Illinois Quick Hits: Justice Department moves against Evanston reparations program

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a motion to intervene in a civil rights lawsuit challenging Evanston’s reparations program.

Judicial Watch filed the class action suit in May 2024, challenging Evanston’s use of race as an eligibility requirement for the program making $25,000 direct cash payments to Black residents and descendants of Black residents who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969.

The Justice Department’s proposed complaint in intervention names the city of Evanston as a defendant and alleges that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act.

PRITZKER SIGNS MEDICAID OMNIBUS

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed legislation that provides $110 million in state taxpayer funds during fiscal year 2027 to expand and invest in Medicaid services.

According to a statement from the governor’s office, Senate Bill 3365 builds a foundation to protect patients in anticipation of federal legislation impacting the health care system in Illinois.

SUBURBAN MAN GETS 16 YEARS FOR FIREARM, DRUG OFFENSES

A Prospect Heights man has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for trafficking weapons and drugs. P

rosecutors say Efrain Jacobo, 44, sold methamphetamine, cocaine and seven firearms to undercover officers in Joliet during the fall of 2024. In addition, law enforcement officers found more than 150,000 grams of meth and 1,800 grams of fentanyl during separate searches in Bolingbrook and Wheeling.

Jacobo pleaded guilty earlier this year.

SUBURBAN MAN SENTENCED FOR CHILD PORN

A federal judge has sentenced a Markham man to 33 years and nine months in prison for operating an online chat group that shared large amounts of child pornography.

Government attorneys say Christopher Martin, 46, operated a group chat on the Kik mobile application and required members to share photos and videos.

Martin pleaded guilty to transportation of child pornography earlier this year.