Evanston Now

The Preservation Commission Tuesday voted to continue a hearing on designating the Chase Bank building at 1900 Central St. a local landmark until Nov. 18 to give Chase more time to respond. Jim McKee, a 3rd Ward resident, had submitted the request to preserve the 47-year-old structure. Chase has proposed demolishing the existing building and replace it with an updated bank branch.

Evanston Police Chief Schenita Stewart says major crime in Evanston dropped 13% in the 12 months ending in June compared to the same period a year earlier. The largest decrease, Stewart told the City Council Monday night, was a nearly 16.7% decrease in property offenses. Crimes against persons declined by 1.8% and crimes against society fell 4.1%.

The National Labor Relations Board agreed Monday to cancel a scheduled union election at St. Francis Hospital this week after additional complaints were filed by the national nurses’ union alleging the hospital had violated the National Labor Relations Act, which they said could interfere with a free and fair election. In a statement on Monday, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, part of National Nurses United, the union working to unionize nurses at St Francis, wrote that the NLRB’s Chicago office blocked the Sept. 17 union election “in light of credible allegations that a free and fair election is not possible at this time due to Prime Healthcare’s substantial and flagrant violations of the National Labor Relations Act.”

If there was a State Championship competition in the category “Making It Possible for School to Open After a Ransomware Attack,” the Instructional and Informational Technology (IIT) Department at Evanston Township High School would probably win the gold medal. The dozen or so IIT staffers were honored Monday by the District 202 School Board, for literally “round the clock” efforts to bring the school back to some semblance of normal after a cyberattack/ransomware demand crashed the computer and technology systems in early June.

Feds want to deny them to immigrants legally using Medicaid and food stamps.