Appointed school board member resigns
Rev. Mitchell Johnson, who was appointed to lead the Chicago Board of Education earlier this month, has resigned amid revelations of anti-Semitic social media posts.
Earlier this week, groups began flagging controversial social media posts made by the reverend, including praise for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. On Thursday, more posts came to light, including a contention that the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were “an inside job.”
University enrollment is up
The Illinois Board of Higher Education has released its fall enrollment report for the state’s public universities for the fall semester of 2024-25 showing the highest enrollment numbers in eight years.
There are nearly an additional 3,000 students across all state universities this fall, which represents an overall enrollment increase of 1.6%. Seven of the 12 Illinois public universities experienced year-over-year increases in new transfer students.
Stores modifying self-checkouts
One of the country’s largest supermarket chains is eliminating and changing its self-checkout lines.
Hy-Vee, with nearly 20 locations in Illinois, says some stores have eliminated self-checkout lines, while others have converted them to express lanes for 12 items or less.
Some retailers are eliminating self-checkout because of rampant theft. Dollar General has removed self-check lanes at thousands of stores, and Walmart has removed self-checkout at some of its stores.