Illinois Quick Hits: Prtizker urged to act after driver with Illinois CLS charged in Kansas City crash
(The Center Square) – Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is urging Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to take corrective action after Kehoe said a truck driver who was in the U.S. illegally plowed into stopped traffic along U.S. Highway 71 in Kansas City last Monday and claimed the lives of a 35-year-old mother and her two young sons.
Kehoe said Eldar Skander was operating an 80,000-pound semi under a non-domiciled commercial driver’s license issued by the state of Illinois in March 2025.
The Department of Homeland Security said Skander is a Ukrainian national who was in the U.S. illegally. Skander is charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter.
“When a state fails to vet applicants before handing over the keys to a commercial tractor-trailer, the consequences do not stop at the state line,” Kehoe wrote in a letter to Pritzker on Friday.
ICE nabs ex-con released from Stateville
The Department of Homeland Security says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a Mexican national who was released after serving prison time for a DUI crash that killed a Marine veteran in 2011.
The Department of Homeland Security said ICE lodged a detainer with Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill for Vicente Torres Vasquez on March 3, 2026. DHS said Stateville released Torres Vasquez on parole November 2 without notifying ICE.
Torres Vasquez had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for the DUI crash that killed Gregory Errol Homola, 55, and injured two women in Wauconda.
Latest Chicago CFO leaves
Chicago Chief Financial Officer Ashlee Brianne Gabrysch has stepped down.
Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed Gabrysch in August to replace acting CFO Steven Mahr, who replaced previous CFO Jill Jaworski after she stepped down in January.
The city’s budget director, Annette Guzman, resigned in August. Gabrysch previously served as senior director and mid-central region manager for Fitch Ratings.
Chicago officials break ground on city grant-funded health center
Chicago officials have broken ground on a new health center supported by a $5 million grant from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $1.25 billion housing and economic development bond.
PrimeCare Hermosa is one of 56 projects awarded grants funded by the bond. The grants range from $250,000 to more than $5 million.
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