The Northwest Herald writes about the recent federal decision to require contraception coverage for most health insurance plans, and how the Catholic community is responding. The ACLU of Illinois has been convening panel discussion events throughout Illinois about the "War on Contraception" and attacks to birth control access nationwide and throughout the state as part of our Defending the Targets of Intolerance campaign.

“We think that it is critical that ... contraceptives be available because they play such a critical role for women in terms of health care, and we think that the broad availability of them is critically important,” said Edwin C. Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the ACLU of Illinois.

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The Chicago Sun-Times posted a profile of legendary Chicago historian and civil rights activist Timuel Black. In addition to serving on the board of directors for the ACLU of Illinois, Black was also lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that sought to ban faulty punch card ballots during the 2000 presidential election.

Black entered the City Colleges of Chicago system in 1969 as a dean at Wright College. He was vice president at Olive Harvey from 1971-73; head of communications systemwide from 1973-79; then taught at Loop College until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1989. In the wake of the 2000 presidential election, he was the lead plaintiff in the ACLU’s Black v. McGuffage lawsuit, which charged the Illinois voting system discriminated against minorities. The suit led to the ban of punch card ballots and a new uniform voting system in Illinois.

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The Chicago Sun-Times published a piece about Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy's recent statement of support for a bill which would permit the audio recording of police officers engaged in their public duties in a public place. Recording police activity can result in felony charges under the Illinois Eavesdropping law, which the ACLU of Illinois is seeking to challenge in the case of ACLU v. Alvarez. Supt. McCarthy says that being able to record police activity would actually protect police officers against charges of brutality.

“I actually am a person who endorses video and audio recording,” he said. “There’s no arguments when you can look at a videotape and see what happened.”

McCarthy was joined on the dais by an attorney for the ACLU — which is challenging the law’s constitutionality in federal court — and by Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

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