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Chicago: 3 dead, at least 21 wounded in weekend shootings

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At least 24 people were shot across Chicago throughout the weekend, with three killed, reported The Chicago Sun-Times via ABC News 7.

One fatality was a 54-year-old man, identified as Harold Green by the Cook County medical examiner’s office, who suffered nine gunshot to the back in his neighborhood of South Shore in the early hours of Sunday, according to the report. He was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

One witness, according to police, told officers that they saw a person fire bullets from inside a gray Chrysler.

Another fatality happened Saturday night, when two women in Lawndale on the West Side were shot. One of them, identified as 29-year-old Samone Hill by the medical examiner’s office, was pronounced dead at Mt. Sinai Hospital after being shot in the back and both arms, according to the report. The other woman, an unnamed 28-year-old, was hit in her lower right leg and was stabilized at the same hospital.

The third fatality was 17-year-old boy, identified as Davion Ward by police and the medical examiner’s office. Ward and two others were in a parked car Friday night in Bridgeport on the South Side, when two men pulled up in a black Dodge Durango, exited the car, and started firing at them, police said.

Ward was hit in the back and pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital, police and the medical examiner’s office said.

A 16-year-old boy sustained a graze wound to the head, while the second person, a man between 18 and 20 years old, was hit in the chest, according to police. The two were transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, according to the report.

For more details about the other shootings and their victims, read the full original report here.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @DouglasPBraff.

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BREAKING: Disney drops suit challenging special district status in settlement with Florida, DeSantis

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A settlement was reached Wednesday in the two-year lawsuit over who controls the special governing district that encompasses the Walt Disney World Resort, which includes Disney dropping its lawsuitsagainst a newly created tourism board.

“We are glad that Disney has dropped its lawsuits against the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and conceded that their last-minute development agreements are null, void, and unenforceable,” Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ communications director, said in a statement. “No corporation should be its own government. Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.”

Fox News explains the dispute began “after Disney’s criticism of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act – derided by critics as the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill – prompted the DeSantis administration to revoke the special Disney-controlled tax district that gave the entertainment autonomy over its theme parks in the region.”

“No corporation should be its own government,” Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for the governor, said in an emailed statement. “Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.”

Misleadingly deemed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prohibited the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity to young students in the state. National Review reports:

After receiving pressure from employees, Disney’s then-CEO, Bob Chapek, said that the company’s leaders had been opposed to the bill “from the outset,” and Disney declared that the legislation “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.”

In February 2023, DeSantis signed House Bill 9B, which established the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District to replace Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. Reedy Creek was a 56-year-old special taxing district that allowed Disney control its own development, regulations, building codes, and other municipal services.

Lawmakers voted to give the governor the power to appoint the district’s board members.

However, before a DeSantis-appointed board took over last March, the Disney-controlled board handed control of the district’s development over to Disney…

As part of the settlement, Disney acknowledges that the development agreement approved by the outgoing Reedy Creek board has “no legal effect or enforceability.”

As for the media reports that DeSantis had been humiliated and out-maneuvered by Disney, Griffin said that “as usual, the media were wrong.”

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