A 23-year-old Northern Illinois man charged with discarding his friend's body in a Chicago alley after injecting him with heroin was sentenced to four years in jail on Friday, Chicago Breaking News reports. more ›

The Chicago News Coop reports today on a new proposed law would provide protection for people calling to report drug overdoses. Steve Baker, the legislative liaison for the Cook County public defender’s office, has drafted the new bill which hopes to have more success than the 2008 bill proposed by State Rep. Constance A. Howard (D-Chicago). According to the CNC, that bill, "stalled in the House Rules Committee over concerns that it would conflict with the state’s prosecution of cases involving drug-induced homicide." more ›

Police are still investigating the death of former Blago adviser Christopher Kelly but Kelly's "girlfriend" (Kelly was married at the time of his death) is no longer talking to police and, according to Country Club Hills mayor Dwight Welch, she is "lawyered up." Which is perhaps a good thing: according to the Tribune, while the death has been investigated as a possible suicide - the Sun-Times reports that Kelly, "called a woman identified as his 'girlfriend' and told her that he took some pills and was going to kill himself" - it seems they're now treating the case as a homicide investigation due to it's high profile nature. Said Welch, "We're giving it all of the bells and whistles. Were going after every detail ... we're treating it as we would if this were a homicide. It's a high profile case, we want to do it by the books, by the numbers and do it right.'' more ›

A freaky story out of Woodstock this morning: a nurse and her supervisor at a Woodstock retirement home have been charged with federal felony neglect charges after allegedly administering an overdose of morphine. This follows a 15-month investigation into six suspicious deaths. The only reaction of the supervisor was to call the nurse the “Angel of Death.” more ›