Illinois
Chicago Heights, Illinois crematory shut down after bodies are found in trailers

A south suburban Chicago crematory has shut down as Illinois state investigators obtain how the remains of deceased people are being handled there.
Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights is accused of mishandling the bodies of people who recently died. The crematory agreed to shut down its operations during the probe by the Illinois Comptroller’s office, which regulates the cremation industry.
Heights has agreed to not accept any more bodies during the investigation, which started in mid-February.
Meanwhile, CBS News Chicago obtained photos from inside a trailer where bodies were being stored. The trailer is located on the property belonging to Heights, and the photos show deceased people partially wrapped in sheets or clear plastic bags, with their faces and body parts sticking out.
CBS News Chicago also found bodies in bags moved from another trailer on the site, and there are questions about storage areas without proper refrigeration at the business.
Families typically send those they lost to a funeral home and the funeral home then sends the remains to a crematory. Families would be unaware of the crematory’s conditions.
Heights Crematory operator Clark Morgan refused the opportunity to look at the photos or comment when contacted by the CBS News Chicago Investigators.
The state Comptroller’s office is looking into Heights’ handling of the remains of people who recently died. The disturbing pictures obtained by CBS show the conditions of how some bodies were kept. Out of respect for the deceased and their families, CBS blurred some of these images.
Families typically send those they lost to a funeral home and the funeral home then sends the remains to a crematory. Families would be unaware of the crematory’s conditions.
The Comptroller’s office, in a statement to CBS News Chicago, said its investigators have been onsite at Heights Crematory inspecting and monitoring the facility.
The Comptroller’s office also said: “The owners have agreed to take on no new cases/clients pending the outcome of this investigation. The investigation could lead to penalties up to $5,000 for each violation and possible revocation of its crematory license.”
According to the state, during the voluntary shutdown, Heights is being allowed to cremate the remaining bodies it has in its inventory — but only with daily oversight of state regulators.
The company has had past financial problems too. A background check shows millions of dollars in multiple federal and state tax liens, which includes a $1.8 million lean by the Internal Revenue Service from 2023.
Meanwhile, this CBS News Chicago investigation uncovered that another crematory, Crown Cremations in Indiana, has been sending remains across state lines to the Heights Crematory. Crown Cremations is now too are being questioned by Illinois regulators who are investigating the business relationship between the two companies and Crown Cremations’ use of a trailer on Heights property to store bodies of deceased people from Indiana without an Illinois license.
Crown Cremations is run by Richard Sallie of Crown Point, Indiana. A lawyer representing Sallie, Jim Clement, said after learning of the CBS News Chicago investigation, “Crown Cremations is disappointed to hear these things and has severed their relationship with Heights Crematory,” and is “cooperating with investigators.”

Illinois
Illinois passes $55B budget, with over $800 million in revenue changes

Illinois state lawmakers’ spending plan surpasses last year’s budget by $2 billion, requiring taxpayers to pay over $800 million in additional costs for yet another year of record spending.
With just over 24 hours to conduct a full review, the Illinois General Assembly approved a record-setting $55.2 billion budget for 2026, after a 75-41 House vote sent the 3,000-plus page plan to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. lt follows a familiar fiscal playbook: spend more, fix nothing, hand taxpayers the bill – and toss in a raise for those casting the votes.
To cover the rising costs of education, state pensions and health benefits for government workers, the budget uses short-sighted fixes and ignores structural problems. Once again, it’s taxpayers who will pay the price.
Just before its deadline, Illinois lawmakers passed a record $55.2 billion budget, featuring over $394 million in tax increases, $237 million in fund sweeps and $216 million in delaying funds.
Despite lawmaker claims of budget cuts, the 2026 budget increased by $2 billion compared to 2025. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has grown Illinois’ budget by $16 billion and enacted over 50 tax hikes since taking office in 2019.
Notably, the budget cuts the state’s Property Tax Relief Grant, resulting in an effective $43 million property tax hike. Lawmakers will also receive more than $6,000 in pay raises for the coming year, while public pensioners will receive a benefit spike valued at more than $13 billion. Meanwhile, the budget contributes $5 billion less in pension funding than is necessary to keep the system solvent for future retirees, according to the pension system’s actuaries.
On the revenue side the budget features more than $800 million in revenue gimmicks featuring tax hikes, fund sweeps and temporary measures that fail to truly balance the state’s budget. The process was so rushed that even bill sponsors seem unclear on the exact amount taxpayers will be asked to pay. Among the revenue adjustments are:
- $195 million – $228 million from a new tax amnesty program.
- $171 million from delaying motor fuels tax revenue transfers to the Road Fund.
- $237 million in fund sweeps.
- $72 million in corporate tax hikes.
- $45 million from shorting the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund.
- $36 million from a new sports wagering tax.
- $15 million from removing hotel tax exemptions from short term rental platforms.
- An additional tax on nicotine analogs.
The 2026 budget continues Illinois’ practice of irresponsible and speculative budgeting. Rather than focusing on policy solutions such as a spending cap, right-sizing employee health care costs and constitutional pension reform, lawmakers have opted for a status quo budget. Constantly relying on taxes and fund sweeps encourages irresponsible budgeting, which erodes voters’ trust in Springfield. These tactics reduce the state’s competitiveness, risk potential credit downgrades and can worsen Illinois’ challenges with high unemployment and sluggish growth.
Illinois’ 2026 budget continues the state’s habit of patching budget problems using short-sighted fixes with long-term consequences. Without structural solutions, such as adopting a spending cap and constitutional pension reform, Illinois has continued its cycle of reactive budgeting at taxpayers’ expense.
Illinois
What it’s like to graduate from college while inside an Illinois prison

In many ways, it looked like any college graduation. There were balloons, flowers and squares of frosted marble cake. Rows of family and friends faced a lectern in the fluorescent-lit gymnasium.
But the uniformed guards patrolling the gym underscored that this was no ordinary commencement. It was the first of its kind to take place inside the East Moline Correctional Center, a minimum-security men’s prison on the Illinois-Iowa border about two and a half hours west of Chicago.
As the procession music played from a tabletop speaker, three students in caps and gowns marched up the aisle on Tuesday to become the first graduates of Augustana College to earn their bachelor’s degrees while serving prison sentences.
“This moment is causing a lot of mixed emotions,” said one incarcerated student, Brandon Johnson, addressing the room. “They say there’s no crying in prison, but I brought some tissue just in case.”
The Augustana Prison Education Program, or APEP, began full-time in the fall of 2021 and gained accreditation the following spring. It now has about 30 people enrolled. Students take college courses on everything from physics to poetry — but without access to the Internet and sometimes writing assignments by hand.
“It’s the same Augustana degree requirements, same professors, same rigor — in a prison,” said Sharon Varallo, the program’s executive director.
The first to graduate, David Staples, finished his degree on-campus last year after his release from prison in 2022. Now, he has been joined by four more graduates, including the three present at Tuesday’s ceremony: Jorge Herrejon, Brandon Johnson and Chris Allen.
“I’m so proud of him. He’s taken a bad situation and made the best of it,” said Jim Allen, Chris Allen’s father.
He said he drove three hours from central Illinois the previous night to see his son, who was locked up as a teenager, graduate from college.
There is high demand for educational programs in prison but very few opportunities. Incarcerated students describe their time in the classroom as transformative, and it helps many earn time off their sentences. But only about 600 of the more than 29,000 people in Illinois prisons are enrolled in higher education programs, according to the Education Justice Project at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Steven Cardenas, a first-year student locked up at East Moline, said it took three tries before he was accepted into APEP.
“It’s an opportunity that’s not given in a lot of different facilities and one that I jumped at immediately because it’s like I get to do something positive with my time,” he said.
Herrejon said he enrolled in college not just for himself but primarily to set an example for his younger siblings. His little brother attended the ceremony.
“I had to change, and they had to see that,” Herrejon said. “And I am proud to say that none of them have followed in the footsteps that I walked before I was incarcerated.”
Herrejon said he’s not sure what he’ll do with his degree once he’s released. He is 31 and has been incarcerated since he was 17.
“I do know that I wanted to be in service of people who are underprivileged, underrepresented…and teach them that there are options in life,” he said.
Lauren Frost is the lead producer of WBEZ’s Prisoncast!, a journalism project serving incarcerated Illinoisans and their loved ones. Listen at 2 p.m. June 15 on 91.5 FM, and go online to wbez.org/prisoncast.
Illinois
19-year-old arrested in Lake County, Illinois in connection with SC party boat shooting that hurt 11

LITTLE RIVER, S.C. — A 19-year-old has been taken into custody in Illinois and authorities said they plan to charge him in a shooting that hurt 11 people after a party boat cruise in South Carolina.
The shooting happened Sunday night on a dock in Little River after a fight on the boat during the three-hour cruise, Horry County Police said.
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The suspect is expected to be charged with several counts of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and then officials will seek to extradite him from Lake County, Illinois, back to South Carolina, police said.
The investigation into the shooting continues and more people could be charged, authorities said.
Officials said 120 people partied on the boat over the holiday weekend and were leaving on the dock when the shooting happened. Ten people were wounded by gunfire, mostly on the lower parts of their body, and one person was hurt by a falling speaker, authorities said.
Investigators think only one person fired shots. They didn’t say what started the dispute on the boat and how it led to the shooting on the dock and also would not say what kind of weapon was used.
About 3 miles down the Intracoastal Waterway, a North Myrtle Beach police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg as he tried to get a boat into the water to respond to the shooting scene, officials said.
Little River is about 20 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach. The fishing village is known for its docks and marinas where fishing expeditions, casino boats and several dolphin cruises leave daily.
The video in the player above is from an earlier report.
Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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