Midwest

Pritzker names new head of embattled Illinois family services agency

Published

2 years ago

January 7, 2024

Pritzker names new head of embattled Illinois family services agency

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday named his director of juvenile justice to take over the troubled Department of Children and Family Services.

Heidi Mueller, 49, will replace Marc D. Smith, who has been at the helm since 2019 and has been held in contempt of court numerous times for improper housing of young people under the agency’s care. Smith, who announced his resignation in October, will help with the transition through January.

Mueller has been director of the Department of Juvenile Justice since 2016. The agency oversees the custody of young people committed to the state by Illinois courts.

HEAD OF EMBATTLED ILLINOIS CHILD SERVICES AGENCY TO RESIGN AT YEAR’S END

“I have witnessed firsthand the critical importance of a strong and supportive safety net for our state’s most vulnerable residents and the tragedy that results when there are holes in that net,” Mueller said in a statement. She thanked Smith for “driving real progress at DCFS.”

Mueller, who currently makes $173,250, was chosen after a nationwide search. Pritzker said her “transformative” work at Juvenile Justice has gained her national attention.

“Heidi’s care and compassion for the most at-risk young people in our state and her exceptional leadership are hallmarks of her career and I know that her passion and expertise will be a significant asset as we continue to improve our state’s child welfare system,” Pritzker said in a statement.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker greets constituents as he campaigns in Bellwood, Illinois, on Nov. 1, 2022. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Smith, 54, whose salary is $210,000, began his tenure months into Pritzker’s first term. The Democrat had pledged reforms, releasing an outside report on agency failures including the deaths of three children under its care in just a few months.

But the department continued to struggle. In 2022, Smith was held in contempt of court on numerous occasions for failing to find proper placement for young people in the agency’s care. Pritzker repeatedly blamed his Republican predecessor for the dismantling of private social-service agencies capable of proper youth housing during a budget stalemate with Democrats in the Legislature from 2015 to 2017.

The situation has seen little improvement. DCFS’ own annual report on placement released last week showed that during the fiscal year that ended last June, hundreds of children were kept in so-called temporary quarters, in some cases for months, or held in psychiatric hospitals beyond need for treatment or juvenile incarcerations past their release dates because DCFS had no place to put them.

The DCFS inspector general’s annual report released last week indicated that during the same fiscal year, 160 children with some level of involvement with the department had died.

PRITZKER ADMIN SCRAPS CHICAGO MIGRANT CAMP PLAN OVER SOIL CONTAMINATION CONCERNS

“The DCFS director has arguably the hardest and most important job in state government. Heidi Mueller has an outstanding reputation as a reform-minded manager and brings substantial child welfare experience to the task,” said Charles Golbert, the Cook County public guardian, whose office has filed class-action lawsuits over lengthy placements in psychiatric hospitals and juvenile justice incarceration. He urged Mueller to make the expansion of DCFS’s placement capacity an urgent priority.

Heidi Dalenberg, interim legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which also has legal action against DCFS, said Mueller “must embrace the challenge of finding a safe place to stay — preferably with the child’s family members” and turn away from large, institutional settings.

“This is a challenging job that requires a leader with vision and a commitment to transformational change,” Dalenberg said.

Robert Vickery, currently deputy director of programs at Juvenile Justice, will serve as interim director of the agency during a search for Mueller’s permanent replacement.

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Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee woman attacked inside her home, neighbors charged

Published

30 minutes ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Milwaukee woman attacked inside her home, neighbors charged

article

Tazjah Smith, Domonick Farmer

MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee County prosecutors accuse two people of attacking their neighbor inside her home earlier this month.

Charges filed

In court:

Court records show 22-year-old Tazjah Smith and 21-year-old Domonick Farmer are each charged with burglary and battery to an elder. Farmer is also charged with pointing a gun at the neighbor.

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Both Smith and Farmer made their initial court appearance on Thursday. Smith’s bond was set at $5,000, while Farmer’s was set at $2,500.

Neighbor attacked

The backstory:

It happened on Jan. 2. A criminal complaint said a 72-year-old woman said she was home when her upstairs neighbor, Smith, pounded on her door and accused her of “stealing groceries.” Smith then forced her way into the home and hit the victim in the face.

Court filings said the victim told police she was on the floor when she saw Farmer, who also lives upstairs, come in and tell Smith to “bear her a**.” The 72-year-old said Smith then hit her several more times before Smith and Farmer went upstairs.

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A witness said Smith also told Farmer to “get the gun,” and that Farmer came back with a gun that he “placed to the head” of the victim, according to the complaint. The witness said he told Farmer that it was “not worth it.” The witness also said Farmer demanded $20,000 and searched the home before they left without any money.

At the scene near 12th and Locust, court filings said police found “signs of a struggle” – including a cabinet door off its hinges, clumps of hair on the floor and a dented can of vegetables. The victim’s face and eye were swollen, and she was taken to a hospital.

Police found Smith and Farmer in the upstairs unit. Prosecutors said Smith “appeared to be covered in sweat with fresh scratches.” Officers searched the unit and found two guns, which matched descriptions provided by the victim and witness, and “small amounts” of methamphetamine and marijuana.

The Source: Information in this report is from the Milwauke County District Attorney’s Office and Wisconsin Circuit Court.

Crime and Public SafetyNewsMilwaukee

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Minneapolis, MN

Buss: Response to Minneapolis shooting a moral failure

Published

42 minutes ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Buss: Response to Minneapolis shooting a moral failure

If another civil war were to break out in the United States, I imagine it would begin with an altercation similar to what took place in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

That’s what made the instantaneous and pejorative response to it by the Trump administration so jarring.

In an incident that recalls the National Guard shooting of student anti-war protesters at Kent State University in 1970, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and a mother of three. She had seemingly interjected herself into a major immigration enforcement operation that dispatched 2,000 federal agents to Minneapolis at the direction of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

There is a dispute over whether the shooting was in self-defense, and the Trump administration has doubled down on defending the actions of the ICE officer, labeling Good a “domestic terrorist.” Vice President JD Vance alleged on Thursday that Good was part of a left-wing network.

But it’s hard to see the incident as anything other than a complete breakdown in moral clarity about responsibility and the limits of force by the government — and how it is discussed publicly before information could even be known.

Video shared online of the incident, allegedly taken by the officer involved, indicates the confrontation was already off to a bad start. Is filming, easily interpreted as a form of intimidation by law enforcement, standard training for ICE officers?

The ICE removal officer has been identified as Jonathan Ross, a former Army National Guard machine gunner and ex‑Border Patrol agent with extensive experience. He had been dragged by a suspect during a 2025 arrest.

Perhaps he should not have returned to active duty so quickly. The impetus is on law enforcement, whether police officers or ICE officers, to preserve life and contain an unruly and even reckless situation to the best of their ability.

Filming a potential suspect before a government-sanctioned interaction and then physically circling her vehicle to put oneself in danger calls his judgment into question.

Many questions remain about the confrontation, and no doubt instinctual psychology played a larger role in Good’s actions and in Ross’s than we will ever know.

But the immediate, callous response of Noem and Vance to this tragedy is part of a growing pattern of disregard for the collateral damage caused by implementing difficult, controversial policies. This cowboy culture that is causing serious division and violence on the nation’s streets needs to be called out and off.

Sometimes the government has to kill; it doesn’t appear that Good’s death was necessarily one of those instances. No death should ever be celebrated, or the victim castigated as a “deranged leftist,” as Vance called Good, an activist who was reportedly trained to aggressively confront ICE agents.

Despite the immediate escalation, it’s clear that while Good was driving in the opposite direction from Ross, the officer continued to shoot at her. Good lay in the driver’s seat, dying, while onlookers scream in horror.

Such a staunch and certain defense of the totality of his actions is indefensible.

No one — U.S. citizen or otherwise — should be gunned down on America’s streets this casually by agents of the government.

It also points to why perhaps immigration operations at the scale Noem directed in Minneapolis shouldn’t be deployed so provocatively. Such a confrontation was bound to occur.

Public safety requires restraint as much as it requires the enforcement of law and order.

When that restraint fails, it is the duty of the heads of government to call for patience, calm and the truth — and if necessary, take some responsibility.

Americans on all sides should demand accountability for Good’s death and a renewed commitment by the Trump administration to policies and practices that were written to prevent exactly this kind of tragedy.

Kaitlyn Buss’ columns appear in The Detroit News. Reach her at kbuss@detroitnews.com and follow her on X @KaitlynBuss.

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Indianapolis, IN

Brief anti-ICE protest pops up on East 86th Street in north Indianapolis

Published

48 minutes ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Brief anti-ICE protest pops up on East 86th Street in north Indianapolis

Anti-ICE protesters lined up on both sides of East 86th Street, near the Monon Trail crossing, in Indianapolis on the afternoon of Jan. 10, 2026.

The group of roughly 200 people chanted, “this is what democracy looks like” and held up signs as vehicles drove by, with some drivers beeping in support.

“Since President Trump took office for his second term, it’s not normal and we can’t be conditioned anymore,” Peter Moore, a 48-year-old resident of Carmel, told IndyStar when asked why he was attending the protest. “The more we protest, the more of an effect we’re going to gradually have. I’m very encouraged by the response out here.”

More than 1,000 anti-ICE protests are scheduled nationwide for Jan. 10, and Jan. 11, following the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Good, 37, was shot and killed on Jan. 7 by Jonathan Ross, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal officer based in Minnesota.

“We’re seeing U.S. citizens at risk, we’re seeing people’s safety at risk,” said Brittany Miller, 27-year-old Indianapolis resident, when asked why she was attending the protest. “Silence is compliance. If we don’t do something, if we don’t say something , I think we’re headed in a really scary way. If we keep showing up and keep pushing back, there’s power in the people.”

Anti-ICE protesters line up on East 86th Street in Indianapolis

Patti Freeman Dorson, a 69-year-old resident of Indianapolis, talks about why she attended an anti-ICE protest in Indianapolis on Jan. 10, 2026.

Anti-ICE protesters line up on East 86th Street in Indianapolis

Brittany Miller, a 27-year-old resident of Indianapolis, talks about why she joined an anti-ice protest on East 86th Street on Jan. 10, 2026.

Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @Jake_Allen19.

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