Will County News

By Ann Baskerville JOLIET--Hundreds packed the Our Lady of Mount Caramel Parish Hall on Joliet's East Side tonight to begin organizing efforts against a possible immigrant detention center in Joliet, Illinois. Town Hall Meeting on the Joliet Immigrant Prison A priest and a representative from the Diocese of Joliet quoted scripture while citizens who organized a successful campaign against a private, for-profit immigrant detention center in Crete , Illinois told the crowd, "We are with you" and "Si, se puede" to a standing ovation. Signs against the Crete and Joliet Immigrant Detention Centers Pastor Craig Purchase spoke out against an immigrant detention center, saying: "we in the black community should not tolerate this issue."  Purchase said at one point he did not hold the position he had now because he had not yet put himself in the shoes of an undocumented person.  Purchase said when you really understand this issue, it's a "...

Anthony Rudis:  A Conservationist Anthony Rudis was proud of his heritage, strong in his faith, and committed to protecting the environment. He shared the values he honed through a century of learning and caring. He was proud to say he had planted a rainforest for Peotone—planting thousands of trees on the land he furiously protected from the state’s plan for a third airport at Peotone. His multi-decade opposition to the proposed airport was, he said, based on a single, simple fact: “There is no need.” In 2004, Rudis and his late wife, Mary, donated 90 acres of land at Egyptian Trail and Eagle Lake Road in eastern Will County to Loyola University in Chicago for field study in biology and environmental studies. He gave the land with no conditions, he said.   He often hosted tours of the farm, telling visitors that the thousands of tree planted as part of his conservation plans purified the air.  In 2001, the couple was named the Conservation Farm ...