Midwest
Jewish leaders want Chicago mayor to create antisemitism task force
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Jewish leaders are pressuring Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to establish an antisemitism task force, because they believe he’s not doing enough to protect the Jewish community, Fox News Digital has learned.
“There was a 58% rise in hate crimes,” Rebecca Weininger, the senior regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Midwest, told Fox News Digital, specifically referring to anti-Jewish hate crimes. “So to be clear, that’s not hate incidents. It’s hate crimes, bias-motivated crimes against Jews in the city of Chicago.”
The Chicago Commission on Human Relations in July last year found that the Jewish community experienced a 58% increase in hate crimes from 2023-2024. Other groups experienced a decline.
Jewish leaders are pressuring Mayor Brandon Johnson to establish an antisemitism task force, because they believe he’s not doing enough to protect their community, Fox News Digital has learned. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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The ADL held a press conference on Monday to demand that Johnson adopt recommendations of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.
Among those recommendations is a task force to protect Jewish members.
“Establish the task force your commission recommended, name a leader accountable for this work, set timelines, make progress public,” Chicago Sinai Congregation Rabbi Amanda Greene told ABC 7.
The Chicago Commission on Human Relations in July last year found that the Jewish community experienced a 58% increase in hate crimes while other groups experienced a decline. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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“The taskforce would be very similar to other task forces that the mayor’s office already has in other marginalized communities. It would be populated by the mainstream Jewish community as a way to give information to the mayor about the lived experience of Jews in Chicago right now,” Weininger told Fox News Digital.
Weininger continued, “To help inform other executive policies that he could adopt that would be immediately beneficial to the mainstream Jewish population.”
The ADL held a press conference on Monday to demand that Johnson adopt recommendations of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. (Anti-Defamation League )
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Other task forces Chicago established are the Task Force on Missing and Murdered Chicago Women, which focuses on policy changes to address violence against women, and the Reparations Task Force. Chicago also established a Task Force on Black Immigrants that investigates social and economic conditions for Black immigrants in Illinois.
Johnson’s office declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
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Cleveland, OH
2 hospitalized after Cleveland house fire, 6 displaced
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Cleveland Division of Fire was dispatched to a structure fire Monday evening.
According to Cleveland Fire, crews responded to the 3300 block of E 134th Street.
Two adults were transported by Cleveland EMS to MetroHealth in stable condition for evaluation after inhaling smoke.
The fire is currently under investigation, Cleveland Fire said, and the Fire Investigation Unit personnel remain on scene.
The estimated total damage is $85,000 and it also damaged a neighboring home due to radiant heat exposure.
Cleveland Fire said the American Red Cross was requested to assist the five adults and one child displaced from the fire.
Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.
Illinois
Clock ticking on Bears stadium bill as Illinois lawmakers face deadline
With just days left in the Illinois legislative session, lawmakers are still debating the megaprojects bill tied to the Chicago Bears’ proposed Arlington Heights stadium while Indiana continues pushing to bring the team across state lines.
Indiana
Indiana Rangers seek long-overdue recognition for Vietnam War service
MADISON CO., Ind. (WISH) — Surviving members of a highly decorated Vietnam War unit on Monday said group recognition for their service is long overdue.
Company D, 151st Infantry, was an Indiana National Guard unit that deployed to Vietnam at the end of 1968. It was the only National Guard combat unit to deploy as an intact Guard unit during the entire conflict. Unusually for a Guard unit, it had received Airborne and Ranger training. D Company became known as the Indiana Rangers.
Donnie Holland, a member of the unit, said they deployed in five-man teams deep in the jungle, sometimes behind enemy lines. They intercepted supplies and Viet Cong coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail into South Vietnam.
According to the unit’s official history, its soldiers earned more than 500 individual medals during their year-long tour of duty, including 19 Silver Stars, 175 Bronze Stars and 110 Purple Hearts. This was the highest individual medal total within a one-year period of any Army infantry unit. Missing from the Indiana Rangers’ accolades, though, is any recognition of the unit as a whole. Although the state of Indiana welcomed them home, the Indiana Rangers said there is no record of any official military unit award.
It’s an oversight Holland and other surviving Indiana Rangers said they’re trying to fix. He said he and the others are campaigning for a presidential unit citation, the highest unit award. Holland said unit recognition is important in part because it would commemorate the contributions of support personnel who did not see combat but provided critical services such as maintaining the radios they used to call for fire support or extraction.
“We would not have been as successful as we were out in the field if we didn’t have the support we had in the rear,” he said. “Those guys in the rear deserve that recognition the same as us because they helped us stay alive.”
The Vietnam War took a toll on D Company. Of the more than 200 Indiana Rangers deployed to Vietnam, six were killed: Skip Baranowski, Kenneth Cummings, Peter Fegatelli, George Kleiber, Charles Larkins and Robert Smith. Larkins and Smith were the first two Indiana Rangers to die during the tour of duty.
Gary Bussell said the unit was especially close-knit because so many of its men knew each other from back home in Indiana. He said Larkins and Smith exemplified this.
“Smith and Larkins were from the same neighborhood, and they both stood up at each other’s wedding as best man,” he said. “A lot of this is for these guys. Those boys didn’t get to get past 23. I remember times back home, 20 years later, I’d be having a bad day and I just say, don’t worry about it. Larkins and Smith would’ve liked to have had your bad day 20 years later. You knew what car he drove, you knew his wife, you might know his kids’ names. And that was new to Vietnam because most fellows were put in as individual replacements.”
A break appeared to come last week, when Holland and several other Indiana Rangers were invited to the annual Congressional Picnic by Congresswoman Victoria Spartz. Holland said they were able to meet with all of the members of Indiana’s Congressional delegation, which includes one of only two remaining Vietnam War veterans in Congress, Jim Baird. They also were able to meet briefly with President Donald Trump.
During a midday meeting with several surviving Indiana Rangers, staff from Spartz’s office said they have submitted the paperwork for a valorous unit award, the military’s second-highest unit honor. After stopping by to meet with the D Company veterans, Spartz said she is pursuing both a valorous unit award and a presidential unit citation. She said she is working with the Pentagon to find out which is the most appropriate.
“I think we’re on the right track. We have a lot of good ideas of what we need to do. But I think now, we’re in the right place,” she said. “I think the paperwork needs to come from the National Guard and they will try to do, and we just got some stuff they probably need. And they’ll send it to the Department of War and the Pentagon, and hopefully we can get what, you know truly, this is past due.”
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