THE
Daily Egyptian SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916.
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
InsiDE
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2025
Salukis mourn Williams Sr., page 4
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VOL. 109, ISSUE 12
Local artists versus AI, page 6
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Dawgs down Racers, page 9
Southern Illinoisans brace for SNAP delays as funding route remains unclear
Orion Wolf owolf@dailyegyptian.com
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will not be funded going forward as the United States enters its second month in a government shutdown. There are many questions surrounding what will happen to those who rely on these programs for support, especially here in southern Illinois. Jackson County has over 10,000 people who utilize SNAP benefits, and will need to find some other source of food without federal assistance.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has ordered over $20 million in state money to assist food banks across the state to offset the lack of funding coming from the federal government amid the shutdown. In this executive order, Pritzker also outlined a plan for how the Illinois government will assist in other ways, like surveying food deserts and ensuring that concerned individuals can have their voices heard on a government level. The United States has a SNAP contingency fund worth $5 billion;
this is how SNAP has continued to function during previous government shutdowns. The Trump Administration stood against using this fund, stating that the reserve in place should only be used for disaster relief, which is funded by the same resources as the SNAP benefits. Several judges from across the country have ruled that the government must sustain funding for regular SNAP benefits. The Trump Administration has
SNAP | 3
People wait in line with their carts Nov. 1, 2025 at The Victory Dream Center food pantry in Carbondale, Illinois. Riley Sembler | @riley_sembler
Carbondale City Council member flips off constituents at meeting Carmen J. Tapley ctapley@dailyegyptian.com
Beau Hanshaw, dressed as Ghostface from the Scream franchise, lays on the lawn of John and Linda Huffman’s house surrounded by the fog of dry ice as he trick-or-treats along Glenview Drive Oct. 31, 2025 in Carbondale, Illinois. Lylee Gibbs | @lyleegibbsphoto
Carbondale’s quest for candy
SEE MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE 5
The week’s Carbondale City Council meeting was full of flaring tempers and flying fingers after city constituents expressed concerns about the recent sweeping of a homeless encampment and were called “LARPers” by Council Member Adam Loos, who then flipped them off as they stormed out on Tuesday, Oct. 28. A majority of the attendees were people who had shown up in solidarity with the homeless community as a response to the East College Street encampment being bulldozed earlier this month, as ordered by the property owners
of that land, and carried out in conjunction with the Carbondale Police Department. Erik(ah) Buleer, a homeless person who was displaced by the encampment closure, began the discussion about the sweep during public comments. She said that bulldozing the encampment did nothing but scatter the homeless community to other areas of the city. She was told that the bulldozing was due to the amount of refuse that had accumulated on the property, but stated during her speech that “the truth of the matter is the garbage they came to clean out was us – we were the trash that those bulldozers LOOS | 2
Court dates set for those involved in altercation at SIU TPUSA booth
Jackson Brandhorst jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com
Court dates have been set for the two individuals involved in an Oct. 1 altercation at a Turning Point USA booth on the campus of Southern Illinois University. SIU student Carmella Cesario is being charged with damage to property and has a court date set for Nov. 7. Nathan Myers, who is not an SIU student and is a member of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, is being charged with battery. His court date was initially set for the same day as Cesario’s — but Myers has since motioned to
plead not guilty. According to Judici, defense attorney Michael Burke of the Southern Illinois Law Center will be representing Myers in court during his new date of Dec. 5. Burke is an SIU alum and earned his juris doctorate degree from the SIU School of Law. Cesario and Myers will each appear in court via Zoom in front of Jackson County Judge Jonathan Mitchell. In video footage of the altercation obtained by the Daily Egyptian, TPUSA and CFACT pamphlets, posters and papers can be seen strewn across the Lawson lawn, which Myers
said Cesario had done, prompting the altercation. CFACT, the organization that Myers represents, is a conservative nonprofit that advocates for freemarket solutions to environmental issues, and often partners with TPUSA on college campuses. In videos released by SIU TPUSA on Facebook and Instagram, Cesario can be seen taking items from the booth and throwing them in the trash. Myers is then seen rushing over to prevent them from doing so, which is when Cesario is initially taken to the ground. Myers alleged that it was Cesario
who first started to get physical, but Cesario claims otherwise. “Whenever they (TPUSA) show up, I take all their papers, and usually they don’t stop me, because I assume they aren’t supposed to physically assault people,” Cesario said in an interview following the altercation. “But this time when I took their papers, as I was turning away, one of the Turning Point people, a man with a maroon shirt and a beard (Myers), grabbed my bag and threw me to the ground. I started grabbing some more of their signage, and he grabbed me and threw me down again. And when I tried to get up and grab some of the things I
dropped, he threw me down again.” Videos taken from multiple angles show Myers slamming Cesario to the ground as the two argued. Footage shows Myers grabbing Cesario’s arm from over their shoulder as the pair were picking up flyers from the ground, then throwing Cesario onto the sidewalk. “There’s a cut on my face,” Cesario said the night of the incident. “I have several scrapes and bruises on my hands and forearms, and I just want there to be a paper trail, because initially I was arrested as the person who did battery … I did not put my TPUSA | 4