volunteer to supervise students. “It is truly a group effort and their participation is much appreciated in order to provide these sessions to students,” Wysocki said. “A QR code is used to track participant data.”
During lunch-hour drop-ins, students use a variety of the resources, often trying something different each time. “Students seem to enjoy exploring the room and its materials and discovering new ways to relax and de-stress,” Kleczka said.
Enrichment activities help student visitors to the Wellness Room at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School relax. The room is available a few days each week. (District 230)
Creating the room took time, energy and about $5,000, which was provided by the District 230 Foundation to buy furniture, rugs, calming decor, fidget devices and supplies for enrichment activities.
“We are so grateful to have the support of the D230 Foundation in bringing this project to life!” Wysocki shared. “A team of Stagg guidance staff including social workers, counselors and our student assistance coordinator have been managing the project and meet weekly to continue advancing and improving this initiative. We are excited to see how the Stagg Wellness Room grows and develops over time as more students benefit from this universal student support.”
“The idea for a wellness space at Stagg has been around for years, but space was always a limiting factor. After recent construction updates, we were finally able to make it a reality,” Lombard said. “The planning and initial setup began last spring when Jocelyn and I met with our principal and guidance director to gain their support, and it has been an ongoing process since then to refine and enhance the room.”
Lombard said the team requested a classroom space that could be used throughout the school day instead of just during second period. Once that approval was given, Wysocki submitted a grant application to the foundation.
“This school year, we formed a professional learning community focused on the Wellness Room, which includes our social workers, one counselor, and the student assistance coordinator,” Lombard added. “We meet weekly to continuously evaluate and evolve the space based on student needs.”
She said the room’s design was inspired primarily by students, “their feedback, their needs, and the patterns we observed in how they regulate throughout the school day. Many of the elements, such as flexible seating and softer lighting, came directly from student suggestions about what helps them feel calm and focused.”
The team also drew on “conversations with colleagues who have created similar spaces, as well as from our own experiences as social workers and counselors in understanding what environments help young people feel safe and grounded,” Lombard said. “The activities in the room were selected based on what students consistently respond well to, including hands-on calming tools, mindfulness activities, and quiet reflection spaces. Overall, the room is a blend of student voice, collaborative teamwork, and evidence-based practices for regulation and wellness.”
Lombard has high hopes for the project. “My hope for the Wellness Room is that it becomes a safe, welcoming space where students can pause, regulate, and recharge during their day. I want it to be a place where students feel seen and supported, whether they need a moment of calm, a hands-on activity, or just a quiet space to reflect,” she said. “Ultimately, I hope it helps students build the skills and resilience they need to manage stress, emotions, and social challenges both in school and beyond.”
She said students and staff have shared very positive feedback about the space, which shows it’s “filling a real need in our building” such as the low-level lighting, flexible seating and calming environment.
“We continuously evolve the space based on student needs, and we’re considering expanding drop-in opportunities to more days in the future. Overall, the Wellness Room is successfully supporting students in managing stress, building coping skills, and finding a quiet, safe space to reset during the school day, which was exactly our goal,” she said.
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/wellness-room-stagg-high-school/
“Clean Up Your Act”: Nearly 100 Minnesota Mayors Speak Out Against ‘Fraud, Unchecked Spending’
“Clean Up Your Act”: Nearly 100 Minnesota Mayors Speak Out Against ‘Fraud, Unchecked Spending’
Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Almost 100 Minnesota mayors banded together to tell Gov. Tim Walz and state lawmakers that they object to citizens suffering from higher taxes and reduced services—problems they blame on state spending and rampant government program fraud.
The Minnesota capitol building in St. Paul, Minn., on Dec. 8, 2025.Jenn Ackerman for The Epoch Times
The message, conveyed in a two-page letter, can best be summed up by saying, “Clean up your act,” Diane Cash, mayor of Crosby, a small city in north-central Minnesota, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 23, a day after the letter was sent.
The mayors are urging state leaders, “Put the brakes on the spending—and compare the spending to the results that you’re getting for your dollars,” Cash said.
She said it’s significant and unusual for that many mayors to line up and take a stand.
Cash said the movement began with nine mayors “and grew from there.” In all, 98 of the state’s mayors signed the letter—a mayoral coalition representing about 11.5 percent of the state’s 856 cities. The mayors of the state’s two largest cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, both Democrat strongholds, were absent from the group, who hail from mostly small and mid-size cities across the state.
Many mayoral posts in Minnesota are nonpartisan, Cash said, and their concerns should also be bipartisan.
“It’s not Republican or Democrat,” she said.
The mayors’ main concern: Their cities are getting insufficient funds from the state to pay for basic services. Cash said, “We all asked for road money, and we’re just not getting it.”
At the same time, citizens are seeing taxes go up while the state burned through an $18 billion budget surplus—and is now facing a $3 billion deficit. That’s according to the state economic forecast report.
Those figures come amid a federal prosecutor’s estimate that $9 billion may have been lost to fraud in the state’s generous social-services programs since 2018.
“Every taxpayer in Minnesota is paying too much, and too much is disappearing,” Cash said.
In the letter, the mayors wrote that “fraud, unchecked spending and inconsistent fiscal management” at the state level are hitting cities. As a result, the mayors are struggling “to plan responsibly, maintain infrastructure, hire and retain employees, and sustain core services.”
The mayors say the state relied on the one-time surplus to pay for programs that require ongoing funding; now it likely cannot sustain existing programs or invest in new ones.
The Epoch Times sought comment from Walz and received no reply prior to publication time.
A local TV station, KSTP, reported that a spokeswoman sent a statement on Walz’s behalf. “The Governor’s focus on lowering property taxes is exactly why he has provided more funding than any administration in history directly to local governments.”
“The surplus went directly back into the bottom line of local governments: $300 million for their police and fire departments, the largest infrastructure budgets in state history … the largest-ever increase in flexible local government aid, and property tax relief directly to taxpayers.”
However, the mayors’ letter says: “Cities are the level of government closest to the people, responding when snowplows don’t arrive, when streetlights or water mains fail, when businesses need permitting help, or when seniors seek support.
“Every unfunded mandate or cost shift forces us into difficult choices: raise taxes, cut services, delay infrastructure, or stretch thin city staff even further,” the mayors said. “This strain now extends to the very core of community safety—our police officers and firefighters.”
Because of rising levies and “state-imposed costs,” cities are having trouble affording additional public safety staff, the mayors wrote.
Citing the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the mayors also said Minnesota is “slipping in national economic rankings.” Among the 50 states, Minnesota ranks 46th in growth of median household income; the North Star State also ranks worse than at least 30 states on measures such as job growth, labor force growth, and “overall tax competitiveness.”
On average, cities and counties alike are poised to levy taxes exceeding 8 percent for 2026, the mayors said, adding: “These increases are not simply local decisions; they stem directly from state policies, mandates, and cost shifts that leave cities with no choice but to pass these burdens on to homeowners and businesses.”
The one-two punch of increased taxes and reduced services seems to hit harder in a small city like Crosby, population 2,300, Cash said. About 22 percent of residents live at the poverty level, she said, and many are over age 65 and rely on fixed incomes.
Cash knows of people who live in a 900-square-foot house, “and they saw their taxes triple in the past three years.” She attributes those increases to additional levied taxes on top of home valuations, which rose dramatically with inflation during the past few years. Houses that used to sell for $20,000 are now commanding several times that amount, she said.
And, Cash said, she knows several people who moved out of a paid-in-full home, partly because they couldn’t shoulder the tax burden; they relocated to government-subsidized housing.
In closing, the mayors said: Our residents deserve better than deficits, economic decline, and policies that push families and businesses away. We, as mayors, can only support our cities for so long before the heavy hand of state mandates and financial pressure demands more than our communities can provide.”
“Our state owes it to our citizens to practice responsible fiscal management and to stop taxing our families, seniors, and businesses out of Minnesota,” the mayors said. “We urge the Legislature to course-correct and to remember that every dollar you manage belongs not to the Capitol, but to the people of Minnesota.”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/24/2025 – 12:45
Kenianos protestan tras muerte de cuatro personas por elefantes sueltos
NAIROBI, Kenia (AP) — Algunos kenianos protestaron el miércoles después de que elefantes errantes mataran a cuatro personas durante la última semana en lo que los expertos describen como un conflicto entre humanos y vida silvestre impulsado por la escasez de vegetación.
Un elefante, al parecer responsable de la muerte de dos personas, fue abatido en el condado Kajiado. El Servicio de Vida Silvestre de Kenia instó a la calma y la moderación.
“Las observaciones preliminares indican que el elefante involucrado tenía heridas consistentes con lanzas y flechas, lo que apunta a una posible confrontación previa”, declaró el servicio en un comunicado. Los residentes han reportado un aumento en el número de elefantes que deambulan por el área de Ole Tepesi en el condado de Kajiado, lo que los expertos atribuyen a la competencia por recursos. Kenia ha tenido precipitaciones por debajo del promedio durante la actual temporada de lluvias cortas.
Las autoridades locales dijeron que la última víctima fue un hombre atacado por un elefante mientras pastoreaba cabras el martes.
El Servicio de Vida Silvestre de Kenia se comprometió a “fortalecer las medidas de prevención, mejorar la respuesta temprana y reducir el riesgo de futuros incidentes”.
El gobierno de Kenia administra un programa de compensación bajo el cual miles de personas heridas o muertas por animales salvajes han recibido millones de chelines kenianos a lo largo de los años.
___________________________________
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
11 personas arrestadas por tiroteo en bar en Sudáfrica
Por MICHELLE GUMEDE
JOHANNESBURGO (AP) — La policía en Sudáfrica arrestó a 11 personas, incluidos muchos sospechosos de ser mineros ilegales, buscando una posible conexión con el tiroteo del domingo en un pub que dejó 10 muertos.
En la búsqueda de mineros ilegales en el área, la policía y la seguridad de la mina Sibanye-Stillwater irrumpieron en dos casas en Westonaria, a 46 kilómetros (39 millas) de Johannesburgo. Entre los arrestados se encontraban nueve ciudadanos de Lesoto y un mozambiqueño al parecer residentes ilegales. La policía declaró que se les encontró con armas de fuego sin licencia, incluidas cuatro pistolas y un rifle AK-47.
El general de División Fred Kekana, comisionado provincial interino de Gauteng, dijo a los periodistas que la policía había encontrado cartuchos y municiones del mismo tipo usado en el tiroteo en Bekkersdal. Fueron enviados para pruebas para determinar si fueron los mismos.
Las autoridades también arrestaron a un empleado de una mina sudafricana que enfrenta cargos relacionados con albergar a inquilinos que viven ilegalmente en el país y potencialmente obstruir la justicia. El martes, el dueño del pub fue acusado de fraude y de operar un establecimiento de licor ilegal.
Rodeados de pozos de mina abandonados, los municipios al oeste de Johannesburgo como Bekkersdal son notorios por operaciones mineras ilícitas, que han llevado a problemas como la violencia de pandillas y la proliferación de armas ilegales.
Sibanye-Stillwater opera varias instalaciones en la región.
En áreas donde la industria minera alguna vez prosperó, los mineros ilegales conocidos como “zama-zamas” han continuado operando. Se cree que el comercio está predominantemente controlado por migrantes que ingresan ilegalmente desde Lesoto, Zimbabue y Mozambique.
___________________________________
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/11-personas-arrestadas-por-tiroteo-en-bar-en-sudfrica/
Intel Slides After Nvidia Halts Tests Of 18A Tech, White House Signals Chip Giant Not “Too Strategic To Fail”
Intel Slides After Nvidia Halts Tests Of 18A Tech, White House Signals Chip Giant Not “Too Strategic To Fail”
After President Donald Trump publicly attacked Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in August, writing, “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Intel rushed to arrange a White House meeting that became a turning point for the struggling chipmaker which was on the verge of failure, Reuters wrote in a new report.
Tan, a veteran venture capitalist with a long history of investments in China, prepared for the meeting, seeking support from influential allies including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
The roughly 40-minute Oval Office meeting included Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and focused on how Tan would stabilize and rebuild Intel at a moment when US semiconductor policy had become a central national priority.
During that meeting, Tan agreed to the proposal which was already reported and which saw the US government receive equity in Intel in exchange for additional CHIPS Act funding. The agreement delivered $5.7 billion in cash, made the U.S. government Intel’s largest shareholder, and conferred on the company what many investors now describe as a “too-strategic-to-fail” status…. although maybe not.
After the deal, Tan pledged to “make Intel great again,” which Lutnick posted under the caption, “The Art of the Deal: Intel.” The government’s involvement quickly helped “improve” Intel’s standing with potential partners and customers eager to align with the administration’s industrial strategy.
Sure enough, since Tan became CEO in March, but really since the deal with the Trump admin, Intel’s stock has climbed about 80%, far outpacing much of the broader market. The new momentum helped secure major investments, including $5 billion from Nvidia and $2 billion from SoftBank.
Technology lobbyist Adam Kovacevich called the government deal a “lifeline” for Intel, suggesting the company’s leadership and strategic direction might have been in jeopardy without it. At the same time, Tan began a sweeping internal restructuring, cutting roughly 15% of Intel’s workforce, flattening management layers, and pushing for faster, more engineering-driven decision-making across the organization.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that, well, despite the optics little has changed.
As Reuters notes, despite the improved deal flow (or at least perception thereof) and the political backing (in exchange for a pound of flesh equity), Intel’s core manufacturing challenges remain and the Commerce Department appeared to make it clear that they are not a guaranteed priority, and in fact more dilutions for the benefit of taxpayers may be on deck.
Intel is not “too strategic to fail” one official told Reuters refuting the prevailing market mantra which assumes the opposite, adding that “Secretary Lutnick talks to all parties rather than prioritizing calls for Intel’s sake.”
And while the company claims that its advanced chip process is “progressing well,” there was more bad news – which apparently never rose to the level of 8K importance – after Nvidia recently tested Intel’s 18A manufacturing technology and chose not to proceed. Even after investing billions, Nvidia made no commitment to manufacture its chips at Intel, and Tan acknowledged the limited scope of the partnership, saying, “Right now we are focused on collaborations.”
But now that the forced deal “honeymoon” period is over and the stock is once again drifting lower, Tan may want to consider focusing on delivering results because the goodwill that the CEO bought by going in bed with Trump is almost over.
In response to the Reuters report, INTC stock dropped as much as 4%, and down almost 20% from its recent high at the start of the month. It still has a long way to fall to the low $20 where it traded before the company announced its “tactical alignment” with the US government.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/24/2025 – 12:25
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/how-lip-bu-tan-turned-trump-rebuke-intels-biggest-break
Chicago Bears player Colston Loveland paid $1.3M for a Long Grove home over the summer
Chicago Bears rookie tight end Colston Loveland over the summer paid $1.27 million for a four-bedroom house in Long Grove.
A Washington native, Loveland was an All-American for the University of Michigan, and was the Bears’ 10th overall pick in this past year’s NFL draft. Loveland has been a standout so far this season and was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week in November.
Built in 1984, Loveland’s new contemporary-style house has 5-1/2 bathrooms, a floating staircase, wood and metal finishes, a living room with a two-story cathedral ceiling and exposed beams, a first-floor sitting area, a primary bedroom suite with a double-door entry and a skylight, and a kitchen with quartz countertops, a large island with a breakfast bar, stainless steel appliances and a walk-in pantry. The home also has a loft upstairs, as well as a finished basement with a recreational area and a wet bar.
Outside on the 2-acre property are two decks and a three-car garage.
The house first had been listed in September 2024 for $1.299 million. Its asking price was reduced to $1.25 million in May, and it went under contract to Loveland just two days later. As a result, with the $1.27 million sale price, it sold for above its asking price. Loveland bought the house through a Nevada limited liability company whose manager is his mother.
Eli Masud of Compass represented Loveland in his purchase. He declined to comment on the transaction.
Loveland’s house had a $11,715 property tax bill in the 2024 tax year. It also has $100-a-month homeowners association dues.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/chicago-bears-colston-loveland-long-grove/
