Court Supervision: Unfit For Judgment

Two men were found unfit to face criminal charges this week.

Not one, but two men were found unfit to face criminal charges this week. For the second time in a month, Mark Lewis, 53, was deemed unfit to stand trial for the murder of his sister, who was found beaten to death in her Naperville home in June 2011. Lewis wants to act as his own attorney if the murder case ever makes it to trial. Also wanting to act as his own attorney—and deemed unfit to face criminal charges—was 40-year-old Jason Chance of downstate Lewiston. Chance already did prison time for menacing Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow through Facebook. According to a criminal complaint, Chance threatened to rape and kill the county's top prosecutor. After his release, Chance allegedly made harassing telephone calls to a judge…

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Man Convicted of Threatening SA Glasgow Unfit to Face New Charges

Jason Chance already did time in prison for threatening Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow but was found unfit to answer new allegations of harassing officials.

A downstate man already convicted of threatening Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow on Facebook was found unfit to face new charges of menacing public officials. Jason Chance, 40, was returned to jail after a Monday morning court hearing but will be transferred to a facility run by the Illinois Department of Human Services. Chance has already taken a two-year prison sentence for making threats against Glasgow in 2010. According to a criminal complaint, Chance made a Facebook post "containing a threat to rape and kill James Glasgow." Chance was also charged with "cyberstalking" Glasgow. On top of the prison sentence, Chance was also hit with 30 months of probation with special conditions. Chance allegedly violated that probation by …

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Tracking Santa's Journey is Part of the Magic of Christmas

NORAD tracks Santa every year, and children can find out where Santa is as he travels the world delivering presents.

While Santa Claus makes his trip around the world, with Rudolph lighting the way, the men and women at NORAD will be tracking his travels and alerting children of his progress. Santa's magic is powerful and much more technologically advanced than that of NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command, said U.S. Army Major Mike Humphreys. Humphreys is stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, in Colorado Springs, Colo. The command is confident that Santa will be able to handle anything he encounters on his Christmas Eve trip. "We have satellites in space that pick up heat signatures, and those satellites pick up threats," Humphreys said. "Rudolph's nose comes in quite well on those satellite images. We also have 47 radar sites that are able to …

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Can You Help Reunite This Bear with His Owner?

A reader tells us she found it on 111th Street near U.S. 30, and she's hoping someone might recognize it so it can be returned.

Does this little guy look familiar? One of our Facebook readers, Carol Stonis Kopca, posted the following note in the hopes that she might be able reunite him with his rightful owner. Here's the note she left this morning: "Hello Plainfield Patch. I am posting this on your page in hopes I can find his owner. Yesterday around 5pm going East on 111th (just off Rte 30) I found this guy. By the time I drove back to pick him up it seems a car might have hit it and now he is missing an eye and his nose is torn. It's very clean and I can only assume some child lost it out the window not too long before I found it. I'm just hoping to reunite a child with their buddy. I'm taking to Facebook first to see if I can find him/her. If nothing, I know I …

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Without a Miracle, Plainfield's Out of TV Contest Contention

Our school district is more than 3,500 votes behind the closest competitor, with only an hour left to vote.

Update/10:50 a.m. Wednesday: Unless a miracle happens, Plainfield appears to be out of the running for TV honors this week given that we're more than 3,500 votes behind Wheaton, which is running neck-and-neck with Libertyville Lake Forest. Here's the vote count, with an hour and 10 minutes remaining for ballots to be cast: Libertyville/Lake Forest -- 6,469 Wheaton -- 6,432 Plainfield -- 2,885 Update/10:45 a.m. Tuesday: We are woefully behind. Where are all those high school kids and their parents! Vote tally: Plainfield -- 1,357; Wheaton -- 2,224; Libertyville/Lake Forest -- 2,512 Update/just after midnight Tuesday: This is just plain embarrassing. As of 12:30 a.m. today, Plainfield was in third place out of three, chalking up just 1,097 …

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District 308 Guidelines Set Limits on Texting, Social Media

District 308 has a number of guidelines in place that limit the electronic communications between teachers and students.

Students can enjoy their classes but they're not allowed to “like” their teachers. Or “follow” them. At least not on their personal Facebook and Twitter accounts. Oswego Community Unit School District 308 officials have a number of guidelines in place which staff is expected to adhere to that limits the electronic communications between teachers and students. For instance, District 308 employees who use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter for personal use are urged not to “friend” students who are enrolled in the district, or accepting students’ “friend” requests. District officials said as the popularity of those social media sites has increased, so has the need for the guidelines. “For students, all of this electronic …

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Father's Day in the Modern World

It's the message that matters, not the way it's delivered.

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We Asked

We Asked: Are You Tired of the Weiner Scandal?

We asked these Average Joes and Janes if they think the media coverage of Weinergate is too little, too much or just right.

Social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter can be powerful tools. Revolutionist across Northern Africa and the Middle East are using social media sites to fuel opposition to autocratic governments. But while such sites can create new governments, they can also do damage. Case in point: U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-New York). On June 1, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a lewd photo that he said he downloaded from Weiner’s Twitter account. At first Weiner denied sending the photo, but later admitted that he had lied as more photos became public. He has since taken a leave of absence from Congress and said he would seek professional help. Members of both political parties have called on Weiner to resign. Every news …

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Kids on Facebook: Teaching Tool or Learning the Hard Way?

The founder of Facebook wants to officially open up his social network to kids under 13. Stats show more than 7 million already have Facebook pages.

Should your first-grader have a Facebook page? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg thinks so, and he's launching a campaign to open the pages of Facebook to tweens and younger children. He says social media is an educational tool. But some think welcoming young children who haven’t had time to hone judgment skills is a dangerous proposition. “In the future, software and technology will enable people to learn a lot from their fellow students,” Zuckerberg said at a NewSchools Summit in California. Problem is, they may learn the hard way. Who knows what kids will post before they learn about boundaries and privacy? Maybe they’ll work on writing skills by providing vivid accounts of family quarrels. Could be they’ll sharpen multimedia skills with…

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Lori Janiec

8:50 am on Wednesday, May 25, 2011

If they could attach the page to the parents page, like (so sorry for the reference here) Dogbook, where the parent would have control over it until they are 13 and can click something to allow it to separate, then maybe I would consider it for my 7 year old. Until then, not a snowball's chance!   more ›

Parents Council

Is Your Teen or Tween 'Emotionally Anorexic'?

Experts say that solitary pastimes can cause kids to withdraw socially and become averse to showing emotions.

What do you do for fun?  What makes you feel happy?  What do you worry about most?  What stresses you out?  If your tween or teen draws a blank on questions like these that challenge them to explore their feelings, they may be emotionally anorexic. Emotional anorexia is a long-lasting state of numbed feelings, lack of empathy and aversion to emotion. Emotional anorexics withdraw socially, undervaluing relationships and filling in free time with things they can do alone.  People who work with adolescents find emotional anorexia is a growing phenomenon -- a side effect of technology that promotes solitary pastimes, such as viewing YouTube videos, playing with Gameboys and Xbox, and spendng hours on Facebook.   There are two kinds of …

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