by Leah Willingham, Jack Brook, Sophie Bates and Jeff Amy JACKSON, Miss. — At 16, Edward Blackmon Jr. was arrested during a protest for voting rights in his Mississippi hometown. He was loaded with schoolmates into a truck once used to haul chickens and was left in the summer heat before spending three nights in an overcrowded jail cell without a bed. It was a moment that set him on a path to become a civil rights lawyer and one of the first Black lawmakers elected in the state since Reconstruction. Blackmon was part of a generation of Black Americans…

by Joseph Omoremi CHICAGO, IL The All Nations Assembly Church (ANAC) and Roseheart Renewal Center are demanding a jury trial in the  five-counts unfair housing discrimination charges against the Village of Olympia Fields before the U.S. District Court, Norther District  in Chicago. The charges occurred after  the Village of Olympia Fields refused to grant a special use permit and map amendment to develop an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center on a 22-acre site at 20300 Governors Highway in Olympia Fields, Illinois.  The defendants which includes the  Village of Olympia Fields, its  Board of Trustees as well as the Plan Commission…

by Eri Tucker, Michael Kunzelman, and Alanna Durkin Richer WASHINGTON  — The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives was charged Monday with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump as federal authorities suggested an attack that disrupted one of Washington’s glitziest events had been planned for at least several weeks. Cole Tomas Allen appeared in court Monday to face federal charges after the chaotic encounter Saturday that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage unharmed and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables. He…

by Stefanie Dazio BERLIN — For people living with disabilities, barriers to tourism can range from the obvious — such as an out-of-service elevator — to the unseen, like an outing that’s too long or a setting that’s too loud. As the baby boom generation ages, the travel industry is increasingly catering to older adults with the time and money to sightsee internationally and who sometimes need additional assistance. Truly inclusive accessibility, though, accommodates a much greater range of tourists, from individuals with physical disabilities to people with autism or dementia. To better serve visitors with visible or invisible disabilities,…

by Gene Chamberlain LAKE FOREST, Ill.  — It’s a good thing Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson is regarded as one of the NFL’s elite offensive minds. It’s possible his team could need to put up 30 or more points a game to match last season’s win output after the Bears went through the draft and virtually ignored one of the team’s greatest perceived weaknesses. The Bears failed to draft a defensive end and the only defensive lineman they took was South African Jordan van den Berg of Georgia Tech in the sixth round. That came after the defense finished 27th…

Patrick Donnelly MINNEAPOLIS  — Ayo Dosunmu scored a career-high 43 points, stepping up after leg injuries to Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo with the highest-scoring playoff performance by a reserve in 50 years, and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets 112-96 on Saturday night. The Timberwolves took a 3-1 lead in the series in a game that ended with the ejections of Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Minnesota’s Julius Randle after Jokic became angry when Jaden McDaniels made a meaningless layup with 2.1 seconds remaining and confronted the Wolves’ swingman near his bench. The story before that was Dosunmu, who…

by Seung Min Kim, Aamer Madhani, Collin Binkley, Alanna Durkin Richrer and David Bauder WASHINGTON  — A man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby outside a high-profile journalists’ dinner attended by President Donald Trump and multiple senior U.S. leaders on Saturday night, rushing toward the ballroom before Secret Service agents swarmed him and took him into custody. The president was uninjured and was hustled away. Guests went diving under tables as the scene unfolded and some reported hearing shots outside the vast subterranean ballroom in the Washington Hilton where the event was being held. One law enforcement official…

CHICAGO— A police officer died and another was critically injured after a shooting at a Chicago hospital on Saturday, according to officials. The suspect, who was not publicly identified, was taken in custody, Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling said. “Officers transported an individual over to the Swedish hospital for an observation, at which time two of our officers were shot,” Snelling said at a news conference in the afternoon. “One was shot critically. It (the death) was pronounced. The second officer right now is fighting for his life in the hospital behind us.” The shooting was at the Endeavor Health…

by Joseph Omoremi CHICAGO, IL-A motion seeking a 21-day extension of time to respond to five discrimination charges filed against the Village of Olympia Fields by RoseHeart Renewal Center (RoseHeart) and All Nations Assembly Church (ANAC) have been filed at the Northern District of the U.S District Court, in Chicago. The extension became necessary because of the death suffered by the father-in-law of the Village of Olympia Fields attorney Brandon K. Lemley and kept him out of town for two weeks. Attorney Lemley, according to the motion, could not “work on a planned partial motion to dismiss, and because the…

by Mary Clare Jalonick WASHINGTON  — The Senate took the first steps in a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security early Thursday, voting to adopt a budget plan that would fund ICE and Border Patrol over Democratic objections and sending it to the House. The entire department has been shut down since mid-February as Democrats have demanded policy changes in the wake of fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents. Republicans are now trying to fund the two immigration enforcement agencies through the complicated, time-consuming process called budget reconciliation, a maneuver that they also used to…