Around 100 people gathered in the pews of the Chicago Temple building Monday night looking for faith-based answers to the gun violence that has ravaged the south and west sides of the city. The panel and conversation they came for portrayed the violence plaguing the city, and the nation, as multifaceted as the stained glass of the temple hall.
To tackle Chicago's gun violence problem, Illinois state senator Kwame Raoul and other sponsors of the Safe Neighborhoods Reform Act focused their bill on one of the root causes: repeat gun offenders. After consultations with judges, legislators on both sides of the aisle, and ex-offenders, among others, Raoul and company crafted a bill that would create a more stringent sentencing guideline for repeat offenders.
Last July, in the middle of a violent year, Cook County commissioner Richard Boykin gathered Austin residents at the west-side neighborhood's By the Hand Club for Kids. For three and a half hours, around 100 community members, civic leaders, and elected officials met to discuss what was needed to end the violence in Austin.
Two years after community leaders made the Chinatown Community Vision Plan public, community officials, particularly from the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, are paving the way for a special service area (SSA) to address recommendations for beautification and economic development. The Chinatown Community Vision Plan provides a framework for future decision making to improve the community.
Leon Venable, owner and chief operating officer of the Kalimba House Corporation, didn’t really know about the Oxford House program until he needed it most. For Venable, DePaul professor Leonard Jason and his team of students in the community psychology program have helped him along the way as he too begins to spread the model of Oxford Houses around the country.
Most students have heard roommate horror stories before they move into their dorm rooms. Some have to deal with roommates who steal, others with the acrid smell of weed, others with rowdy parties as they adjust to the “quintessential” parts of the college experience. At the extreme end of that spectrum, Eric never expected he’d have to share a room with someone who was accused of sexual assault.
If you hear a knock at the door, Tania Unzueta, a member of the #NotOneMore campaign, warned, don’t open it. Know your rights. Report raids if you see them, and, most importantly, don’t open the door. The Obama administration announced raids and deportation efforts would begin shortly after the new year.
In remarks televised from the East Room of the White House, President Obama laid out his proposal for increased gun control measures Tuesday. The president’s executive action proposes stronger, more efficient background checks and ensuring that all firearms sellers are licensed, increasing the number of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents.
Only an opaque screen was placed between DePaul student Meagan Anderson and her accused rapist. The two were physically separated but Anderson still felt the same anxiety that had consumed her for four months. For the next two hours in Arts & Letters Hall on an April afternoon, Anderson had to relive the details of the night in January where she says a fellow DePaul student raped her after a party, as part of the process of filing a complaint under DePaul’s code of conduct policy.
De Paulia, De Paul University
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Rachel Hinton
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I am a senior at DePaul majoring in Journalism and minoring in International Politics. I enjoy writing long form stories and drinking my weight in coffee.