Links of Interest: July 30-August 4, 2012

Judicial Performance and Elections As we get closer to the fall election, questions about voter identification laws become ever more urgent. Democracy Now has an interview with Rep. John Lewis, 13-term Democratic congressman from Georgia. ProPublica offers Everything You Ever Wanted to Know abou...
August 3, 2012

PAYDAY LOANS AND THEIR $7.4 BILLION ANNUAL BILL

This post originally appeared at the Illinois Asset Building Group blog. Chicago Appleseed is an IABG partner and Katy Welter is a researcher with the IABG's Alternative Small Dollar Loan project.  Each year, 12 million borrowers spend approximately $7.4 billion on payday loans. Who and where are t...
August 3, 2012

Chicago Appleseed Formalizing Innovative Court Watching Program

by Simona Novinec, Chicago Appleseed Intern Trial judges play a central role in the American legal system. Selection of a competent, diverse, and honest judiciary is therefore a crucial mechanism to protect judicial independence, on the one hand, and promote democratic control of judiciary on the o...
July 24, 2012

Bond Court Reforms: A Second Look for Diversion Programs

By Michael Levy, Staff Attorney at Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice At a press conference on July 13, 2012, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced a major step toward reforming Cook County’s criminal justice system with the implementation of a coordinated diversion program in central bo...
July 19, 2012

Community Courts and the Fight Against Quality-of-Life Crimes

by Brian Gilbert, Summer Intern with Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice On June 27th of this year, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported here, five-term Alderman Michael Zalewski proposed a bill to raise the fines for adult graffiti taggers from $750 to $2,000, and to mandate a minimum of three days in...
July 16, 2012