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Joe Birkett
Joseph E. Birkett (born February 13, 1955) is an appellate court judge on the Illinois Appellate Court – Second District. He was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in December 2010, and was subsequently elected to a full term in November 2012. His current term runs through December 2032. Prior to being elevated to the bench, Justice Birkett was the State's Attorney of DuPage County, an office he had held since 1996. Biography Birkett is one of 10 children on Chicago's West side. His father died when he was 13. He attended St. Phillip High School, and Aurora Central Catholic High School where he was football team captain and Most Valuable Player. He went on to attend North Central College, where he earned a B.A. in Political Science and English in 1977. He received his Juris Doctor from John Marshall Law School in 1981, where he placed first in the Intramural Moot Court Competition. He was the Assistant State's Attorney of Dupage County from 1981 to 1985, Chief of Major ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illinois Appellate Court
The Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for civil and criminal cases rising in the Illinois circuit courts. In Illinois, litigants generally have a right to first appeal from final decisions or judgements of the circuit court. Three Illinois Appellate Court judges hear each case and the concurrence of two is necessary to render a decision. The Illinois Appellate Court will render its opinion in writing, in the form of a published opinion or an unpublished order. As of 1935, decisions of the Illinois Appellate Court became binding authority upon lower courts in Illinois. The Illinois Appellate Court has 52 judges serving five districts. The majority of the judges (18 in the First District, and between seven and nine in each of the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Districts) are elected, with the remaining judges having been appointed by the Supreme Court of Illinois. Civil cases appealed from the Illinois Appellate Court are heard by the Supreme Court of Illin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Wendt
George Robert Wendt Jr. (October 17, 1948 – May 20, 2025) was an American actor. Wendt was best known for playing Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' from 1982 to 1993, which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. After ''Cheers'' ended, he starred in his own short-lived CBS sitcom, ''The George Wendt Show'' (1995). Wendt also appeared in the comedy films ''Airplane II: The Sequel'' (1982), ''No Small Affair'' (1984), ''Fletch (film), Fletch'' (1985), ''The Little Rascals (film), The Little Rascals'' (1994), ''Man of the House (1995 film), Man of the House'' (1995), ''Spice World (film), Spice World'' (1997), ''Outside Providence (film), Outside Providence'' (1999), and ''Sandy Wexler'' (2017), and the dramas ''Somewhere in Time (film), Somewhere in Time'' (1980), ''Dreamscape (1984 film), Dreamscape'' (1984), ''Guilty by Suspicion'' (1991), ''Forever Young (1992 film), Forever Young'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeanine Nicarico
The Jeanine Nicarico murder case was a complex and influential homicide investigation and prosecution in which two men, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez, both Latinos, were wrongfully convicted of abduction, rape and murder in 1985 in DuPage County, Illinois. They were both sentenced to death. The case was scrutinized during appeals for being weak in evidence. After appeals, one man was acquitted in 1995 at his third trial at which a witness recanted previous testimony and new DNA evidence was introduced; the second man, already serving time after being twice convicted, had his charges dismissed by the Illinois State's Attorney. The notoriety of the case and the serious possibility that two innocent men could have been executed was an influence on Governor George H. Ryan's decision in 2000 to impose a death penalty moratorium in the state. The state indicted seven law enforcement officials for wrongful prosecution of the Nicarico case, saying they had illegally conspired ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rolando Cruz Case
Rolando Cruz (born 1963) is an American man known for having been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ..., along with co-defendant Alejandro Hernandez, for the 1983 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico murder case, Jeanine Nicarico in DuPage County, Illinois. The police had no substantive physical evidence linking the two men to the crime. Their first trial was jointly in 1987, and their statements were used against each other and a third defendant. After appeals and other court actions, during which they remained in prison on death row, each of these two men was tried twice more. Hernandez was convicted each time and sentenced the last time to life. Cruz was acquitted in 1995 at his third trial after a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illinois Green Party
The Illinois Green Party is a statewide political party in Illinois. The party is state affiliate of the Green Party of the United States. The party ran its first statewide candidates in 2006, led by Rich Whitney, candidate for Illinois Governor, who received 361,336 votes, 10% of the total vote, making the Green Party one of only three legally ''established'', statewide political parties in Illinois (in addition to the Democratic and Republican parties) until it lost that status in 2010. There are currently 12 local chapters affiliated with the party, and 2 members holding elected positions in local government in the state. Political positions Like the national party, the Illinois Green Party promotes the "Ten Key Values" of the Green Party platform: ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy, nonviolence, decentralization, community-based economics, feminism, respect for diversity, personal and global responsibility, and a focus on the future. Elections 2008 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Quinn (politician)
Patrick Joseph Quinn (born December 16, 1948) is an American politician who served as the 41st governor of Illinois from 2009 to 2015. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, Quinn began his career as an activist by founding the Coalition for Political Honesty, which used citizen-initiated referendum questions to advocate for political reforms, and later served as a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review, Cook County Board of (Property) Tax Appeals from 1982 to 1986, Illinois State Treasurer from 1991 to 1995, and the 45th lieutenant governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Quinn is a graduate of Georgetown University and Northwestern University School of Law. Quinn began his political career working as a campaign organizer and then aide to Illinois Governor Dan Walker (politician), Dan Walker before launching a series of citizen-led petition drives, including the 1976 Political Honesty Initiative and the 1980 Cutback Amendment, which reduc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rod Blagojevich
Rod R. Blagojevich ( ; born December 10, 1956), often referred to by his nickname "Blago", is an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Blagojevich previously worked in both the state and federal legislatures. He served as an Illinois state representative from 1993 to 1997, and the U.S. representative from Illinois's 5th district from 1997 to 2003. Born and raised in Chicago, Blagojevich graduated from Northwestern University in 1979 and the Pepperdine University School of Law in 1983. After graduating, he became a criminal prosecutor at the Cook County State's Attorney Office during the late 1980s. Turning to elective politics, he represented the 33rd state house district in the Illinois House of Representatives where he supported mostly law and order policies. Forgoing a third two-year term in the state legislature, he represented for six years, winning re-election twice. He was elected Illin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is a Right-wing politics, right-wing political parties in the United States, political party in the United States. One of the Two-party system, two major parties, it emerged as the main rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the 1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since then. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists opposing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery in the United States, slavery into U.S. territories. It rapidly gained support in the Northern United States, North, drawing in former Whig Party (United States), Whigs and Free Soil Party, Free Soilers. Abraham Lincoln's 1860 United States presidential election, election in 1860 led to the secession of Southern states and the outbreak of the American Civil War. Under Lincoln and a Republican-controlled Congress, the party led efforts to preserve th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Rauschenberger
Steve Rauschenberger (born August 29, 1956) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Illinois State Senate from 1993 to 2007. Early life Steve Rauschenberger was born on August 29, 1956, in Elgin as one of six children to John Rauschenberger, a member of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee, and Shirley Rauschenberger. He attended Elgin Area School District U46 public schools and was a National Merit Finalist in high school. In 1978, he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from College of William & Mary in Virginia. In 1980, he purchased his family's business, Rauschenberger Furniture Co., and went on in 1985 to buy Ackemann Brothers Corp., of which he is currently president and general manager. He became active with his children in Boy Scouts and served as a member of the Elgin Downtown Advisory Commission. Illinois Senate 1992 Election In 1991, Republican Senator John Friedland chose not to run for re-election in the 33 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judy Baar Topinka
Judy Baar Topinka (; January 16, 1944 – December 10, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party from the U.S. State of Illinois. Originally a journalist, Topinka served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1981 to 1985 and in the Illinois Senate from 1985 to 1995. She was elected to three terms as Illinois State Treasurer, serving from 1995 to 2007. She was the first woman to become state treasurer, the first to be elected to three consecutive terms, and the first Republican to hold the post in more than 32 years. During her last term as treasurer, she was the only Republican to hold statewide elected office in Illinois. In 2002, she was elected chair of the Illinois Republican Party, holding that office until 2005. She declined to run for re-election as treasurer in 2006, instead running for Governor of Illinois. In March 2006, she was nominated as the Republican candidate. She was the second woman (after 1994 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2002 United States Elections
Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 5, 2002, in the middle of Republican Party (United States), Republican President George W. Bush's first term. Republicans won unified control of United States Congress, Congress, picking up seats in both chambers of Congress, making Bush the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 United States elections, 1934 to gain seats in both houses of Congress. In the gubernatorial elections, Democratic Party (United States), Democrats won a net gain of one seat. The elections were held just a little under fourteen months after the September 11 attacks. Thus, the elections were heavily overshadowed by the War on terror, War on Terror. Republicans won a net gain of two seats in the United States Senate, Senate and so gained control of a chamber that they had lost in 2001 after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party. Republicans picked up eight seats in the House of Representatives, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisa Madigan
Lisa Murray Madigan (born July 30, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she served as Illinois Attorney General, Attorney General of the U.S. state of Illinois from 2003 to 2019, being the first woman to hold that position. She is the adopted daughter of Michael Madigan, who served as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2021. Madigan did not seek re-election as the state's attorney general in 2018 Illinois Attorney General election, 2018, and was succeeded by State Senator Kwame Raoul. Education and early career Madigan attended The Latin School of Chicago for her secondary education. In 1988 she received her bachelor's degree from Georgetown University. She received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Prior to becoming an attorney, she worked as a teacher and community organizer, developing after-school programs to help kee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
