Illinois College will have a new Dean of Students this Fall.

Jessica Edonick will begin her new role as Dean of Students beginning August 2^nd, according to an announcement posted to the college’s website last Tuesday.

According to the announcement, she most recently served as dean of students for the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design since 2015. Previously, she held a variety of roles, including academic advisor and director of commuter and transfer student engagement at Drexel University.

Edonick is currently pursuing her doctorate in leadership and learning in organizations from Vanderbilt University. She earned a master’s degree in counselor education and counseling psychology from Western Michigan University. Her undergraduate degree is from Miami University in Ohio, with a major in history and minors in French and sociology of law.

Edonick’s work has appeared in several professional publications and she has given more than 20 presentations focused on her research interests in higher education.

13^th District Congressman Rodney Davis has been given a high profile role.

Davis was chosen by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as one of five Republicans as candidates to investigate the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reserves the right to reject any of the 5 nominations.

Davis had been one of the voices calling for an investigation of the incident and the events leading up to it, doing so within hours of the effort by former President Donald Trump’s supporters to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral college win.

Of the five appointees, Davis is one of only two who did not vote to reject certification of the votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania. He also joined 34 other House Republicans to create a bipartisan commission to probe the attack earlier this year.

The committee has been a hotbed of debate on the national political stage.

Many GOP leaders asserted that the select committee created by Pelosi would only duplicate existing efforts by the Justice Department and standing congressional committees to probe the attack on the Capitol. Republicans have previously nixed a bi-partisan commission similar to the September 11th Commission created by Congress in 2002 to investigate the January 6th incident.

The committee will investigate what caused the attack on the Capitol, which includes examining activities of law enforcement agencies and technological factors that may have prompted the event. It will also issue a report on its findings and how to prevent another attempt to disrupt the transfer of power.

An Illinois Senator and original author of the DREAM Act says it’s time for Congress to act on the DACA program.

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, authored by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and then-Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch in 2001 has been introduced to Congress 5 times over the last two decades. The act would grant a conditional citizen status to people brought to the U.S. as minors by their parents as undocumented immigrants. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals signed as an executive order by former President Barack Obama in 2012 was a program set up similar to the DREAM Act but does not provide a pathway to citizenship for these minors, but allowed them to stay in the U.S. making them eligible for work permits and public schooling.

On Friday, a Texas federal judge ruled that the DACA program was illegal, dealing a blow to Democrats and President Joe Biden who were hoping to reinstate the DACA program and possibly pass the DREAM Act as a pathway for the recipients to receive citizenship.

Senator Durbin took to the floor yesterday and pressed his Senate colleagues to act: “The cruel and misguided decision of this court will not stand. DACA is a lawful exercise of executive prosecutorial discretion by the Department of Homeland Security. More than 800,000 young people in our country have received DACA protection, and they help save lives every day as nurses, and doctors, and first responders. They contribute to our economy and our future as business owners, engineers, and teachers. They are a vital part of our communities as friends, family members, and loved ones. America is the only home these DREAMers have ever known, and Congress has waited long enough. In fact, it has waited too long to allow them finally become American citizens.”

The Biden Administration has vowed to appeal the Texas court ruling and is continuing to press Congress on the citizenship question for immigrants.

The federal trial of a former local state senator and one-time candidate for governor will have to wait a bit longer.

The U.S. Court of the Central District of Illinois granted a second continuance to the defense counsel of William “Sam” McCann in court yesterday, moving McCann’s trial to November. McCann has been accused of money laundering, tax evasion, and misuse of campaign funds. McCann has plead not guilty to all of the charges.

McCann’s federal public defender Rosana Brown asked for a second continuance on July 6^th after receiving what she characterized as “voluminous amounts” of discovery documents in the case, saying it would be impossible to bring the case to trial on July 27^th. More than 64,000 pages of material have been handed over to the defense by federal prosecutors in the case. McCann was granted a 90-day continuance in March in the case.

McCann faces more than 45 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines if convicted. Final pre-trial via teleconference has been set for October 18^th with jury selection to being in Springfield later that day.

A former Jacksonville man is heading to federal prison for filing false tax returns.

38 year old West K. Mpetshi was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison on Friday, followed by one year of mandatory supervised release. At Mpetshi’s sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Sue Myerscough found that Mpetshi, after immigrating to the U.S. From the Democratic Republic of Congo, engaged in a scheme to defraud the IRS of hundreds of thousands of dollars as a tax preparer by claiming false moving expenses and educational credits for himself and others on federal income tax returns.

Mpetshi, who was able to speak and write in English, prepared tax returns for other immigrants of the Democratic Republic of Congo living in the Jacksonville area who could not read or write in English.

Mpetshi was convicted of 30 counts of of tax fraud after a 2-week jury trial, also was ordered to pay restitution to the IRS in an amount just over $86,000 and court costs for the case totaling over $74,000. Prior to sentencing, Mpetshi has resided in Kirksville, Missouri. He is presently on bond prior to reporting to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence.

The Sangamon County Coroner’s Office has released the identity of a man who died in a car crash in Western Sangamon County on Saturday.

38 year old Hendrik Willemse of the Republic of South Africa was the lone occupant of the vehicle that crashed on Watts Road, south of Pleasant Plains, and was later pronounced dead at the scene.

An autopsy performed today determined that Willemse died from multiple blunt force injuries from the crash. The death remains under investigation by the Sangamon County Coroner’s office, pending additional studies.

A Murrayville man in jail for first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide sought to have his bail reduced in Morgan County Court Friday afternoon.

36 year old Kenneth J. Acree, through his defense attorney W. Scott Hanken, sought to have his original bail of $1.5 million dollars reduced to a half million dollars Friday afternoon while the trial proceedings in his case move forward. Hanken indicated that the family could post the 10% required to allow Acree to be out of jail on conditional bond. Hanken asked Judge Ryan Cadigan for Acree to be allowed to live with a family member in Jerseyville, be on ankle monitoring, and pursue a job offer with a salary of $20 an hour to aid in the costs of his own defense.

Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll says due to the nature of the case, he argued that Acree should remain at his original bond: “[The defense] argued what is referred to as factors in mitigation that would tend to convince the court to lower his bond, and obviously, the state objected to lowering of the defendant’s bond. Our main argument was the serious nature of the offenses and some pre-trial motions that the defense had filed earlier having to do with self-defense and things of that nature. In the end, the court denied the motion to reduce bond and bond remains in the amount of $1.5 million, and the case has been set for a pre-trial status on October 8th.”

Hanken then told the court that he would be presenting the court with a future motion with a budget to hire expert witnesses and to hire Terrence M. Moody of Centurion Investigators as a private investigator to aid in Acree’s case.

At the end of the hearing, Judge Cadigan released subpoenaed records surrounding Acree and Acree’s co-defendants in the murder case from the Department of Child and Family Services. Noll said he does not know currently what evidence lies in the records: “Previously, Mr. Hanken subpoenaed some records from DCFS involving the defendant, the decedent, and some co-defendants in some DCFS investigations that have occurred previously. Whatever DCFS has turned over, it went to the judge, [Judge Cadigan] reviewed it, and has provided it to our office to provide to Mr. Hanken. It was just given to me [on Friday], so I don’t know the specifics of what was contained in those investigations, but I was ordered to turn that over to the defense.” Noll has 10 days to turn the discovery documents over to Hanken’s Office as stipulated by law and the hearing.

Acree is accused of shooting 32 year old Robert Schofield in rural Murrayville in October of last year. Acree’s counsel has filed a self-defense claim in the case. Acree is also accused of then allegedly trying to hide Schofield’s body by burying it in a field in Nortonville. If convicted of the first-degree murder charge with a firearm, Acree faces 45 years to life in prison. 36 year old Laura C. Acree and 29 year old Sara M. Schofield, the wives of the accused and the decedent have also been charged with concealment of a homicidal death in the case. Sara Schofield is next due in court on September 8^th, while Laura Acree awaits an October 6^th pre-trial conference.

A special reunion in Jacksonville plans to make a return this year.

The MacMurray College Foundation and Alumni Association has announced that MacMurray College Homecoming will return on October 15-17^th. Current announced plans include a golf outing, a fun run, the MacFam parade, 50 year reunions for the Classes of 1970 and 1971, an informal gathering at Bahans, and a Rutledge lawn party and alumni dinner.

A complete schedule of events are expected to be released in the next few weeks. The Alumni Association is also planning on having a graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020 at Annie Merner Chapel along with a reception for recipients of the MacMurray Foundation scholarship recipients.

This is developing. We will provide more detail once it becomes released.

Springfield Police remain tight-lipped about an ongoing investigation into a shooting at White Oaks Mall that took place nearly two weeks ago.

Springfield Police arrested two additional unnamed individuals late Friday, according to WICS Newschannel 20. The police already arrested one unnamed individual the week prior. Springfield Police have said that the shooting that sent one man to the hospital on the upper floor of the shopping complex is gang related.

Springfield Police says that more arrests are forthcoming and that no further information is being released due to the nature of the investigation.