Lakewood purchased a drone in early August.

Lakewood Buys High-End Drone

I find this new tool to be interesting, so I asked the Police Department to let me know how it has been used.

Pilot Sgt. Sean McGrath provided the following information:

• On 10-22-2023, Drone requested by CLPD to help check the area of Randall/Ackman for missing suicidal subject-Subject located at Hospital
• On 10-24-2023 Drone deployed to look for missing child with Autism in Lakewood-Subject located by citizen in the area
• On 11-05-2023 Drone requested by CLPD to search for missing teen who had been drinking. Subj located three miles away by concerned resident who called police.
• On 11/12/2023, drone deployed to check the area for a possible stolen vehicle reported in the area of Rte 47/Rte 176. Unable to locate.

From the township file:

From Marengo Police:

AGGRAVATED DISCHARGE OF FIREARM (ARRESTS)

On October 26th, just prior to 9:00 p.m., the Marengo Police Department responded to a residence located in the 500 block of Kennedy Drive for a report of a subject with a gun.

Due to the seriousness of the situation, the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department was requested to the scene as well.

Once on scene, officers discovered multiple bullet holes in the exterior of the residence and were unable to make contact with anyone there. It was found that nobody was present at the residence.

A short time later, Belvidere Police responded to an address in their jurisdiction and located a victim suffering from injuries believed to have occurred at the location in Marengo.

The injuries were determined to be non-life-threatening.

It was learned that an altercation occurred involving at least one male suspect and the female victim.

During the altercation, the male pistol-whipped the female and left the residence.

It is believed that the male suspect got into the driver seat of a vehicle, driving back past the residence, at which time the male subject fired multiple rounds at the residence and fled the scene.

At the time of the shooting, there were two juveniles present in the vehicle.

Through information developed in this investigation, the male subject was identified as 23 year old Jacob Mains of 610 McKinley Ave, Belvidere, IL.

At approximately 9:58 a.m. on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, at 610 McKinley Avenue, Belvidere, IL, the Marengo Police Department arrested Jacob Mains for the following alleged offenses:

• Aggravated Discharge of Firearm (Class 1 Felony)
• Aggravated Battery – Deadly Weapon (Class 3 Felony)
• Unlawful Use of Weapon by Felony (Class 3 Felony)
• Endangering Health/Life of Child (2 counts) (Class A Misdemeanor)

Additionally, a female resident from where the incident occurred was found to have been present in the car and is the mother of the two children who were present in the car at the time of the shooting.

She was identified as 36 year old Jennifer Luttrell of 530 Kennedy Drive, Marengo, IL.

At approximately 12:50 p.m. on Wednesday, November, 22, 2023, at the Marengo Police Department, Jennifer Luttrell was arrested for the following alleged offenses:

• Obstruction of Justice (Class 4 Felony
• Endangering Health/Life of Child (3 counts) (Class A Misdemeanor)

Jacob Mains was transferred to the custody of the McHenry County Jail at approximately 2 p.m. on 11/22/2023.

Jennifer Luttrell was arrested and released from Marengo PD.

This is still an active investigation.

If anyone has any information that may pertain to this case, they are asked to contact this agency.

The Marengo Police would like to thank the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department and the Belvidere Police Department for their assistance with this case.

The Marengo Police Department wishes to remind the public that a charge is merely an accusation and all those charged are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

From Johnsburg Village President Ed Hettermann:

Holiday Letter from Village President

As the holiday season approaches, I would like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  The holiday season is a busy and exciting time for us all as we look forward to holiday events and gatherings with friends and family.   Make time in your busy holiday schedule to come out and enjoy this year’s Holiday Magic Parade and Event, which will be held on Saturday, December 9^th beginning at 5:30 p.m.  This year’s parade will take a more extended route beginning at Johnsburg High School and ending at the Johnsburg Community Club (Click Here for the Parade Route).

The unexpected snowfall we experienced on Halloween is a harsh reminder to us that winter will soon be upon on us.  Our Public Works and Parks Department employees are busy closing up facilities for the season and preparing trucks and equipment for the inevitable winter weather ahead.  Take time to prepare by making sure your vehicle is in good working order and equipped with blankets and warm apparel.

A new Christmas tree has been placed in the lobby at the David G. Dominguez Municipal Center in celebration of the holiday season and we need your help decorating it.  We invite you to donate a special ornament or use your imagination and create an ornament for the tree.  Ornaments can be dropped off at the Municipal Center, 1515 Channel Beach Avenue, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Village staff will place the ornaments on the tree for all to enjoy.  Ornaments will be kept and displayed each year.

With the New Year quickly approaching I wanted to take a moment to reinforce a code enforcement matter that is regularly violated.  The “No Left Turn” off of Fairview Avenue onto Chapel Hill Road has been in effect since the Chapel Hill Road bridge repairs were done in 2018 yet we continue to see travelers completely disregard the many signs instructing them not to turn left.  The site distance at the intersection is limited and the restriction was put into place to avoid accidents.  In the interest of public safety, our police department will be actively enforcing this regulation and citations will be issued so please adhere to the restriction.  

Also in the New Year, non-highway vehicle registrations must be renewed.  Your current registration expires on December 31^st so please plan ahead and take steps to renew your non-highway vehicle plates to avoid costly fines. 

Communication in today’s world has changed significantly and people have come to rely on e-blasts and other social media as a means of communication.  In response to those changes, the Village increased its use of eblasts and Facebook and eliminated the mailing of a quarterly newsletters.  Our e-blasts are helpful and informative but many residents have expressed that they miss my articles in the quarterly newsletter.  With that in mind, I will resume writing letters to share information and updates on projects and event which will be distributed via email.  Additionally, over the holidays, I will be writing a letter summarizing our year in review, which will be mailed to each home and business in the New Year.

Thank you for providing me the opportunity to serve as your Village President.  I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and safe and prosperous New Year!  I hope to see you and your family at the Holiday Magic Event!

The Wednesday Bible Class on the Book of Exodus at First Chruch in Crystal Lake collected winter clothing for migrants in Chicago.

Pastor Lisa Kruse-Safford drove them to a drop-off place.

There were “42 coats and a bag of hats and gloves,” she wrote.

From Guns Save Life:

99.83% NON-COMPLIANCE: ISP release Week 7 gun registration compliance numbers

Byjboch

The Illinois State Police posted the Week 7 number from the so-called “Protect Illinois Communities Act” a couple of days late. 

Frankly, we expected they were going to start burying the very worrisome numbers. 

Why? 

They represent a giant embarrassment for the Governor and his merry band of gun grabbing jihadists.

“How dare they not comply with our edicts passed in the middle of the night at the last minute!”

An additional 650 Land of Lincoln gun owners took the plunge and registered at least one of their now banned self-defense firearms, bringing the total number to 4089 who have “complied.” 

Considering there are 2,415,481 FOID holders, that brings the total compliance rate to, brace yourself:  .1692%.

In other words, 99.83% of Illinois gun owners have declined to comply at this point in time.

Found this at Salry Sam’s, a sports bar in Sarasota:

From the Lake in the Hills Police:

Sandra Fletcher-Borg was arrested on a drug charge.

Those were the words of Decatur State Rep. Weber Borchers while presenting his bill to make the monarch butterfly the state insect in 1973.

He had been invited to a third grade elementary school class assembly in which students made the case for naming the monarch the state insect.

“There were 300 beady little eyes looking at me. What was I to do?”

So, he committed to introducing the bill to accomplish that.

The day of the vote, students came to State Representative offices with the tops of cottage cheese containers containing a colored monarch butterfly with a string attached.

To understand the totally unexpected nature of Borchers’ sponsorsing such a bill, one needs to know he was probably the most conservative member of the Illinois General Assembly.

A World War I Veteran, he was the University of Illinois first Chief Illiniwek.

His large home had suits of armor.

I remember the Middletown High School playt “Harvey” when I think of Weber…especially the parts where the Veteran charges up the stairs.

He had someone video a Woodstock-style music festival near Peoria and used private rooms to share the X-rated results.

But, he had a compassionate side.

He had his legislative assistant visit nursing homes.

She would find the manager and ask to inspect the home.

If she was told she had no right to do so, the woman would say, “Alright, I’ll have the Representative send a Public Health Department inspector.’

That was enough for her to gain access.

She had a ten-point check list, which I have been unable to find.

Two items, however, provide an idea of the common sense information sought:

• Can urine be smelled?
• Is there water within reach of the patients?

Now comes the Illinois Environmental Council with a post about the Secretary of State issuing a monarch license plate.

From Stephen Moore’s Unleash Prosperity Hotline #903 – THANKSGIVING 2023 EDITION:

Republicans Have Been Duped by Durbin’s Bill To Impose Credit Card Price Controls 

One universal rule of economics is that government wage and price controls are ALWAYS a bad idea. CTUP senior fellow and University of Chicago ace economist Casey Mulligan in the Washington Examiner laments that so many Republicans who signed on to this awful price controls bill were tricked by Illinois Democrat Senator Dick Durbin:

Earlier versions of the act simply capped the credit card fee — an obvious price control. As explained in the Wall Street Journal, previous price controls like this have proven “a disaster for consumers [and] a windfall for mega-retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Target.”

But Durbin has convinced some Republicans to sign on to a new version of the bill by disguising the price control as a “routing mandate.” The mandate would allow merchants to select the network, rather than the issuer. Networks would have no choice but to cater to merchants, who would rather not grant consumer discounts. This would begin the death spiral for the reward programs and fraud protections that consumers love and have passed the market test.

We recently published a white paper on the dangers of credit card price controls. Click here to read it!