The new year will add Illinois to the list of 20 states that permit marijuana to be used for medical reasons, and motorists will be allowed to go faster on some state highways but face greater restrictions on using their cellphones while driving, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Buyers of pets also will get new rights to get refunds for sick animals. School districts that teach sex education will be required to include the teaching of contraception. And tougher criminal penalties await those who use electronic communications to create flash mobs.
Those wide-ranging legislative initiatives represent some of the 201 new state laws passed and signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn during 2013 that take effect Jan. 1.
Some of the biggest legislative accomplishments from the past year, however, like the legalization of same-sex marriage and changes to state pension benefits, won't take effect until the summer, and the pension law is expected to be held up in legal challenge by public-sector unions.
Of the new laws taking effect at the start of 2014, the medical marijuana law is the most high-profile of the bunch, but those Illinoisans sick enough to qualify for using the drug may have to wait months before they can begin doing so.
That's because three state agencies — the Department of Public Health, the Department of Agriculture, and Department of Financial and Professional Regulation — are writing rules that have to be submitted to a bipartisan legislative panel by May 1 to clarify the new law.
The fine-tuning will cover everything from what ailments are covered beyond the 40 explicit conditions spelled out in the law, who can apply for licenses to open a dispensary or cultivation center, and what constitutes a physician-patient relationship.
"There are a lot of moving parts to this," said Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health. She predicted the law wouldn't be fully implemented until perhaps "fall or winter."
Meanwhile, state transportation officials are preparing to increase speed limits to 70 mph on some rural interstates under a law that passed in May. That legislation was sponsored by Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, and Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton.
The Illinois Department of Transportation on Friday announced where higher speeds will be allowed, and the agency will start posting new signs sometime in early January. While speeds on most interstates throughout the state will increase, just some smaller stretches of in northern Lake, western Kane, and southern and western Will counties got the bump. The law allows counties in the Chicago area and Metro East near St. Louis to establish expressway speed limits lower than the 70-mph threshold sought statewide by Oberweis.
Motorists also will be affected by a new law barring the use of handheld cellphones for any purpose while driving. The legislation was carried by Rep. John D'Amico, D-Chicago, and Sen. John Mulroe, D-Chicago.
The law, which allows cellphones to be used in hands-free mode or with a headset, establishes a series of graduated fines for violators, ranging from $75 for the first offense up to $150 for the fourth and subsequent offenses. The first ticket a driver receives is not considered a moving violation, though later ones are.
Illlinois pet owners were given new consumer-protection safeguards under what was called the "puppy lemon" law that takes effect Jan. 1. That legislation allows buyers of dogs and cats from pet shops to obtain refunds or reimbursement of veterinarian bills for serious, undisclosed illnesses at the time of sale.
State lawmakers also took aim at sex-education curricula across the state. A new law applying to public school districts that offer sex education requires them to teach students between the 6th and 12th grades about contraception. The law also requires the "medically accurate" teaching of abstinence, a change from law that encouraged the teaching of abstinence "until marriage."
Another law takes aim at mob attacks organized with help from social media sites like Twitter or Facebook and targeted random pedestrians along North Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile and other tourist areas. The law doubles the maximum prison term to six years for anyone who uses social media and text messaging to organize violent "flash mobs."
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
"Chefs to the Max" Dinner Series to Launch at @RxBoilerRoom on Sunday, January 19th #SavetheDate
WHAT: An array of the most prestigious chefs will be joining together to launch “Chefs to the Max,” an ongoing dinner series designed to benefit critically injured longtime food journalist Max Jacobson.
The news release with the chef line-up, ticket information and more will be sent later this week.
WHO: Two days before Christmas, Jacobson was struck by a car while in the crosswalk at Windmill Parkway and Pecos Road as he walked from home to the gym. He sustained severe brain trauma from the accident. He is currently in critical condition at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.
Jacobson, whose 64th birthday is on New Year’s Eve, is currently Vegas Seven’s restaurant reviewer. Prior to that, he covered Orange County for the Los Angeles Times for 15 years. He moved to Las Vegas in 1999 to be the lead critic for Las Vegas Life. He has also written for numerous national culinary publications including Saveur and Gourmet. Jacobson recently co-authored “Eating Las Vegas” with fellow food critics Al Mancini and John Curtas.
WHEN: Sunday, Jan. 19
6 to 10 p.m.
WHERE: Rx Boiler Room at Mandalay Bay
3930 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89119
The news release with the chef line-up, ticket information and more will be sent later this week.
WHO: Two days before Christmas, Jacobson was struck by a car while in the crosswalk at Windmill Parkway and Pecos Road as he walked from home to the gym. He sustained severe brain trauma from the accident. He is currently in critical condition at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.
Jacobson, whose 64th birthday is on New Year’s Eve, is currently Vegas Seven’s restaurant reviewer. Prior to that, he covered Orange County for the Los Angeles Times for 15 years. He moved to Las Vegas in 1999 to be the lead critic for Las Vegas Life. He has also written for numerous national culinary publications including Saveur and Gourmet. Jacobson recently co-authored “Eating Las Vegas” with fellow food critics Al Mancini and John Curtas.
WHEN: Sunday, Jan. 19
6 to 10 p.m.
WHERE: Rx Boiler Room at Mandalay Bay
3930 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Monday, December 30, 2013
Delanio Benford Sentenced to 113 Months in Federal Prison for the Robberies of Rockford-Area Banks and Credit Union
A Rockford, Illinois man was sentenced in federal court before U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Kapala to 113 months in prison without parole, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for robbing two Rockford-area banks and a credit union. Delanio Benford, 34, pled guilty on March 22, 2013, to the robbery of Associated Bank, 3333 N. Rockton Ave., on June 22, 2010; PNC Bank, 6709 E. Riverside Blvd., on July 15, 2010; and Members Alliance Credit Union, 6951 Olde Creek Rd., on July 28, 2010 and September 11 , 2010. Benford was also ordered to pay restitution of $38,771 to the banks and credit union. Benford will not be eligible for parole.
Two other individuals have also pled guilty and been sentenced in related cases:
Prince Williams, 27, of Rockford, pled guilty on April 19, 2012, to six counts of bank/credit union robbery and one count of armed bank robbery, all in Rockford, including: First Northern Credit Union, 2235 12th St., Rockford, on May 3, 2010; National City Bank (now PNC Bank), 1551 Sandy Hollow Rd., on June 10, 2010, while armed with a handgun; Associated Bank, 3333 N. Rockton Ave., on June 22, 2010; PNC Bank, 6709 E. Riverside Blvd., on July 15, 2010; Harris N.A., 1275 Bennington Rd., on July 22, 2010; and Members Alliance Credit Union, 6951 Olde Creek Rd., on July 28, 2010 and on September 11 , 2010, while using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. Williams was sentenced by Judge Kapala on December 4, 2013, to 128 months in federal prison without parole and five years of supervised release following imprisonment and was ordered to pay restitution of $56,644.35 to the banks and credit unions.
Michael Buck, 28, also of Rockford, pled guilty on October 3, 2013, to the robbery of Members Alliance Credit Union on September 11, 2013, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard to 125 months in federal prison without parole, three years of supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered pay restitution of $12,180 to Members Alliance.
The sentencing was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Rockford Police Department and Rockton Police Department assisted in the investigation.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Pedersen.
Two other individuals have also pled guilty and been sentenced in related cases:
Prince Williams, 27, of Rockford, pled guilty on April 19, 2012, to six counts of bank/credit union robbery and one count of armed bank robbery, all in Rockford, including: First Northern Credit Union, 2235 12th St., Rockford, on May 3, 2010; National City Bank (now PNC Bank), 1551 Sandy Hollow Rd., on June 10, 2010, while armed with a handgun; Associated Bank, 3333 N. Rockton Ave., on June 22, 2010; PNC Bank, 6709 E. Riverside Blvd., on July 15, 2010; Harris N.A., 1275 Bennington Rd., on July 22, 2010; and Members Alliance Credit Union, 6951 Olde Creek Rd., on July 28, 2010 and on September 11 , 2010, while using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. Williams was sentenced by Judge Kapala on December 4, 2013, to 128 months in federal prison without parole and five years of supervised release following imprisonment and was ordered to pay restitution of $56,644.35 to the banks and credit unions.
Michael Buck, 28, also of Rockford, pled guilty on October 3, 2013, to the robbery of Members Alliance Credit Union on September 11, 2013, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard to 125 months in federal prison without parole, three years of supervised release following his release from prison, and ordered pay restitution of $12,180 to Members Alliance.
The sentencing was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Rockford Police Department and Rockton Police Department assisted in the investigation.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Pedersen.
Reputed Mafia Boss of Canada, Vito Rizzuto, Dies at 67
Vito Rizzuto, the reputed Mafia boss of Canada, whose dapper outfits and ability to avoid prison led the authorities to call him the John Gotti of Montreal, died on Dec. 23 in Montreal. He was 67.
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Mr. Rizzuto died of natural causes, Maude Hébert-Chaput, a spokeswoman for Sacré-Coeur Hospital, told The Associated Press. There were widespread reports that he had been receiving treatment for lung cancer.
Working with the Bonanno crime family in New York, Mr. Rizzuto ran an international drug smuggling operation that imported heroin and cocaine and distributed it in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, the authorities said. His father ran the operation before him.
“Compared to what New York-based authorities were used to looking at, the breadth of geography and intertwining connections of the Rizzuto organization surprised even seasoned investigators,” Lee Lamothe and Adrian Humphreys wrote in the book “The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto.”
In a 2004 column on his website, then called This Week in Gang Land, Jerry Capeci, an expert on the Mafia, compared Mr. Rizzuto to Mr. Gotti, the longtime head of the Gambino crime family in New York, who died in 2002.
But Mr. Rizzuto’s luck ran out in 2004, when he was arrested in Montreal on racketeering charges related to a gangland shooting in Brooklyn that inspired a bloody scene in the 1997 film “Donnie Brasco,” starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp.
In the shooting, on May 5, 1981, Mr. Rizzuto and three other men burst from the closet of a Brooklyn social club and shot three Bonanno captains who had been challenging the family’s leadership, the authorities said. The shooters wore ski masks to make the killing look like a robbery, but the authorities said it had been ordered by Joseph Massino, then a senior Bonanno captain.
Mr. Rizzuto was extradited to the United States in 2006. He pleaded guilty in 2007 and was sent to prison in Florence, Colo.
While he was in prison, organized crime in Montreal fell into chaos and many of his relatives were murdered. His father was killed by a sniper while standing in his kitchen, and his eldest son, Nicolo, was shot and killed. His brother-in-law disappeared, the keys still in the ignition of his Infiniti.
Before his death, Mr. Rizzuto had been working to reclaim control of the mob and exact revenge, experts said. Since his return to Canada in 2012, there have been nine mob-connected murders there, Mr. Capeci said on his website.
“Vito Rizzuto gets out, and this immediately happens,” Pierre de Champlain, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence analyst and author of a book about the Mafia, told The Globe and Mail after one such killing in 2012. “If it’s a coincidence, it would be a very strange one.”
Victor Rizzuto was born in the village of Cattolica Eraclea in Sicily on Feb. 21, 1946. His family moved to Canada in the mid-1950s, and Mr. Rizzuto married Giovanna Cammalleri in 1966. Survivors include his wife; a sister, Maria Renda; and two children, Leonardo and Bettina, both lawyers.
Despite the spate of killings after he left prison, Mr. Rizzuto once had a reputation as a peacemaker in mob circles.
Mr. Lamothe credited him with “bringing calm to an underworld that at times was out of control” in the 1970s by, for example, arranging an end to a dispute between the Hells Angels and a rival motorcycle gang.
“Mr. Rizzuto’s management style was pretty unique, at least compared to American crime figures, who went to violence as an instant default,” Mr. Lamothe wrote in an email. “He was born into the Mafia and, from his father, inherited the ‘Sicilian view’: Better to share than to shoot.”
Thanks to Daniel E. Slotnik.
Enlarge This Image
Mr. Rizzuto died of natural causes, Maude Hébert-Chaput, a spokeswoman for Sacré-Coeur Hospital, told The Associated Press. There were widespread reports that he had been receiving treatment for lung cancer.
Working with the Bonanno crime family in New York, Mr. Rizzuto ran an international drug smuggling operation that imported heroin and cocaine and distributed it in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, the authorities said. His father ran the operation before him.
“Compared to what New York-based authorities were used to looking at, the breadth of geography and intertwining connections of the Rizzuto organization surprised even seasoned investigators,” Lee Lamothe and Adrian Humphreys wrote in the book “The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto.”
In a 2004 column on his website, then called This Week in Gang Land, Jerry Capeci, an expert on the Mafia, compared Mr. Rizzuto to Mr. Gotti, the longtime head of the Gambino crime family in New York, who died in 2002.
“Like Gotti in his heyday, Rizzuto is known as a flashy dresser who was tough to convict,” Mr. Capeci wrote. “He beat two major drug smuggling cases between 1987 and 1990 and his only jail time was a two-year bit for arson in 1972. As a result, he has often been compared to the Dapper Don by the Montreal press, and police.”
But Mr. Rizzuto’s luck ran out in 2004, when he was arrested in Montreal on racketeering charges related to a gangland shooting in Brooklyn that inspired a bloody scene in the 1997 film “Donnie Brasco,” starring Al Pacino and Johnny Depp.
In the shooting, on May 5, 1981, Mr. Rizzuto and three other men burst from the closet of a Brooklyn social club and shot three Bonanno captains who had been challenging the family’s leadership, the authorities said. The shooters wore ski masks to make the killing look like a robbery, but the authorities said it had been ordered by Joseph Massino, then a senior Bonanno captain.
Mr. Rizzuto was extradited to the United States in 2006. He pleaded guilty in 2007 and was sent to prison in Florence, Colo.
While he was in prison, organized crime in Montreal fell into chaos and many of his relatives were murdered. His father was killed by a sniper while standing in his kitchen, and his eldest son, Nicolo, was shot and killed. His brother-in-law disappeared, the keys still in the ignition of his Infiniti.
Before his death, Mr. Rizzuto had been working to reclaim control of the mob and exact revenge, experts said. Since his return to Canada in 2012, there have been nine mob-connected murders there, Mr. Capeci said on his website.
“Vito Rizzuto gets out, and this immediately happens,” Pierre de Champlain, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence analyst and author of a book about the Mafia, told The Globe and Mail after one such killing in 2012. “If it’s a coincidence, it would be a very strange one.”
Victor Rizzuto was born in the village of Cattolica Eraclea in Sicily on Feb. 21, 1946. His family moved to Canada in the mid-1950s, and Mr. Rizzuto married Giovanna Cammalleri in 1966. Survivors include his wife; a sister, Maria Renda; and two children, Leonardo and Bettina, both lawyers.
Despite the spate of killings after he left prison, Mr. Rizzuto once had a reputation as a peacemaker in mob circles.
Mr. Lamothe credited him with “bringing calm to an underworld that at times was out of control” in the 1970s by, for example, arranging an end to a dispute between the Hells Angels and a rival motorcycle gang.
“Mr. Rizzuto’s management style was pretty unique, at least compared to American crime figures, who went to violence as an instant default,” Mr. Lamothe wrote in an email. “He was born into the Mafia and, from his father, inherited the ‘Sicilian view’: Better to share than to shoot.”
Thanks to Daniel E. Slotnik.
Friday, December 20, 2013
$20,000 Reward Issued for FBI Fugitive Yaser Abdel Said
The FBI is now offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to the arrest of Yaser Abdel Said. Said is wanted for the murders of his two teenage daughters. He is believed to have ties to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the New York City area, Canada, and Egypt.
On January 1, 2008, Said took his daughters Amina and Sarah for a ride in his taxi cab, under the guise of taking them to get something to eat. He drove them to Irving, Texas, where he allegedly shot both girls to death inside the taxi cab. They died of multiple gunshot wounds.
In January 2008, based on an investigation by the Irving Police Department, a capital murder-multiple warrant was issued for Said’s arrest. On August 21, 2008, a federal unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant was issued by the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas.
Said’s last confirmed sighting was in Irving, Texas, in 2008. He is 56 years old, 6’2” tall, and 180 pounds with a medium complexion. He has brown eyes and black hair; however, his physical features may vary in order to conceal his identity. He may or may not wear a mustache or shave his head.
Said was born in Egypt and may seek shelter in communities with Egyptian ties. He frequents diners, including Denny’s and IHOP, and smokes Marlboro Lights 100s cigarettes. He may work as a taxi driver.
Said is believed to be armed and dangerous. Anyone with information is asked to contact the New York FBI at 212-384-1000, the Dallas FBI at 972-559-5000, or submit tips online at http://tips.fbi.gov. Tipsters may remain anonymous.
On January 1, 2008, Said took his daughters Amina and Sarah for a ride in his taxi cab, under the guise of taking them to get something to eat. He drove them to Irving, Texas, where he allegedly shot both girls to death inside the taxi cab. They died of multiple gunshot wounds.
In January 2008, based on an investigation by the Irving Police Department, a capital murder-multiple warrant was issued for Said’s arrest. On August 21, 2008, a federal unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant was issued by the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas.
Said’s last confirmed sighting was in Irving, Texas, in 2008. He is 56 years old, 6’2” tall, and 180 pounds with a medium complexion. He has brown eyes and black hair; however, his physical features may vary in order to conceal his identity. He may or may not wear a mustache or shave his head.
Said was born in Egypt and may seek shelter in communities with Egyptian ties. He frequents diners, including Denny’s and IHOP, and smokes Marlboro Lights 100s cigarettes. He may work as a taxi driver.
Said is believed to be armed and dangerous. Anyone with information is asked to contact the New York FBI at 212-384-1000, the Dallas FBI at 972-559-5000, or submit tips online at http://tips.fbi.gov. Tipsters may remain anonymous.
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