Afternoon news update: July 21, 2015

An early morning drive by shooting injures a 14-year old girl. Police say it happened around two this morning near Woodlawn and Locust in Rockford. The girl says a car pulled up and fired. She described the gunman as a light-skinned black male in his 20’s. The girl suffered minor injuries.
A Rockford man selling magazine subscriptions in Roanoke, Virginia, is jailed there for threatening to blow up a local mall. 18-year-old Richard Clay faces two felony charges after he allegedly phoned in the threat from his motel room.
Rockford police are bringing back Tasers. The department stopped using the devices six years ago because of concerns the city could be liable if someone who was shocked died of a heart attack. Some Rockford police supervisors and SWAT team members will be issued Tasers in the fall.
A 55-year-old Madison man has been charged in connection with a bomb threat that led to an evacuation at the state Capitol and delayed debate on the Wisconsin budget. Daniel Veerhusen appeared in court Monday. Veerhusen reportedly told police he made the threat because he wanted the budget to get settled to "see what the medical benefits were gonna be like." The debate was delayed two hours by the evacuation.
Gov. Scott Walker has issued an executive order this morning allowing Wisconsin National Guard's adjutant general to arm his troops in the wake of an attack on a pair of military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Walker has called for an end to the ban on service members carrying guns in military recruiting offices.
Illinois lawmakers are still getting paid, there's still no budget, and Governor Bruce Rauner is doubling down on his positions in all of that. Rauner started a capitol news conference by saying lawmakers should earn their pay by coming to the table and negotiating -- not on a budget, but, still, on the several points of his Turnaround Agenda. "The budget, in the end, gets driven by the condition of the state," Rauner said. "What we've got to get to is at the core issues that drive the budgeting process. We need folks in the General Assembly and the government who are there for the right reasons and reflective of their constituency, not working for the Chicago Machine." The Chicago Machine, he says, commandeered by House Speaker Michael Madigan, who consistently reiterates non budget items should be left out of the budgeting process. It's been suggested lawmakers tackle the Fiscal Year 2016 budget first, then consider the governor's reforms, but Rauner's not in favor of that. "The folks in the General Assembly won't want to deal with those things if we focus only on the budget itself," Rauner said. In the meantime, the governor is criticizing Madigan for taking what the governor says is a $1,300 raise while refusing to negotiate over a budget. Illinois is three weeks into the budget year and the House is in session Tuesday but officials don't expect any movement to settle the budget stalemate.

Categories: Articles