[Imc-radio] headlines2

[Sarah Lazare]

Hi all, here are the headlines.  Do you still want me to call in tomorrow 
morning?  I will go ahead and call the IMC tomorrow around 11 just in case.  
-sarah

(Taken from the UCIMC website):
The Urbana Human Relations Commission ruled on November 17 that Carle 
Foundation Hospital violated the city of Urbana’s Human Rights Ordinance 
when it unlawfully
fired nurse manager Lynn Sprout on the basis of her sexual orientation after 
she came out as lesbian while caring for her dying same-sex partner of 18 
years.
Ms. Sprout was a nurse in pediatrics at Carle
Foundation Hospital for 15 years, three as nurse manager, before she was 
fired in 2002.

She filed a complaint with the Urbana Human Relations Commission and 
Commissioners started to hear her case last June.

Just before the hearing began, Ms. Sprout refused a $35,000 settlement from 
Carle that would have prevented her from ever talking about the case.

Ms. Sprout and the 85% Coalition, a direct action grassroots group of local 
citizens who demand full equality for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and 
transgendered persons, will hold a press conference on Tuesday, November 23 
at 2:00pm at the law offices of
Nally, Bauer, Feinen & Bullock, 41 E. University Ave., Suite 2A in 
Champaign. Copies of the Commissioner’s full and final report will be 
available then.

A bill is before the Illinois House (HB 101) and Senate (SB 3186) that would 
amend the Human Rights Act of Illinois to include sexual orientation and 
gender identity thereby making such discrimination in employment, housing, 
credit and public accommodations illegal throughout the state. Activists 
have been trying to get such a bill passed for more than 30 years.

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(Taken from the Bloomington, Illinois IMC website):
On November 13, 2004, the Illinois State University's Academic Senate in 
Bloomington Illinois passed a resolution against the Patriot Acts.  The 
following is an exerpt from the resolution: it is“RESOLVED that the Senate 
urge the President to petition the Congress to overturn the provisions of 
the USA PATRIOT Act and regulations and executive orders issued pursuant 
thereto that violate constitutional rights, to petition the Congress not to 
enact further such legislation, to seek and support a judicial review of 
these statutes, regulations, and executive orders, and to support 
legislation that seeks to restore civil liberties.”  This resolution marks a 
strong statement on behalf of ISU against this cornerstone of the Bush 
administration's post September 11 reforms.

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(from the PJ star)
A police task force in the Tri-County area is investigating the death of six 
African-American women and four other missing women - who all fit the same 
profile.

The body of a black Peorian was found October 15 in a ditch along a rural 
Elmwood Township road, the sixth, and latest, case of a local woman whose 
body has turned up in an isolated area of Peoria County or Tazewell County 
in the last three years.

The discovery of Erving's body marked the second time in less than two weeks 
a black Peoria woman had been found dumped in a rural area. On Sept. 25, a 
group of campers discovered the body of Linda Neal, 40, near a gravel road 
in rural Hopedale in Tazewell County. She had been strangled.

Immediately after Neal was found, officials put together a task force made 
up of two detectives from the Peoria Police Department, four investigators 
from Peoria and Tazewell counties and an analyst with the Illinois State 
Police. They are looking for possible connections between the deaths and if 
one person could be responsible.

Along with investigating Neal's death, the group is also looking into the 
suspicious deaths of four other black women: Wanda Jackson, 40; Sabrina 
Payne, 36; Barbara Williams, 36, and Frederickia Brown, 29. Two of the women 
had also been strangled, while the other pair likely died from cocaine 
overdoses, authorities have said.

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People gathered in the University City Loop last Saturday to challenge the 
Bush agenda. Over one hundred people listened to a variety of speakers, 
looked at the Iraqi Occupation display, and shared their grief about the 
recent election and battle of Fallujah. Speakers included Joan Lipkin from 
the UPPITY Theatre Company, Jeanette Mott Oxford,social justice activist and 
newly elected State Representative, and the Reverand Al Smith from St. 
Paul's AME Church. Instead of War organized the event as a way to get people 
re-engaged in the public demonstrations and as a lead off event to the 
January 20th Inagueration Date for George Bush.

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