Sophia Tareen, Author at The Rapid City Post

FILE - The interior of the U.S. Penitentiary execution room is seen March 22, 1995, in Terre Haute, Ind. (AP Photo/Chuck Robinson, File)

Indiana man convicted in 2001 rape and murder of teenager to be executed by lethal injection

October 8, 2025

An Indiana man convicted in the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl is set to die by lethal injection early Friday in the state’s third execution since resuming capital punishment last year. Roy Lee Ward will be put to death before sunrise at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The 53-year-old was convicted in the rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne and sentenced to death. The brutal crime happened in the family’s home in the small southern Indiana community of Dale. Attorneys say Ward has exhausted his legal options after more than two decades of court battles.

Indiana set to execute man convicted of 2001 rape and murder of small-town teenage girl

October 8, 2025

Indiana will put to death a man who was convicted in the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl, the state’s third execution since resuming capital punishment last year. The execution of Roy Lee Ward is scheduled before sunrise Friday at the state prison in Michigan City, Indiana. Attorneys say the 52-year-old has exhausted his legal options to challenge the sentence. Family members of 15-year-old Stacy Payne say they want justice to be carried out. Ward’s execution by lethal injection comes amid questions about Indiana’s handling of pentobarbital, the drug it has used in recent executions.

Escalation of Chicago immigration operations lead to claims of discriminatory stops

September 29, 2025

The sight of armed, camouflaged and masked Border Patrol agents making arrests near famous downtown Chicago landmarks has amplified concerns about the Trump administration growing federal intervention across U.S. cities. As Memphis and Portland brace for a surge of federal law enforcement, residents in the nation’s third-largest city met a brazen weekend escalation of immigration enforcement tactics with anger, fear and fresh claims of discrimination. But Trump has called the expansion of federal immigration agents and National Guard troops into American cities necessary, blasting Democrats for crime and lax immigration policies.

People protest outside of an immigration facility guarded by federal agents Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in in Broadview, Ill. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld)

Activists say immigration enforcement increased as Chicago waits for promised federal intervention

September 15, 2025

Activists in Chicago’s immigrant rights network say there’s been a noticeable uptick in immigration enforcement in recent days as the nation’s third-largest city awaits federal intervention repeatedly promised by President Donald Trump. While there’s no evidence of large-scale arrests or aggressive tactics used in Los Angeles, activists say there’s been a spike in arrests in immigrant-heavy city neighborhoods and far flung suburbs of Chicago. Immigration officers are focused on isolated traffic stops and there’s been an increased presence of them at local courthouses.

FILE - Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar speaks during a campaign rally outside the state Capitol on Nov. 3, 2014, in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, a popular two-term Republican, dies at 79

September 14, 2025

Family members say former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar has died at 79. The popular two-term Republican was credited with guiding Illinois into a period of greater financial stability in the 1990s. Family members say he died from complications stemming from treatment for pancreatic cancer. Edgar was a former state legislator who also had served as Illinois secretary of state. He was first elected governor in 1990 and easily won reelection with bipartisan support. The moderate Republican remained a party statesman and was uneasy with his party’s shift to the right. He was part of a campaign last year to support Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.

FILE - Pope Leo XIV arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

Chicago suburb where Pope Leo XIV grew up celebrates his 70th birthday with gospel music, balloons

September 14, 2025

The Chicago suburb where Pope Leo XIV grew up is celebrating his 70th birthday with gospel music and a balloon release outside his boyhood home. A small crowd attended the festivities Sunday outside the modest brick house in the village of Dolton, where the former Robert Prevost grew up. He was born in 1955 in Chicago, about 20 miles away. The village purchased the house in July in hopes of boosting tourism and claiming a piece of papal history of the first American pope. Village officials say they tried to contact Pope Leo but did not hear back.

Guard not needed in Chicago, Pritzker tells AP during tour of city to counter Trump’s crime claims

August 28, 2025

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is doubling down on his message to President Donald Trump that the nation’s third-largest city doesn’t need or want military intervention to fight crime. He told the Associated Press on Wednesday that troops could escalate things. Trump and Pritzker have traded insults for days over a supposed plan that would deploy the National Guard to Chicago and Baltimore, as the administration has done in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Pritzker and city leaders vow to sue, but in the meantime Pritzker has convened showy news conferences, posted sarcastic social media and hosted a campaign-style neighborhood stop, keeping Chicago in the spotlight.

FILE - Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald stands on the sideline during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Michigan, Oct. 23, 2021, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

Northwestern reaches settlement with football coach who was fired amid hazing scandal

August 21, 2025

Northwestern University has reached a settlement with former longtime football coach Pat Fitzgerald two years after he sued the prestigious school over his firing amid a team hazing scandal. His attorneys and the school announced the settlement on Thursday, however the terms were not disclosed. Fitzgerald sued in 2023 for $130 million after he was fired, alleging the school illegally terminated his employment and damaged his reputation. The case was set to go to trial in November. Fitzgerald says he never had any knowledge of hazing. University officials agreed with the sentiment following interviews with players.

Prosecutors won’t charge Chicago officers who fired nearly 100 times during a deadly traffic stop

August 13, 2025

Prosecutors say Chicago police officers who fired their guns nearly 100 times during a 2024 traffic stop and killed a 26-year-old man won’t face criminal charges. The shooting that killed Dexter Reed, a Black man, raised questions about the use of force and the role of tactical officers who were involved. Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke says there is “clear and overwhelming evidence” that led her to decide against charges, including that Reed fired first at the officers. She says her office doesn’t determine whether police used proper tactics during the traffic stop.

Jennifer Peyton sits for an interview in downtown Chicago on July 21, 2025. Peyton was fired from her position as Assistant Chief Immigration Judge on July 3rd, with no cause given. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld)

Immigration judges fired by Trump administration say they will fight back

July 26, 2025

Federal immigration judges fired by the Trump administration are filing appeals, pursuing legal action and speaking out in an unusually public campaign to fight for their jobs. More than 50 immigration judges have been fired since Donald Trump assumed the presidency for the second time. Normally bound by courtroom decorum, many are now unrestrained in describing terminations they consider unlawful and why they believe they were targeted. Their suspected reasons include racial and gender discrimination, decisions on immigration cases highlighted by the Trump administration and a courthouse tour with the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat.

One of sexual assault survivor Kate-Lynn (first name only), wipes his face after talking to media during a news conference in Chicago, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Survivors’ lawyers say Illinois has one of nation’s worst records on sex abuse in juvenile detention

July 16, 2025

Illinois has one of the nation’s worst problems with child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers. That’s according to attorneys representing more than 900 survivors who have filed lawsuits against the state. Dozens of complaints allege decades of systemic abuse by the employees at state and county-run facilities. Similar lawsuits have popped up in states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, but Illinois stands out for the volume of cases that began piling up only last year and the lackluster response from state leaders, according to attorneys. The latest Illinois complaints were filed Tuesday and represent 107 people at 10 centers statewide.

The grave marker of 75-year-old Pfc. Reba C. Bailey, a former missing person cold case named Seven Doe, is seen during a military funeral at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Chicago, Tuesday, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Talia Sprague)

Military honors bestowed on Illinois veteran identified nearly a decade after death

July 2, 2025

A veteran who died in Chicago without any recollection of their life has been memorialized in a funeral service with military honors. Investigators in Cook County identified the body through post-mortem fingerprints as Reba Caroline Bailey in 2023. However, they also unearthed a deeper mystery in how the veteran who served in the Women’s Army Corps in the 1960s became homeless and ended up at a Chicago shelter with no memories aside from identifying as a man named Seven. Along with military honors, investigators last year installed a gravestone with Bailey’s birth name and military rank.

FILE - Cain Oulahan, Ramon Morales Reyes' immigration attorney addresses the media, May 30, 2025 in Milwaukee about the detention of his client Ramon Morales Reyes. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)

What to know about Ramón Morales Reyes, a Wisconsin man falsely accused of threatening Trump’s life

June 4, 2025

A man falsely accused of threatening President Donald Trump’s life faces deportation even as Wisconsin authorities say the Mexican immigrant was framed and is a victim of a violent 2023 attack. Ramón Morales Reyes was thrust into the national spotlight last week when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused him of writing letters threatening Trump. Agency officials have quietly acknowledged that Morales Reyes is no longer a suspect in that threat a day after another man was charged in Wisconsin for forging the letters. But Trump administration social media posts blasting Morales Reyes as a potential presidential assassin remain online.

What to know about onetime Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover, whose federal sentence Trump commuted

May 29, 2025

One of Chicago’s most infamous gang leaders is among President Donald Trump’s most recent presidential commutations. The puzzling move raised questions about whether Larry Hoover will be freed. The 74-year-old Hoover has been serving a life sentence at the nation’s most restrictive prison in Colorado. He was first imprisoned in Illinois for a 1973 murder and decades later convicted in federal court for running a criminal enterprise while behind bars. Trump’s move commutes the federal sentence of the ex-gang leader and prison entrepreneur revered in rap lyrics. However, Hoover must still serve the remainder of his lengthy Illinois sentence.

Sophia Tareen.