By Shari R. Berkowitz, Steven J. Frenda, Elizabeth F. Loftus and Kimberly M. Fenn/The Conversation

If you are one of the millions of people who have listened to the podcast Serial or watched Netflix’s series Making a Murderer, you may believe there are innocent people in prison.
But long before the cases of Adnan Syed, Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were brought to the public’s attention, we and other researchers have been hard at work studying how it is that innocent people sometimes go to prison for crimes they did not commit.
In fact, a recent report documented that in 2015, there were a record number of exonerations in the United States.

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Posted on February 11, 2016

By Ed Hammer

The Beachwood Reporter has received from a reader a letter from the GFWC Woman’s Club of Kankakee requesting donations for a project to erect three statues in a Kankakee park dedicated to three Illinois governors from that area. You might remember that I wrote about this Kankakee-based fundraising effort a couple weeks ago suggesting that the Woman’s Club might find a more worthy cause to raise money for. After all, two of those governors are a disgrace and embarrassment to Illinois.

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Posted on February 10, 2016

By Tim McLaughlin and Peter Eisler/Reuters

Barack Obama might seem an unlikely investor in the firearms industry. But the U.S. president, a fierce advocate for gun regulation, has money in a pension fund that holds stock in gun and ammunition companies.
Although Obama’s stake is minuscule, worth no more than $30, it reflects a much larger surge of investment.
The president is among millions of Americans buying into gun companies – often unwittingly – as mutual funds have increased such holdings to record levels, according to a Reuters analysis of institutional investment in firearms companies.

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Posted on February 9, 2016

By Environment Illinois

As shareholders of Tyson Foods, Inc. consider a resolution on Friday that would require the food giant to institute a “water stewardship” policy, new data shows the company regularly dumps a higher volume of pollution into waterways than companies like ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical.
An Environment Illinois analysis shows Tyson and its subsidiaries released 104 million pounds of pollution to surface waters from 2010 to 2014, nearly seven times the volume of surface water discharges by Exxon during those years.
“Tyson is dumping a huge volume of pollution into our waterways,” said Brittany King, campaign organizer with Environment Illinois. “That’s why Tyson’s shareholders should vote to ensure that the company cleans up its act.”

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Posted on February 4, 2016