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Black-owned grocer gets $50,000 grant, closer to opening brick-and-mortar in Austin PAGE 2
FREE Vol. 36 No. 38
September 21, 2022
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Also serving Garfield Park
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Meet Calvin l Mason, page 11
What happens when cash bail ends?
As task force works to ready justice system, amendments could be forthcoming
Hundreds of people converged on Chicago Avenue for the annual Austin POWER 5K Walk/Run on Sept. 17. See more photos of the day online at www.austinweeklynews.com
By JERRY NOWICKI Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD – Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, cash bail will be abolished in Illinois. The measure that will eliminate it has been on the books since early 2021, giving the justice system two years to plan for the major overhaul of the state’s pretrial detention system. It’s also given time for the measure to become politicized to a point where the reality of the law has become indistinguishable from the political rhetoric surrounding it. “As I’ve said many times, what we want to make sure doesn’t happen is that someone who’s wealthy and commits a terrible violent crime – it could be, by the way, a wealthy drug dealer – doesn’t have an easy time getting bail compared to somebody who maybe commits shoplifting and for a couple of hundred dollars is stuck in jail,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news conference in August. See CASH BAIL on page 6
PAUL GOYETTE/Contributor
West Siders talk going fishing in Columbus Park’s Lagoon
The Jens Jensen-designed urban oasis provides calming relaxation, childhood memories for area residents MY PEDIATRICIAN GAVE ME CONFIDENCE ABOUT VACCINATING MY CHILD
By SHANEL ROMAIN & MICHAEL ROMAIN Community Narrative Reporter & Editor
Denise Dean drove around for hours last week with her 85-year-old mother, Mamie Dean, looking for a place to fish. They, like so many others in the city and suburbs, eventually discovered the Columbus Park Lagoon, 500 S. Central
Ave. in Austin. “On the way home, I told mama, ‘This is the last body of water before we get home to Garfield Park.’ Over there, we know way too many people. We wouldn’t be fishing, we’d be talking,” Denise said. The two spent about three hours See LAGOON on page 4
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